return-of-tomohawk-serve
Hey guys,
Played a league match last night got battered by someone using the tomohawk serve, just couldn’t read the spin on it at all, any advice?
Watch the angle of the opponents paddle at contact and where the paddle contacts the ball. If you can see the hitting surface well and the paddle is hitting the bottom (usually bottom right from a right handed player) part of the ball, its underspin (likely heavy side underspin). If the paddle is 100% vertical, its pure sidespin. If you can’t see the hitting surface and the paddle is contacting the top of the ball (usually top right from a right handed player), its topspin (usually heavy side top).
For side topspin or pure sidespin you can overcome it with topspin. For underspin, you probably will need to push. To control the ball with that much side spin you have to contact the same side of the ball that the server contacted the ball. So for a side under from a right hander, you would be looking to contact the left side of of the ball during your push (from your perspective).
Cheers shonuff very helpful 👍