I have been playing pickleball now for the past 4 years and teaching for the past 2 years. But long before that I have been playing and teaching tennis. I have been able to refine the various spin shots in tennis and adapted them to Pickleball. The Common topic when playing pickleball is that my teammates love to see the spin and my opponents hate it. The reality is that if used properly spin can be a weapon but if used incorrectly then you are setting up your opponents for a shot that will bounce right into their sweet spot, and they will attack it. Let’s talk about the various types of spin and how to use them.
Topspin
This will pull the ball down and I use topspin when I am trying to drive the ball with a lot of power, the more topspin you add to the ball the more it will pull the ball down. The ball will also speed up and bounce lower on impact with the ground.
Backspin
The backspin will cause the ball to bounce backwards or bounce higher on impact with the ground depending on how much backspin you put on the ball.
Sidespin
This is the shot that gives players a lot of trouble and that is because they don’t know how to read the ball to determine what direction the ball is going to bounce on impact with the ground. You may also notice that you can make the ball curve while in the air and I tend to use this occasionally on the return of serve as the ball must bounce.
In conclusion, if you use the same type of spin on every shot your opponents will learn to read it and predict the bounce. The key to winning matches is to remain unpredictable.