Tips and Tricks with Carl Danner: Your Key to Sidespin

Slobodan Grujic

By Carl Danner
Dealing with sidespin is one of the sport’s deep mysteries for many players, especially when combined with topspin or underspin. The combinations can seem daunting, and cause many a lost point.
But here’s a simple way to cope with even the most severe sidespin, and make your playing life easier. All you need to do is watch for one thing– which direction (right or left) your opponent’s racket moves when brushing against the ball. Your key is to move your racket in the opposite sideways direction as you make your shot. That’s all there is to it. If you can do this consistently, you will neutralize the effect of your opponent’s sidespin on your racket. This will let you focus instead on the top spin or underspin that is also on the ball, which is much easier to deal with by itself.
Why does this work? Imagine yourself looking down at the table from the ceiling as your opponent applies his nasty sidespin. From your vantage, the ball will be rotating in a circular motion. By moving your racket in the opposite sideways direction, you will go with that motion and there by continue the spin that’s already on the ball. This action prevents the spin from grabbing on your rubber and shooting sideways. Notice also that this is the opposite of what most players try to cope with sidespin, which is to fight the spin by aiming the shot in the opposite direction. That approach will work, but it has less of a margin for error, requires you to aim in a predictable direction, and is pretty vulnerable to a misread of the spin.
There’s also a little bonus in this technique, if you can pull it off well.By continuing the sidespin instead of fighting it, you send the spin back to your opponent in a way he may not expect. Not only can you win a few points that way, but his look of confusion can be priceless.
Don’t fight the sidespin, continue it. That’s what world class players often do, and it’s a tool you can also use.

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