Sandy FarquharsonFounder at The Padel School | Elevating Padel Players' Performance

Struggling against a tricky spin serve? 🎾

16 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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0:48

In this instructional tennis coaching clip, Sandy Farquharson addresses the common frustration players feel when facing opponents with a deceptive spin serve. She explains how the serve can grant the server free points and erode the returner's confidence, especially when the server repeatedly exploits the same spin. Sandy then outlines a three‑part framework for overcoming the issue: (1) gaining a clear understanding of the physics and types of spin, (2) learning to read visual and tactile cues to identify the spin before contact, and (3) applying specific return techniques to neutralize or counter the spin effectively. The video aims to empower players to break the opponent’s advantage and regain confidence on the return.

Chapters

It can be really difficult if your opponent has a tricky spin serve, and I know so many players that struggle on the return against certain types of serves. So it can be really frustrating to deal with this because it might be something that actually is the best part of their game, and the rest of the game, if you could just get the return back in, then you could actually challenge their serve, but they get so many free points because you don't know how to deal with their tricky spin. Then you start losing confidence in your return. And annoyingly, the server knows they are causing you problems, so they keep doing the same type of serve. So we're gonna break this down into 3 areas. Firstly, understanding the spin. Secondly, how to read it, how to tell what type of spin it's going to have on it, and then how you can deal with it properly as the returner. Okay.