Why Can't I Get Spin on My Serves? Expert Tips
Why Can’t I Get Spin on My Serves?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a Q&A format. The mystery experts answering your questions are two former national team members (both seasoned coaches) who prefer to stay anonymous — they just want a quiet life and a good night’s sleep.
Q: My opponent serves a hook-style serve, mostly short or half-long with sidespin-topspin. How do I handle it? When I try to forehand “smother” it, sometimes they blast it with a forehand or backhand loop.
A: Backhand flip, forehand flick, or if neither works, side-cut — cut the side of the ball. Keep in mind that no matter how low it looks, it still has topspin.
If your opponent can attack hard, that’s your own fault. At the amateur level, nobody moves that fast. You’re definitely making your receive motion too big and too obvious, giving your opponent way too much time to read you.
Try to start your motion suddenly only when your paddle is about 10 centimeters from the ball, and play an angle. If your receive motion is too large, your opponent reads your intention well in advance and has plenty of time to wind up. At the amateur level, their “speed” isn’t actually their speed — it’s your slowness. This is like chess: one bad move cascades into more bad moves. Many players think their opponent has quick footwork, but actually they themselves are slow, which makes the opponent look fast.
Q: Do you need to use the wrist when pushing? Some instructional videos use wrist action, some don’t.
A: It depends on your goal. For a heavy push, snap the wrist during the descending phase to add spin. For a fast push, just move your body in on the rising phase — that’s enough.
Q: My serves never seem to have much spin. What do I do?
A: To generate heavy spin on a serve, you need to use your whole body. For amateurs, stomp the left foot at the moment of serving — meaning your weight should shift onto the left foot after contact, so your body’s downward force combines with the ball’s descent. Your fingers must stay relaxed, the wrist snap at contact must be explosive, and the rubber needs to really grip the ball. Get these right and you’ll be fine.
For a standard backspin serve, your last three fingers should release the handle — relax them or don’t apply force. If you grip tight, it blocks your wrist rotation and kills your touch at contact.
Q: For shakehand, does power mainly come from the index finger and thumb?
A: For the forehand, the index finger must drive the stroke. For the backhand, the thumb is the primary driver, and the web between thumb and index finger plus the wrist also contribute. To get a snappy backhand, the forearm must power the stroke with the wrist pressing into the ball and flicking right.