Stop Getting Beat By Spin | 5 Forehand Checkpoints

Universal Rackets Weekly Pickleball Update: Coaching - News - Tips

September 30, 2026

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Stop Getting Beaten By Spin

Here is something most players do not realize about spin. Handling it is far more mental than physical. It is not that your hands are too slow. It is that you did not know what was coming.

Once you can read spin and react to it with the right adjustments, balls that used to jump off your paddle sideways start feeling completely manageable.

Three fixes do almost all of the work.

Fix one: read the spin before the ball arrives

Stop watching the ball and start watching the paddle.

Your opponent's swing path tells you exactly what is coming. A low to high brush means topspin, and that ball will dive down and then kick up at you off the bounce. A high to low chop means slice, and that ball will stay low and skid through.

You get this information a full second before the ball reaches you. Most players throw it away by watching the ball instead.

Practice it directly. Have a partner mix topspin and slice at random while you call out the spin as they hit it. Just call it, do not even worry about the shot at first. Once reading it becomes automatic, reacting to it takes care of itself.

Fix two: match your paddle face to the spin

Most players use the exact same paddle angle on every single ball. That is why one spin feels fine and the other feels impossible.

Against topspin, close your paddle face slightly so you can brush the back of the ball. Against slice, open your face so you can get underneath it.

Same swing, different angle. That one adjustment is the difference between a clean return and a ball that sails or dumps.

Fix three: soft hands

Spin is energy, and you have two options. You can fight it or absorb it.

Fighting it means gripping tighter, and a tight grip makes the ball squirt off your paddle in whatever direction the spin wants. Absorbing it means staying loose, around a four out of ten on grip pressure, and letting your hand take the energy out of the ball.

Loose hands beat fast hands against spin every time.

Three more things that help

Be proactive, not reactive. Do not stand back and let the ball come to you. Move forward and take it early. The less time the ball has in the air, the less time the spin has to work on it. You are taking the spin away before it fully develops.

Stay balanced. Keep your body low and grounded through the swing. Spin punishes players who are reaching, lunging, or standing upright. A stable base gives you control.

Use it yourself. Everything above works in reverse. If your opponent struggles with low balls, hit slice returns and make them hit up all day. Reading spin makes you better at receiving it and better at using it.

The bottom line

Watch their paddle, not the ball. Close the face on topspin, open it on slice. Keep your hands soft and take the ball early.

Spin only beats you when it surprises you.

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Quick Drill Of The Week: Countering 101: Right vs Wrong

The Topspin Masterclass

Think of topspin as an insurance policy. It is what lets you swing aggressively and still trust the ball will land in the court.

Here is why it works. Topspin makes the ball rotate forward, and that forward rotation pulls the ball down into the court instead of letting it sail long. More spin means more margin. More margin means you can hit harder, aim closer to the lines, and stop playing scared.

The motion that creates it

Every bit of topspin comes from one thing: brushing up the back of the ball.

Picture a clock. Your swing starts at 6 o'clock and finishes at 12 o'clock. Low to high, every single time. That upward brush is what grabs the ball and sets it spinning.

A cue that makes this click for a lot of players is the sideways wave. Wave your hand like you are saying hello, then turn that same motion sideways like you are petting a dog. That is the path your paddle takes through the ball.

The drop is non-negotiable

No matter what shot you are hitting, you have to get your paddle below the ball before contact. If your paddle starts above the ball, there is no way to brush upward.

The secret to the drop is your grip. Loosen it. A relaxed hand lets the paddle head fall naturally into position. A tight hand keeps it locked where it is, and you end up chopping down at the ball instead of lifting through it.

For drives and serves

Take the paddle back, let the tip drop, and point the butt cap forward toward your target.

That butt cap is your best directional cue. Where it points is where the ball is going.

For dinks and volleys

Different setup, same principle.

Keep the paddle out in front of your body. Drop the paddle tip. And point the butt cap upward toward the sky. From there you brush up and over the ball.

The mistake here is letting the paddle drift behind you. Up at the kitchen there is no time for that. Everything stays in front.

Three things that make or break it

Accelerate through the ball. This is the one that separates real topspin from the appearance of it. You have to be speeding up at contact. The moment you decelerate, you lose the spin and the control at the same time. Slowing down feels safer. It is not.

Exaggerate your finish. On drives, finish with the paddle tip pointing backward. On dinks, finish with it pointing upward. Both feel like too much at first. That is exactly the point, because an exaggerated finish guarantees you completed the full low to high path instead of stopping halfway.

Keep your body and head down. When players go for spin, they tend to flail their upper body and pull their head up. Stay down through the shot. Let your paddle do the work while your body stays quiet and stable.

The drill: 6 to 12

Stand near the net and simply roll balls over it.

Start every swing with the paddle tip pointing down at 6 o'clock. Finish every swing with it pointing up at 12 o'clock. That is the whole drill. You are not trying to hit winners, you are training your arm to remember the path.

Do enough reps and the low to high motion stops being something you think about and becomes what your body does by default.

The bottom line

Loosen your grip and let the paddle drop below the ball. Brush from 6 to 12. Accelerate through contact and exaggerate the finish. Keep your head and body down.

Get those working and topspin turns into the thing that lets you play aggressively without paying for it.

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5 Checkpoints of a Complete Forehand Drive

Most players who struggle with the forehand drive are not missing talent. They are missing one of five checkpoints. Skip any one of them and the shot falls apart, usually in a way that is hard to diagnose on your own.

Run through all five and the drive gets powerful and repeatable fast.

Checkpoint 1: The Takeback

Take the paddle straight back to your side. Not behind your body. Going too far back is the single most common takeback error, and it forces you to swing around the ball instead of through it.

✅ Paddle goes straight back to your side
✅ Paddle face visible from the side
✅ Paddle tip pointing diagonally toward the sky

Checkpoint 2: The Drop

As the ball bounces, release your grip pressure and let the paddle tip drop downward. You cannot brush up on a ball if your paddle is not below it first, and you cannot get it below the ball with a tight hand.

Here is the cue that makes it click. Picture the butt cap of your paddle as a flashlight, and shine that light toward your target. That angle automatically puts you underneath the ball and sets up your topspin.

✅ Loosen the grip as the ball bounces
✅ Let the paddle tip drop down
✅ Butt cap shining toward your target like a flashlight

Checkpoint 3: Contact

Contact has to happen out in front and away from your body. Let the ball get too close and you have no room to swing, no power, and no control.

Your non-dominant hand is your GPS here. Point it at the ball as it comes in and it will tell you exactly where your contact point should be. It is the simplest fix in the whole sequence and almost nobody uses it.

✅ Contact out in front of your body
✅ Contact away from your body, never jammed
✅ Non-dominant hand pointing at the ball as a guide

Checkpoint 4: Extension

Most players go straight from contact into the follow through. That is a flick, and a flick has no power behind it.

Extend forward first. Imagine you are pushing through one ball, then two, then three, all lined up in a row. That mental picture lengthens the stroke and keeps the paddle traveling toward your target instead of wrapping around your body.

✅ Extend forward before you finish
✅ Push through one, two, three balls
✅ Long and smooth, never quick and snappy

Checkpoint 5: Follow Through

Finish over your shoulder. Every time, no exceptions.

Two cues work well here. Finish with your elbow pointing toward your target. Or catch the paddle with your opposite hand at the end of the swing. Either one proves you completed the stroke instead of stopping short.

✅ Finish over your shoulder
✅ Elbow pointing toward your target
✅ Or catch the paddle with your opposite hand

🏁 The Bottom Line

Straight back. Drop and loosen. Contact out front. Extend through. Finish over the shoulder.

Five checkpoints. Go through them one at a time in your next practice session and you will know immediately which one you have been skipping.

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Lesson of the Week: How To Stop Lobbers in Pickleball: End the Lob Game for Good!

Thank you for reading and we can’t wait to see you on court!

-Universal Rackets