How to Return the Sidespin Serve

This is Episode 5 of the "Table Tennis Troubleshooting" Series where I will talk about Serve Return of Sidespin or Lateral Spin Serve.
Do you want to learn how to Serve to set up your attack, as well as Return any type of spin? The Serve and Serve Return Training for Table Tennis Training Video will show you everything you need to know about how to understand the dynamic of spin on the Serve, and the best way to make the tactical return.
Check back and www.dynamictabletennis.com to purchase this Full Length Training Video on Sept 15th, 2012.

[@learnfromatharv7121]

'make the contact exactly at the point server made'. And voilla you solved the mistry of the universe for all beginners out there. You are the boss.

[@patfcat3187]

Just want to say thanks to this guy, he has taught me most of what I use in Table Tennis now.

[@rolandisnor7780]

Thanks so much for this clear explanation of how to return. I have never heard it exsplained so clearly. "hit on the same side of the ball with the same racquet angle" ; so simple but I've never heard it described so succinctly. Thanks a million.

[@Drumming-Life]

In one video, I can tell that this is the best Table Tennis Coaching site that I have found. FINALLY!! Very thorough and enlightening. I cannot wait to get deeper into this site and learn more. Thank you.

[@ut4eb]

Best return of serve video on the web! Especially for advanced players, because the serves of better players are so spinny and tricky. Thanks!

[@borisgraell]

This dude has done much more than ITTF promoting this sport, awesome!

[@S3ndMast3r]

seen so many tutorials and yours is still the best. Love your form.

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

Thanks alot. I really appreciate you paying such close attention that you have picked up on those details.

[@jkverm]

The best video explaining how to return sides pin serves. Very clear and to the point. Thanks. Now i just need to figure out how to read a pen holder's serve...

[@ThereShiv]

Hi Brian, I am from India and incapable to go to coaching centers currently. Loved your video and thank you much for taking the pain to explain so closely. This helped me a lot in understanding the movement. Regards, Shivkant

[@BrunoNeureiter]

Can you go to a table tennis center now?

[@ThereShiv]

Yes 👍

[@maxzhu56]

That is the best teaching video I have ever seen.

[@bigmattman2005]

I love the way you explain this. My coworkers would tell me terms that I couldn't easily or mentally picture: chop, push, slice , etc. They would use these terms as ways of explaining simple concepts of table tennis "If the person use a back spin, chop it for a return." Yeah, that helps me out SOOO much (not). You explain it perfectly "Mirror your opponent's racquet and hit the ball the same way they did." I would see extremely wonky spins my coworkers would put on a serve, and I would have no idea how to hit it except to go with an open racquet. I'll definitely put this into good use next time I play.

[@SirSelfunk]

best video quality, explaination and demonstration, of returning the sidespin serve, around youtube. Thanks a lot! :)

[@phamster18]

you are doing such a great job!.. love your style in the education of this return.. keep up the good work

[@TheGrappler638]

good basic...just what I need...I've been playing a long time but sometimes I have trouble returning side spins...this is a great simple reminder

[@knotwilg3596]

Side spin serves are the nightmare for every beginner. This is a good video instruction. Here's what I usually recommend: 1. BASIC: as long as you are confused with which way the ball is curving, aim for the MIDDLE of the table. Then watch what the ball does. You will not fault and be frustrated. Instead the point will continue and you will learn. 2. INTERMEDIATE: if you can visualize the arch that the ball is making, then CROSS the arch. Other people often explain this as sending the ball back to the where the opponent's swing started. I find it easier to visualize the arch and cross it. 3. ADVANCED: frustrate the opponent's intentions and occasionally CONFIRM the spin. There's also the backspin/topspin aspect to take into account. Here it is important to understand that due to the side spin imparted, the amount of back or topspin will be reduced. Hence 1. BASIC: if you can't read the spin, push back with slightly open bat. If it was topspin, the ball will float back high but not out. 2. INTERMEDIATE: try reading the spin and open/close the bat accordingly 3. ADVANCED: attack the ball. Open up if backspin. Loop if topspin. What do you think?

[@n7router]

+Dieter Verhofstadt what do you mean by cross the arc.

[@zeleony05]

+n7router Means if his swing go left you go right if it goes right you go left.

[@CallMeMantou]

+Dieter Verhofstadt Very helpful. Thank you!

[@ethanjobson3879]

Thanks for this. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gets killed by sidespin.

[@isithardtobevegan53]

yes. I hate sidespin. It is the worst shit ever that I must deal with in table tennis

[@ImprovinMyGame]

All of you videos have been so helpful and have helped me improve my game quite a bit in the last several months. Thanks so much! Keep on posting these. Can't wait for the next one :) Do you perhaps have videos about footwork or any more or game strategy (perhaps others like the Ep. 1 Shot Selection video)?

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

Ronald, thanks for your compliment. I do appreciate it. Also, thanks for your order of the FH Loop training. Good Luck with your training and improvement

[@barkbarkatthemoon]

Best serve vid yet. Thanks!

[@rishundola9526]

Great Video. I know it is old but I love your channel. Plus its good to see some diversity in the sport. Im in Australia and I always feel like the odd one out at tournaments being the only non-asian or white guy. Having personalities like you I feel is more encouraging for people outside the stereotype to play a fantastic sport!

[@boborj555]

Thanks for the tips, I appreciate this video. Keep up the good work.

[@alirezamahmoodi1942]

Handsome guy with excellexcellent teaching. Thanks allot

[@eLdotC]

thank you very much... your videos have helped me improve tenfold...

[@PrinceArt77]

this video is really educative....others are just plain blah blah blah......it's hard work, you guys.......really hard work and time consuming...not to mention money is being spent in making these videos....and yet in one easy moment..some stupid trolls would leave stupid comments....... do your own videos you morons......salute to bryan for his dedication....

[@Asclearascoffee]

Nice video ! It's quite detailed .

[@tabesamis]

@GBtabletennis Good table tennis players can make topspin with the same pendulum motion, but use a different timing to achieve this, no matter what in order to make that topspin they have to contact the ball coming upwards (this motion can be very small, which is why a good pendulum serve can be hard to read). When a player uses a reverse pendulum serve it can be confusing if you don't see them often, but either way I'm pretty sure Brian covered your concern in the video.

[@girizh11]

Superb, Bryan. Could you also guide me how to return the serves when the player serves from the right hand side of the table? I'm a lil more than a beginner, but still stuck up with the returns. How do I take the spins, how/where to angle the ball and in what pace must I give it back?

[@coolasta1987]

I'll start watching your video! Keep it up!!

[@phoojywghmoob5384]

I do learn some of the serv return from this. Thank you.

[@phronnie1]

Thanks so much....u teach so well..

[@valakrrl]

Atleast at beginner/intermediate level, folks usually don't generate side spin serves the way Brian is doing here or the other high level players do(e.g. Ma long), this makes it easy to read the type of side spin as it is hard to learn. I have seen folks generating side spin by brushing the ball with racket moving horizontally toward their left hand after the brush or towards their right hand after the brush. They might do some fake movements but focus on them to find out which way their racket moved after brushing the ball. If the racket moved right, the ball is spinning counter clockwise and upon contacting your racket, it is going to head towards your left or your opponents forehand if you get it on the table. In this case, the logical thing to do is to angle/tilt the racket towards your right and do a backhand push(your wrist point towards your right side). Your opponent's counter clockwise side spin will ensure the ball goes to your opponents backhand and trip him off. If your opponent's racket went towards his left after brushing the ball while serving, then he generated clockwise side spin, you have to play forehand push with your wrist slightly tilted towards your right side. His spin will get the ball on his forehand. I did face many generating side spin serve and frustrating me till I figured it out, hope this helps a frustrated soul out there :). Have a good game folks.

[@ThriceDice]

The thing that's dangerous with a side spin serve ( a side spin server myself), is that the returner can easily add a back or top on top of your spin, making very difficult to counter return. But, if they return it to you with only your side spin, you can have a very easy slam, as long as your paddle is rated high enough for spin.

[@karlerlandsson6547]

Good instructionvideo!

[@gemphu1234]

Is it fine to receive a backhand serve with forehand following these tips?

[@thomasRoy-ex8uj]

Very good content, I wish your voice was louder than the music. Keep up the good work.

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

Thanks. I don't use music anymore. It lowers the education value. Lesson learned

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

Absolutely, just make sure that you make contact at the correct part of the ball.

[@itachiros]

Can someone please tell me the name of the last song sounding!? It's AWSOME !

[@TheHunting20]

thank you.very useful

[@BaronvonFineWine]

Great vid, Brian. Can see my problem is in trying to be too attacking with my return. Really like the music that starts at 4:30, what is that?

[@0blackmilk0]

It looks helpful for the starters. Is the music from BlackOps?

[@BluSUBsound]

really great tutorial..its what i wanted to know :D

[@sheendow]

right ill try that thanks.

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

Thanks Max, I appreciate it

[@Diuable]

wow this will help! thanks!

[@Shadowofwar1]

You serve so cool man!

[@jwan622]

Can you elaborate a bit on 0:54? I'm a bit confused as to how that u shaped curve represents your racket? How is it that contact on the right lip creates topspin? Also... what are some general rules in determining what kind of spin your opponent created when watching his serve? I'm a fairly new player with a background in tennis and I find this to be the most difficult part of the game. Thanks!

[@joky5485]

simply the best

[@nafiuzzaman4103]

thank u so much for ur video

[@StrategikMedia]

this was a great video. Awesome my dude.

[@sourabhkohli1273]

is it good to play a serve on backhand by turning and taking it forehand topspin and then moving back toget the ball on fore hand

[@kttran2005]

Thanks Brian for the video, i have a question for you about the server. there are some players whose have very weird serve by turning their racket half circle encounter clockwise. What kind of spin is that and how to return it?

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

@haydonlee93 It is much easier to see on video. It is much more difficult to deal with that type of Serve when you are at a tournament, playing a player you don't know, the score is tight, and you are not sure if you they went up or down with the lateral movement.

[@englishgrammar2571]

Just remember this is the most basic of returns. It is equal to pushing a push, topspinning a topspin. The next level is not to reverse the spin but to loop it with even more spin back. The most advanced way to think about it, and to care little about what their 'agenda' is, is just to avoid the equator of the spinning ball. And this is for all returns not just serve. If they give you side spin then you can topspin it safely back avoiding the spin by contacting the north pole. etc.

[@Isaac668]

Hi, this video REALLY helped me with returning short sidespin serves. However, I still struggle with a long and fast side/topspin serve (so both combined). I play at the collegiate level (My team just advanced to the nationals where I'll be playing 2/3 singles, so blocking the serve over is no longer working against 2200+ players. I was wondering what is the technique required to return a long sidespin serve offensively (e.g. setting myself up for an attack). My background in table tennis is a lot of professional training and I have a very solid backhand loop off the topspin, so please don't be afraid to give advanced techniques. Thank you so much in advance, this is one of the techniques (along with the forehand flip), that I'll have to master for our team to do well in the nationals

[@zeleony05]

+issac cheung You have to be able to predict if the sidespin serve it's a backspin or topspin(or full sidespin applies as well) serve. If it is a backspin serve you have to wait for it to come to you attack either at the top of the bounce or when it is dropping. If it is a topspin serve then you gotta take it off the bounce with counter topspin before it curves to negate the side spin. If you wait for it to come out and you rush to it you will most likely be punished by the sidespin. If you do decide to attack the topspin serve as it comes out you have to adjust the body position and move to where the ball is curving and hit the ball back in blocking it from where it wants to curve to which will require more movement if you don't have a good footwork you rather not choose doing this. Plus practicing attacking topspins off the bounce is really good for your game because it cant shorten the opponents time of reaction, but if your opponent can rally well off their topspin serve game you gotta play around with placement and move them around their comfort zone.

[@ad19932]

Nice tutorial

[@watchmyshoes22]

@DynamicTableTennisTV Thank you

[@nelsonrivera6575]

hi,i can see the point of contact ,but im having problems with the return ,the serve is short with backspin and a little sidespin ,and i keep hitting it long in a chop mode, he got me all the time ,

[@mendebil]

Best video on this topic. Not to mention bad ass :)

[@alanrutherford4212]

mendebil i

[@seemasharma-jw1ck]

Nice videos

[@sdptbhattacherjee4]

liked it very much

[@sumitguin5744]

Respected Sir, I am 40 year old docotor , i had keen interest to learn table tennis and has started playng for past one year or so. I was improving my skills watching your videos .OFF late I have joined an academey, and after watching me play for 2 months my coach asked me to swith over to long pimples. I am at a fix as a local league is just round the corner in next week.Can you please tell me what are the qualities that makes player suitable for playing with long pips and normal rubber. Take noffence please , I just need your honest opinion.

[@marcos.yamada]

Hello, I'm Yamada of Sao Paulo Brazil, my grip and Japanese pen, and I have difficulties to receive serve, I use a TSP Hunter 10mm and a rubber Andro Rasant Turbo 2.1 hard and my difficulty eh today receiving a heavy side serve generated with very effect by a ternegy 05 and if I go down it goes up a lot and I get over is the network ... the problem is the hard boarracha? will a soft would be better? or is the same technique?I never made part of table tennis club to learn, I learned to play by playing and watching videos tv kim soo taek, ryu seung me if you guys can do drawing videos and reception caneteiros I thank you ... thank you ...

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

What if the player is waiting for your attack that can only be a flip? It means you will be feeding into what they want.

[@sinaxguap]

What paddle do u use

[@andrewagatha241]

rly helpful

[@indrajitpatra8048]

how to return a return of sidespin short serve and the return is also short?

[@ravikrishnann5927]

OMG... i had this friend who does heavy side spin added speed.. i could only return 1/10 serves of his... i saw this video, played the shot and i only missed 2/10.. Thnx...

[@isithardtobevegan53]

i still cannot return side spin. Side spin is killing me mentally in table tennis.

[@kongwu482]

how do you return a reverse top spin and side spin serve.

[@anirudhsharma2877]

what music is this?

[@ronaldod.sabellano7229]

Wow it's clear..:)

[@niikwartei]

Good microphone works

[@multyz1]

Ghanaian king relax, this video is old.

[@StrategikMedia]

Alright, nice intro to the video

[@yuttana48]

Good

[@DN5229]

I'm digging the music lol

[@aqqlila6284]

I am only interested on how he did the sidespin serve

[@henrylacroix6203]

Table tennis antispin video help

[@boneyblade]

I don't get it. how is this duplicating the opponent?

[@maxzhu56]

slow motion，like it

[@sheendow]

can anyone tell me why when the opponent serves side spin and i mimic his serve the ball still flies out of the table

[@Drumming-Life]

I heard (haven't tried it yet) that returning with top spin towards the middle will override the sidespin. Anyone know if this is true? I will be able to try this out at work tomorrow against an opponent that uses a sidespin serve quite often, but would rather know now if possible.

[@julliferjosephtuba2202]

Donic Table Tennis I've seen it done before, so yes I do think it works. You just got to make sure you produce strong top spin on the return.

[@tumharaghar]

thanx brian .....thnx>>>>

[@MrDaphool]

Which is easier?

[@CallMeMantou]

agreed.haha i like how he just leaves at the end.

[@GBtabletennis]

Ok this is very learn full, but now I get a problem. When the angle of the bat looks like a backspin service, there are people who can still make topspin services (oh just look at Waldner he can). That's so hard to see when it's topspin or underspin.

[@rashidjan7351]

how I can understand that which type of spin is at serve from opponent

[@kianglian123]

+Rashid Jan Hey Rashid, all you have to do is look at the other players wrist movement, and where their bat is going

[@maipiucosilontano4262]

He looks like Will Smith.. good at tt. I envy his swing form.

[@ThriceDice]

I like how you just look at nothing when you serve.

[@ThriceDice]

+FluffY PenguiN I understand serves are mostly muscle memory. I just thought it was funny how out of all things to look at during a serve, he just looks off straight to the side at nothing. At least the white guy is looking down the table at his intended path.

[@ThriceDice]

FluffY PenguiN That's when you get the famous "There's a hole in my paddle". Every fiber of your body told you you hit the ball, but it just went right past.

[@ArchOfficial]

+ThriceDice I sure would prefer to play against someone who is telling me directly where the ball is going to go, instead of someone who's staring off into nothing.

[@eczavyr2899]

ThriceDice It's not just looking away, if you want to get higher you will have to look, and while you are serving you can look at the way the opponent is standing etc, while the ball is still in the air you can adjust your tactics and catch him off guard with a good serve

[@picasadeluxe]

play also table football and your wrist will speed up the table tennis balls a lot more ( in serves, flicks , topspins)

[@RupertGriffin1]

@DynamicTableTennisTV Woah badass, your own rubber :D

[@ronaldtejada2]

Just find the axis...yall get it right my friend.

[@type-b]

01:33 Side spin

[@isithardtobevegan53]

but my opponent never serve me this way. The side spin of the ball is counter clockwise not clockwise as in this video

[@cwj7543]

이게 바로 결대로 받는 방법이구나!

[@KangenAlec]

So they changed serve rule,where tossing hand cannot longer hide point of contact. (hide the serve). Now they need to go further and make addition. A server cannot hide a paddle at any time. Regular players like me having hard time reading the serve if i don't see the paddle path or see at a last moment.

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

You need to look better at the serve mechanics. You don't need to see the approaching racket, because most people hid that movement. You need to see the angle of the contact, because that will let you know what kind of spin is on the ball.

[@stich4729]

if it's a fast serve you can return it with a loop if it's a slow you can chop it

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

@sssllahhh19375123456 You can used the opposite direction, but your run the risk of the ball going off the sideline of the BH. The safer return we be to move the ball to the FH where you have more area to land the return on the table.

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

If one detail is left out, it's a bad video? If you already know that you should observe the other tips. Focus on learning what you can instead of trying to be so critical.

[@pratyushsen8108]

DynamicTableTennis,Should we follow the same tips when receiving the backhand sidespin serve

[@alextarasov4940]

0:59 и 1:15

[@DynamicTableTennisTV]

@sssllahhh19375123456 I am currently using my own brand of rubber that I can't talk about yet until it is approved by ITTF, but the rubber I am using is Tenergy05FX on the FH and BH.

[@tabesamis]

@Merrlol Get some long pips:P lol

[@zamorak887]

your the kind of people who just like to criticize everything

[@parthdashpute2832]

vvvvvvvnice