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Why would hitting the ball with the leading edge generate more spin?

Sports Asked on January 21, 2021

I have often heard it said that when brushing the ball, you should hit the ball with the leading edge of the bat for maximum spin. To make this clearer, let’s assume we are doing a heavy backspin serve and so we are striking the ball with a downward motion of the bat… people say that if you want to maximise the spin you should strike the ball near the lowest point on the rubber. They may also go on to say that if you hit the ball with the trailing edge of the rubber then the ball will have very little spin. See here for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnwhP4hs6pY.

When I’ve quizzed people about why this should be so they often assume that the ball will somehow be skidding along the rubber gathering rotation as it goes before rebounding and losing contact with the rubber. If the ball is struck near the trailing edge then there is no room for this rotation-gathering process and the ball will not be so spinney.

I have always been sceptical about this explanation and found this video which appears to show that the amount of skidding is tiny – perhaps a quarter of an inch at most.

I have two questions really:

  1. Is it true that brushing with the leading edge of the rubber imparts more spin than the trailing edge?
  2. If so – why?

One Answer

  1. Yes it's in principle true, depending on how the racket is moved (see point 2). I used to play table-tennis myself and my coach taught me once a backspin service with the intention to hit the ball at the outermost point of the racket. The serve looked harmless, but when done it right, it had tremendous spin.
  2. The pre-requisite for this is to do a quick, circle-like movement with the racket, rather than going straight. So you have to turn your wrist quite strongly and do a spin move with the wrist as fast as possible. In that case the outer edge of the rubber moves more quickly than inner edge, causing stronger spin on the ball. This does not work if you do a straight movement because the speed is the same on every spot of the racket.

Answered by E. Sommer on January 21, 2021

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