It never ceases to amaze me at how many players push serves back safely, essentially patting it back, perhaps with good backspin, and then mentally pat themselves on the back for making this excellent return. And this works . . . at lower levels.

But why put good backspin on the ball when you can put great backspin on the ball? Guess which is harder to handle?

It’s all a matter of wrist snap and grazing. And it’s one of the easiest things to practice. Just find a practice partner and practice pushing where you focus on vigorously rotating the wrist into the ball as you graze it, which maximizes the backspin on the ball. The goal isn’t good backspin, or even great backspin, but maximal backspin. (There are perhaps two exceptions to this. One is if you fake heavy spin and give lighter spin, to force a mistake. The other is against a player who habitually lifts against backspin with a very consistent, spinny loop, but often lifts off the end if there’s less spin.)

Here’s a simple way of looking at it. If you push and you don’t maximize the backspin, you are playing a weak, substandard shot. Why would you want to do that?

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