I am often left in open-mouthed astonishment when watching matches as players will return short backspin serves the same way, with simple long pushes to the opponent's backhand, over and Over and OVER!!! There is little attempt to vary these returns or do much of anything to mess up the server. And yet they seem surprised that the server is ready for these simple pushes, usually with a big third-ball loop attack. If the opponent serves and pushes, then perhaps pushing the serve back long over and over will work. But that's mostly at the lower levels. If you want to reach the higher levels, you have to do a bit more with the receive.  

If the serve is long, it's a bit more simple - just loop the serve, forehand or backhand. If you don't loop, at least play aggressive, since a passive return of a deep serve is easy for the server to attack, since he has more time then off a short serve. (Aggressive usually means a topspin return, i.e. a drive or loop, but it can also be an aggressive push.) The same is true of a short sidespin or topspin serve (which is somewhat rare at the lower levels) - you should flip it.

However, against a short backspin serve, you can't loop, and flips are a little trickier. But you have more options to mess up the server, if you only use them. So what should you do against a short backspin serve? There are three main possibilities, but with countless variations. 

1. Push long. Do this to the wide backhand or wide forehand, and sometimes at the opponent's middle (the playing elbow) against a two-winged attacker, so he has to decide between forehand and backhand, and move to do so. Push quick, heavy, low, deep, and wide, with disguised placement. If you do some of this well, but some poorly, your push will be poor; it's better to do all six decently. (Here's an article on this.) Experiment with pushing with sidespin, especially a sidespin that breaks away from the opponent on his wide backhand side. A sudden quick push to an opponent's wide forehand is often a free winner since they get this so rarely.
2. Push short. This stops the opponent from looping. But don't just push short; sometimes aim to push short one way, and go the other. Top players finesse their pushes so sometimes they drop them short at the point of the net closest to their contact point, other times at angles to the forehand or backhand. Often the best move is to fake a short push to the opponent's stronger side against short balls, then go the other way.
3. Flip. This can be done forehand or backhand. These days more and more players attack short serves with a backhand banana flip, using it even against short serves to the forehand. Focus on consistency and control, and save the flip kills for serves that actually pop up at least slightly, or (at higher levels) where you really read the serve well. Learn to aim one way and go the other way at the last second.

Never forget that your purpose in returning a serve is to mess up your opponent. You don't do this by being predictable with passive returns; you do this with unpredictable and effective returns. 

One thing that always stands out from years of coaching is that those who play in tournaments regularly almost always improve faster than those who do not. There are players who train and train, but do not get the constant feedback you get from playing in tournaments, and so the training doesn't always transfer into improvement. Also, players who do not play tournaments regularly are not "tournament tough," and so do not play as well as players who compete in tournaments regularly. (Note - when I talk about playing in tournaments, this includes league matches as well, as long as you are playing a lot of different players there.)

Why is it so important to compete regularly, as opposed to just constant training? The constant training improves your game, but you also need the constant competition to learn to compete against different players, for feedback on your game, and to become mentally stronger under pressure situations. It also gives you incentive to practice.

Some would argue that you get the same thing by playing practice matches against players at your club. While this is partially true, there are two problems here. First, you are playing the same players over and over. You get used to their serves, their receives, and their rallying shots. Then you go to a tournament, and find that everybody has different serves, receives, and rallying shots. You'll never face everything, and even if you did, you'll never get used to everything. But what playing different players regularly does is develop the habit of adjusting to new players. A player who plays lots of tournaments will adjust far more quickly to a new serve or other shot than a player who only plays the same players, and so isn't used to adapting to new things. The constant feedback from playing different players also shows a player what he needs to practice.

The psychological aspect might be even more important. Playing a practice match at the club just isn't the same as playing under pressure at a tournament, where the results count. To many, just the thought of blowing rating points can turn ingrained techniques into shivering jellyfish!

A third aspect is the competitive aspect, as in players who compete have stronger incentive when they train. A player who competes constantly knows what works and what doesn't work in serious competition, and so has incentive to turn the strengths into overpowering ones, and to work on weaknesses that are exposed in tournaments. Knowing you have another tournament coming up gives them a timely reason to train to excel, while those who don't have anything coming up have more of a mental battle to push themselves to excel.

You might want to take time off from tournaments for a time when you are working on something new that is central to your game. Competing when your game is in transition is often a mistake, and can lead to falling back on old habits you are trying to overcome. For example, if you were mostly a hitter but are trying to incorporate more looping into your game, you might want to focus on training until you feel your looping is ready - but once you reach that stage, where you can confidently loop in a real match, then you should get back to constant competition.

Think of tournaments and practice as the Yin and Yang of table tennis. They feed off each other, and one without the other is like a Yinless Yang or a Yangless Yin. Go for both, where you practice for tournaments, and use tournaments as feedback and incentive for practice, and watch your game soar. 

In this modern game of topspin, many players battle to see who can get more topspin on the ball, with more speed and more consistency. After all, isn't that what tends to win games? Yet you might want to consider whether you want to join in this escalating topspin battle every single point. Why not throw an occasional changeup at them - a "dummy loop" - and watch them mess up? Go for less spin, and mess up your opponent's consistency!

A dummy loop is a loop that looks like it has a lot of topspin, but is not very spinny. You execute the shot almost like any other loop, except you start with your wrist cocked up, so there's no natural wrist snap, so little whipping action to add to the topspin. By using a full motion, and exaggerating the rest of the stroke (especially the follow-through), it looks like you've done a normal loop, yet the ball comes out relatively dead, causing havoc for your opponent. It's usually done against backspin, where you are both close to the table (so the opponent has less time to recognize the lack of spin), and where the opponent has a reasonable expectation of extreme topspin (since you are continuing the spin when you loop against backspin, using the incoming spin to add to your own).

Some players dummy loop by contacting the ball closer to the handle, while contacting the ball closer to the tip for maximum spin. It's a little trickier this way, but can be even harder for an opponent to see the difference. How many opponents can tell whether your loop contact was near the tip or handle?

A key point of all dummy loops - do the shot with a full swing, with full enthusiasm, as if you were really going for your spinniest loop. If you hold back on spin by holding back on the stroke itself, the opponent will easily see that. It's also important to keep the ball deep. That way, if the opponent does reacts to the lack of spin, he probably won't be able to hammer a winner off it, which is much easier to do against a ball that lands short. Even a ball with light topspin can be effective if it goes deep.

Against a primarily defensive player, where there's little risk of them effectively attacking your dummy loop, you should constantly vary your spin from heavy topspin to dead dummy loops. The change of spin will mess up a chopper or blocker more than just extreme topspin.

It's fun watching an opponent block into the net, and stare at his paddle in disbelief!

There are two key differences between practice and important matches: Psychological and Variation.

Psychological. There is little pressure in practice, and so players are loose, both mentally and physically. However, once a game begins, it's easy to get nervous and tighten up. RELAX! Of course, that's easier said than done, especially in a tournament or league match. A great way to prepare for this is to drill as if it were a match. Even if you are doing a simple side-to-side footwork drill, think of it as a match, where you must outlast your opponent, in this case your practice partner. Table tennis is a competitive sport, and to prepare for competition you must do competition.

Which leads to another way of preparing for important matches - practice matches. There's a lot less pressure when you play practice matches, but remember that practice is just that - practice. And so they are a perfect time to practice your mental game. Pretend it's a serious match. Before the point begins, blank out your mind, and just let the shots happen. (Between points is when you think about tactics; once the point begins, you have to just let them happen naturally.) Don't worry about winning or losing practice games; just play your game until it becomes comfortable. Then do the same in tournaments and leagues, where you also shouldn't worry about winning or losing, which only puts more pressure on yourself. The more you do this in practice the easier it will be to do so in important matches.

Always remember that you have your best chance of winning if you don't worry about winning. If your goal is instead to play your best, you will maximize your chances of winning.

Variation. There is much less variation in practice drills than in a game. Most practice drills are somewhat predictable, and so you get balls you are comfortable with. For example, you might do a drill where you serve backspin, your opponent pushes it back to your backhand, and you loop (forehand or backhand). The range of variation in the pushes you'll be looping (amount of spin, speed, height, depth and placement) may be rather small. Drills like this are good to develop your shots, as are pattern drills where you practice footwork.

But in a game, when you serve backspin, your opponent's pushes will vary more. He may push to your forehand or backhand, or short, or he may even attack the push. He may vary the spin more. So you usually have to deal with a lot more variation in a game than in practice, and so it's more difficult to prepare for or react to the many different returns.

How do you learn to react to variation in games? By incorporating that variation into your practice routines. Do drills where your opponent varies his returns. For example, the drill might be where you serve backspin, your partner pushes deep anywhere, and you loop. Or your partner may have the choice of pushing short to the forehand or long to the backhand. Or he may just push anywhere, long or short. When you are comfortable against all these, then you may go for bust, and have your partner return serves any way he wants, including attacking them. (Perhaps serve short so he can't loop, and serve low so he can't flip too effectively.)

All drills can be turned into random drills that incorporate variation. For example, instead of hitting forehand to forehand (or forehand loop to block), once you are warmed up have your practice partner move you around randomly on your forehand side. Or have your partner hit the ball randomly to your forehand or backhand (or to anywhere on the table), and you return each shot to one spot. Or do drills that combine variation with pattern play. For example, your partner may alternate between one shot to your backhand, and one random shot that goes anywhere.

Of course, the ultimate drill that incorporates all variations is a practice match. Play them like tournament matches (though sometimes you should focus on something that needs practice), and they will prepare you for the big matches. Ultimately, to play in games as well as you play in practice, you need to play lots of games - but only after you have really practiced against variable shots in practice.

When developing your shots, you want to use a neutral grip; otherwise, your strokes might not develop properly. (This is for shakehanders.) A neutral grip makes proper strokes more natural. You might be tempted to use a slight forehand or backhand grip as you develop your stroking techniques, but in the long run, this will hurt you.

What is a neutral, forehand and backhand grip? If the thinnest part of your wrist lines up with the blade (so the blade and the back of your wrist both aim in the same direction), then you have a neutral grip. If you tilt the top of the blade away from you, you have a backhand grip. If you tilt the top of the racket toward you, you have a forehand grip. (If you aren't sure what a shakehands grip is, google "table tennis shakehands grip pictures," and a zillion examples will show up.)

However, a neutral grip is not necessarily the way to maximize your play at the intermediate and advanced levels. It's a tradeoff. At the higher levels, the strokes are already well developed, and so experimenting with the grip won't hurt a player's strokes much.

I used a neutral grip roughly the first decade I played. Then I used a slight backhand grip for roughly a decade. Then I went to a slight forehand grip for roughly the past decade. A backhand grip tends to favor backhand blocking and backhand looping, and gives a natural forehand sidespin loop (so it hooks left for a right-hander). A forehand grip tends to favor backhand hitting and forehand looping, and gives a better inside-out loop on the forehand (so the ball curves to the right for a right-hander).