If you expect to win a match, you'll do better than if you don't expect to win. It's as simple as that. You may go into the match knowing it'll be the fight of your life, but if you expect to win it, you'll have a much better chance of doing so. Even against a player who is so much stronger that you objectively have little chance, you'll do better if you expect to win, and will have the proper mindset to figure out what you need to work on so you can do even better next time.

Of course, we've all had that experience of playing someone who was much better, i.e. a "top player." But if you are practicing regularly and are about to play a "top player," ask yourself this: Are you practicing regularly to not be a top player? Hopefully not, in which case you are practicing to be a top player. So when you play a top player, it's your chance to be what you practice to be. ("Top player" is, of course relative, depending on your own perspective and goals; to some, that's a world-class player, to others it's the neighborhood or club champ.)

Here's a simple test. If when you lose a match you don't have a few seconds of disbelief that you lost, then you didn't really expect to win. This should happen even after you play a top player. If it doesn't happen, you didn't expect to win, and you are handicapping yourself both now and in the future.  

Part of expecting to win for improving players is having confidence that even if you lose, you'll figure out what you need to do so you'll win next time, i.e. you may lose now, but fully expect to win next time. Here's another test. If after a match you think, "I would have won if not for [I couldn't return his serve, I missed my first attacks, I couldn't block his loop, etc.], then you have pretty much accepted your current level. If you are trying to improve, instead you should be thinking, "I can beat him next time because I will improve my [return of serve, learn to do the serve I had trouble with so I can win with it too, work on my first attack, work on my block, learn to loop so the other guy has as much trouble with my loop as I did with his, etc.]."

Often the root cause of a player not expecting to win is because the opponent does something so much better that the player thinks he can't compete. Never compare your opponent's best shot to yours; of course anyone near your level will do some things better than you, often much better in fact. But the same applies to you - against your peers, you also do something much better. Your goal is to find ways to tactically dominate more with your strengths more than they do with theirs - and expect to win as a result.

Expecting to win is a mindset you need to develop if you want to maximize your performance both now and in the future. It involves psychological, tactical, and strategic thinking. Psychological thinking is the confidence that you can win and so expect to win. Tactical thinking is thinking about your tactics so as to realize your expectations of winning. Strategic thinking is thinking about what you need to improve in your game so as to meet your expectations of winning next time. Use all three types of thinking and your expectations of winning will likely become a reality. 

When I coach someone, the very first thing I look at are their grip and feet positioning. If either of these are done improperly, everything in between will likely be twisted like a rubber band into an awkward stroke that players and coaches will often try to fix by treating the symptoms rather than the root of the problem. Get them right, and everything in between tends to straighten out. New players should focus on this to develop their strokes properly; more experienced players should focus on this to correct fix improper strokes they may have developed.

For example, a shakehander might hold the racket with a forehand grip, so that the racket is rotated to the left (for a righty), with the index finger partly off the racket rather than flat across it near the base. This means the racket is aiming slightly downward on the forehand side when the arm is aiming forward. Or a player might use a backhand grip, so that the racket is rotated to the right, with the thumb almost flat on the racket rather than the thumbnail roughly perpendicular to the surface. Now the racket is aiming slightly upward on the forehand side when the arm is aiming forward. In both cases the player has to adjust his stroke to compensate for the fact that his racket and arm aren't pointing in the same direction, leading to awkward positioning of the elbow and shoulder, and even the body and feet can be thrown into awkward contortions to compensate. At the advanced levels, some players do use slight forehand or backhand grips, but only after the shots are ingrained, and always for a specific purpose (i.e. to strengthen one side, even at the cost of the other side). Until the strokes are ingrained, players should use a more neutral grip, so that the thinnest part of the wrist lines up with the racket.

Common foot placement problems include feet too close together when they should be more than shoulder width apart (especially with taller players); feet parallel instead of the tips pointing a bit outwards; weight on the heels or evenly distributed when it should be on the front inside part of the foot; and (for righties) the right foot either parallel to the left, or too far behind it, when (for beginners) it should be in between these two extremes, and so only slightly back. Each of these problems leads to technique problems where the root of the problem often isn't obvious, and so players and coaches try to fix the symptoms rather realize the problems stems from the feet positioning.

For example, if a right-handed player has his right foot too far back, then he won't be able to rotate at the hips, waist, and shoulders, since to do so would mean turning almost straight backwards, and he ends up with an awkward mostly-arm stroke. Seeing this, many players and coaches tell the player to rotate the hips, waist, and shoulders, thinking that's the problem when that's just a symptom of the problem, and so they make the problem even worse. Or if the right foot is parallel to the left foot, it becomes awkward to rotate properly because the amount of rotation needed to compensate for the foot positioning is too much. Again, a player or coach might tell the player to do more rotation rather than addressing the root of the problem. (At the more advanced levels, where players have learned to rotate into shots properly, a supple player often does play forehands with the feet parallel, but that's only after the proper stroke has been ingrained.)

Imagine your body is a rubber band pulled tight. If you twist either side, the rest of it twists, leading to twisted strokes that'll handicap you for the rest of your playing days. Untwist the ends, and everything in between smooths out. Do you want a smooth game or one that is twisted into knots? 

A great way to improve the sharpness and steadiness of your shots is to shadow practice them. This means practicing your shots without the ball. One of the best things that ever happened to me when I was a beginner was when I was told to shadow practice my forehand and backhand drives and loops, and side-to-side footwork, one hundred times a day. This was a primary reason why I went from beginner at age 16 to 1900+ in about two years.

For Beginning Players: focus on the basics. You want to develop smooth, repeatable shots and footwork. You might want to have a coach work with you first, so you aren't practicing bad habits. Once you know what to do, do perhaps fifty to a hundred forehand and backhand drives, and fifty to a hundred forehand and backhand loops. Then go side to side fifty to a hundred times, stroking each time (either all forehand, or alternate forehand and backhand).

One key thing: remember that strokes have three parts: backswing, forward swing, and back to ready position. Many players tend to just go back and forth (going directly from forward swing to backswing), which you never do in a game. The stroke should go through a triangular motion (dropping down to ready position), not just a back and forth motion.

For Intermediate Players: Focus on improving the speed, crispness and power of the shots and footwork. Think about the type of specific movements you do in a game, and mimic them. For example, if you want to develop a powerful forehand loop that you can use from all parts of the table, then shadow practice powerful forehand loops, from both the wide forehand and wide backhand, as well as from the middle, and practice moving from one spot to another. (Note--intermediate players should also use some of the techniques explained for advanced players.)

For Advanced Players: At this point, your shots are consistent and powerful. You should continue to do the shadow practice as explained for intermediate players. However, now you should add randomness. As you shadow practice, imagine you are playing a real match. Imagine a specific opponent, and play out the rallies--except now you are playing at whatever level you hope to attain. Want to be a world-class player? Then shadow practice rallies as if you are world-class! Instead of alternating forehand loops from side to side, add randomness - imagine your opponent spraying the ball all over the court. For example, after looping a forehand from the backhand court, your "opponent" might put one to the wide forehand, which you then cover; or he might block one right back to your backhand again, which you've vacated after the previous shot to get back into position, and so you either step around again for the forehand, or play a backhand attack shot.

You can also practice receive techniques - imagine an opponent's serve, read it, and return it. You might step in, drop a ball short or flip it, then step back and attack the next ball. Or you might shadow practice looping the deep serves. Think of what happens in a real match, and play out those points.

For All Players: You can practice everything this way, except for the actual timing of hitting the ball - and you can do that later at the table, with much faster, stronger and crisper shots because of the shadow practicing. And the nice thing is you can shadow practice anywhere - at work, at home, on the subway. (Okay, that last one might get you strange looks--but I've done it before!)

One of the biggest problems beginning/intermediate players have is standing up too straight. Watch the top players and you'll see how they stay low - feet relatively wide and pointing slightly outward, weight toward the front inside balls of their feet, knees bent, and leaning slightly forward from the waist. This allows much stronger play than standing up straight - you'll move quicker, have better balance, recovery more quickly after shots, and your shots will be more natural and more powerful. And you'll even feel more like an athlete because you'll be playing like one!

Here's a good example - here are highlights of the Men's Singles Final at the 2013 World Championships between Zhang Jike and Wang Hao, both of China. Or pull up just about any video between two top players. It may not be easy to play with a lower stance at first. Older players and those with knee problems might have particular problems, and might need to adjust - but even they should focus on staying at least somewhat low.

Why is staying low important?

1. It lowers your center of gravity. This increases your leverage in movement, giving you a quicker start.
2. The bent knees give you a quicker start. If your knees are straight, you'll have to bend them before you can move.
3. The wider stance gives you stability and balance during rallies. It's hard to play effectively if you are off balance. Players who stand up too straight tend to make up for this by reaching for the ball instead of moving to it, leading to awkward and inconsistent shots.
4. The wider and lower stance increases power. The extra power comes from a greater weight exchange as you rotate about from a wider stance (especially on forehand shots), and from the extra power from the legs from staying low, allowing you to push off into your shots.
5. Quicker recovery. This comes because the wider and lower stance allows better balance. Players who stand up too straight will go off balance after a fast movement or powerful shot, and will be slower in recovering, especially on the forehand.
6. It makes your shots more natural. If you stand up straight, your natural stroking movement will be up, but your target is ahead of you. Staying low gives you a more natural shot in the direction of the far side of the table, and allows you to more easily put your body weight into it. It might not be natural at first, but it will once you get used to it.
7. It makes it easier to loop heavy backspin with power. While standing up straight gives you a natural lifting stroke, it doesn't give much power for great topspin and speed. For that, you need to use your legs, and to use your legs you have to get down with the knees at least slightly bent.

Besides table tennis players, you can find examples of athletes staying low in many sports - for example, an infielder in baseball, a goalie in soccer, and basketball players when they are dribbling or covering someone.

You might have to build up your leg strength to stay low - but staying low in itself builds up those muscles, and the more you do it, the stronger your legs will be, and the easier it becomes. Truly serious players should hit the weight room and focus on lower body strength training.

You can make the change to a lower stance in stages, focusing on staying a bit lower for a week, and a bit more the following week, and so on until you find a comfortable low stance. If this doesn't work, try going for the other extreme, and practice staying too low. (Careful if you have knee problems!) It may feel silly, but after playing that way for a short time you may find it easier to compromise between the too-low stance and your previous too-high stance.

And when you develop the habit of staying lower, you'll begin to feel the benefits as your game improves. A lower stance will allow you to stand tall on the winner's podium. 

There are five steps, roughly in this order. Serving takes practice, often alone with a box of balls as you serve, over and over. Take your time; don't rapid-fire serve. Visualize what you want to do with each serve as you practice, and then try to match what you visualize. You might want to get a coach to help at the start, or watch what top players do, and perhaps get their help. Learn to follow your serve with an attack - often it's the threat of the follow-up shot that makes the serve effective as opponents try to be too perfect with their returns. (Have a question about spin? Here's my article Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Spin - But Were Afraid to Ask!)

1. Put great spin on the ball
   There is no substitute for this. Spin comes from racket speed and grazing motion. Racket speed comes mostly from the arm and (even more) the wrist, which need to work together to accelerate the racket into the ball. (Contact should be near the tip of the racket, which is the fastest moving part of the blade in a normal serving motion.) Even more important, however, is the grazing motion, which is what takes so much practice. When you can graze the ball so that nearly all of your racket speed becomes spin, you are well on your way toward developing a great spin serve. You can practice this away from the table - get a box of balls and serve on a rug, and watch how the ball spins on the rug. Make the backspins come back to you, the sidespins break sideways, and the topspins jump away.
2. Put different spins on the ball
   It's not enough to just make the ball spin; you need to develop different spins. Most players start out by learning simple backspin and topspin serves. Next you should develop sidespin serves, and then combinations - sidespin-backspin and sidespin-topspin (usually called side-back and side-top serves). Then you should add a no-spin serve that looks spinny (called "heavy no-spin"), where you use a big racket motion but hit the ball near the base of the racket and so put little spin on the ball. Finally, you might learn to serve with corkscrewspin, where you'll have to toss the ball up higher.
3. Put different spins on the ball and control it
   Having all these great spinny serves isn't so great if you are popping the balls up or can't control the depth. High serves are going to get attacked, and consistently long serves will also get attacked by stronger players. Learn to serve so the ball crosses the net very low. (Do this by contacting the ball low to the table.) Learn to control the depth of your serve so you can serve it very long (so first bounce is near the end-line) and short (so that given the chance, the ball would bounce twice on the receiver's side). Also learn to do "half-long" serves, where the second bounce, given the chance, would be right at the end-line, often the most difficult serves to return effectively. Learn to do these serves to all parts of the table - left, right, and middle.
4. Put different spins on the ball with the same motion
   Serving different spins won't always help if the opponent can easily see what type of spin you are serving. So learn to use the same motion for different spins. This means using a serve motion where the racket at different times is traveling down, sideways, and up, in one continuous motion. Then you can vary the spin by simply varying where in the service motion you contact the ball. For example, with a forehand pendulum serve (with the racket tip down), you would start with the racket moving down, then sideways, and then up. You can also rotate your racket as you serve, so you can vary the spin by varying the contact point on the racket.
5. Put different spins on the ball with the same fast, quick motion
   Once you've learned to do all of the above, it's time to ramp it up by doing it faster and faster. Instead of a leisurely down, sideways, and up motion, do the entire motion in a few inches in the wink of an eye, making it almost impossible for any but a highly experience receiver to pick up the type of spin from the contact point. Better still exaggerate the part of the motion where you aren't contacting the ball, so that if you are serving side-top, exaggerate the down motion; if you are serving side-back, exaggerate the up motion.