This question was first posed to me back in the 1980s. Coach, When you hit the ball what kind of spin does it have? Over, under or side?
Me: Say what?
Recently a big discussion on fb and all sorts of comments. It is really interesting that my bio-mechanics PHD guy swore it was sidespin. (it should be noted I paid for this guy to give me the scientific approval on what I teach vs what others are teaching! )
Even when I argued and showed him how we teach hitting the drive serve, he still swore it was sidespin. Even when hitting the ball flat and following through, he swore sidespin. Now this is a phd guy who is an expert and seemed to be right about everything else. He did conference calls with Nadal and Federer’s camps in tennis so he must be knowledgable. Somebody posted “Zero Spin”–I do not know about that. I really think that would be a knuckleball effect.
Back to spin. I don’t really care. It is beyond me so I teach the same techniques I did back in the day. There is a misunderstanding that not everyone can hit a good drive serve. That is wrong. It is not just ability that dictates a drive serve, it is practicing technique over and over. If the serve is hit correctly, it will have two results. One, it will be a line drive, not a floater and two it will just cross the short line by about 2-6 inches. I call that the base serve.
The base drive is like the fastball in baseball. Then we go to the other serves! Ooops–gotta stop here; too close to the secret sauce!
Now feel free to discuss spin! Or go practice! The former will be entertaining and educational and the latter will make you a better player!
Oh and if we have any biomechanics PHDs out there feel free to chime in. I’m always interested in learning more! (no matter how you “spin” it!)