"Real Tactics" are the tactics that a player should use in a given match to maximize his chances of winning. "Parroting Tactics" are the tactics that many players use because it's what everyone seems to be doing, and so they figure (consciously or subconsciously) it's what they should be doing as well. When two players of equal ability play, and one uses "Real Tactics" and the other uses "Parroting Tactics," guess who usually wins?

The classic example of "Parroting Tactics" would be rarely serving deep to the forehand. At the higher levels, if you serve deep to the forehand, the opponent almost always loops, and the server is at a disadvantage. And so at higher levels you rarely see deep serves to the forehand except as an occasional surprise. At lower levels, opponents often cannot loop effectively or consistently against deep serves to the forehand, and usually have better control on the backhand side, and so are much better if the opponent serves to their backhand side - which most players obligingly do, since that's what they see stronger players doing.

There is some argument to the idea that a player should play higher-level tactics if he wants to be a higher-level player, and so should avoid serving deep to the forehand since that's generally not a higher-level tactic. But this misses the point. The higher-level tactics that usually goes on in higher-level matches is not about avoiding serving deep to the forehand because others don't do that; it's about zeroing in on the opponent's weaknesses and going after them. They don't think, "I'm a higher-level player, and so I shouldn't serve deep to the forehand." They think, "My opponent has a strong forehand loop, and so I shouldn't serve deep to the forehand." The same higher-level tactics, if applied at lower levels, would be, "My opponent has a weak forehand loop, and so I should serve deep to the forehand." And that's what most lower-level players should do, if the tactic works.

You don't develop higher-level tactical skills by playing weak tactics. You develop them by playing strong tactics, i.e. "Real Tactics." If the opponent has a weak forehand loop, you serve to it, no matter what the level. Against six-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion David Zhuang, a pips-out penholder, most players would serve short (which he was very good against) or long to his backhand (allowing him to control the backhand diagonal, which he was also very good at doing), rather than serve long to his forehand, where his pips limited the effectiveness of his receive and where he'd be drawn out of his favored backhand position. A few players figured this out and would regularly serve long backspin to his wide forehand (often "half-long," so the ball barely went off the end), and then counter-attack effectively to his open backhand side.

I once coached a player who had lost the first game at deuce after serving over and over to his opponent's strong backhand. I told him he should both serve AND receive every ball to the opponent's weak forehand until the opponent won two points in a row. I even had him serve from the middle and forehand side so he could get a bigger angle into the forehand side. My player went up 9-0 before losing a point, and won the next three games easily by relentlessly going to the opponent's forehand side.

Obviously there is a limit. If the opponent knows you are going to the forehand, and you do so over and Over and OVER, he might get used to it. So you would mix in shots the other way, especially if the opponent is camping out over there. But guess what? If your opponent does camp out on the forehand side to protect that side, then his backhand opens up, and so you go there. That's "Real Tactics." "Parroting Tactics" would be to continue to go to the forehand because the player read an article that says he should go over and over to the opponent's weak forehand. 

Many players understand the need to serve short (in addition to long serves), since short serves stop the opponent from looping. More advanced players learn the control to serve "half-long," so the second bounce, given the chance, would be right about the end-line. However, many players who serve short do not think about the placement. There are five: short to the extreme forehand, middle forehand, middle, middle backhand, and extreme backhand. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each. (Some of these are written as if both players were righties. It would be a long article if I covered all possibilities.)  

Every opponent is different, so test each of them out on these five types of placements and see which one works best for you.

Extreme Forehand

• Advantages: It makes the receiver reach way over the table, often leading to awkward returns. To guard against this the receiver often has to stay close to the table, making him vulnerable to deep serves, especially to the wide backhand. After returning these serves the receiver may have trouble getting back into position.
• Disadvantages: It gives the receiver a big angle crosscourt, and also gives maximum table as a target, since there is more court diagonally than down the line. To guard against this angle, the server might not be able to effectively cover down-the-line receives. For a righty serving to a righty, this means the receiver can flip to the wide forehand, and to cover this, the server may have to move to his right, leaving the backhand side vulnerable.

Middle Forehand

• Advantages: It takes away some of the angle into the forehand and gives less table to flip into. It also forces the receiver to move in differently than against the wide angle - often having to step slightly to the left (for righty versus righty) - and some players have trouble doing this.
• Disadvantages: The receiver doesn't have to move as far in, so can get in and out more quickly. The receiver also now has a slight angle into the backhand as well as into the forehand. It also allows a receiver with a strong backhand flip (especially a "banana flip," a heavy topspin/sidespin attack against a short ball with the backhand) to more easily step over and use the backhand.

Middle

• Advantages: Receiver has to decide in a split second whether to receive forehand or backhand. Serving to the middle takes away the extreme angles in both directions, and leads to the least amount of table the server has to cover. It gives the receiver the least amount of table to receive to since there are no long diagonals from the middle. This is the most popular location for elite players, though of course they vary it.
• Disadvantages: Receiver can more easily use their stronger side for receiving, forehand or backhand. The receiver can angle the ball equally to both sides.

Middle Backhand

• Advantages: Only gives a slight angle into the forehand side, so the server can often follow the serve with a forehand from the backhand side. If the serve goes slightly long, he might still get a backhand return instead of a forehand loop.
• Disadvantages: It allows the receiver to receive backhand without having to reach too much over the table. It gives an angle into the backhand and some angle to the forehand. It's the most common serve at the beginning and intermediate level, so those players are used to this.

Extreme Backhand

• Advantages: It takes away any angle into the wide forehand (for righty versus righty), and so the server can try to cover the backhand side with his forehand, knowing that if the receiver does give an extreme angled return, he can always switch to backhand. It brings the receiver well over the table, making him vulnerable to deep ball on the next shot. If the serve goes slightly long, you'll most likely get a backhand return instead of a forehand loop.
• Disadvantages: It gives the receiver an extreme crosscourt angle. It takes away any indecision from the receiver since he'll almost always receive backhand.

Want to learn a really spinny pendulum serve? Not just a get-the-ball-in-play one that anyone can return, but one with great spin? One with so much spin that the backspin serves will come back into the net and sidespin ones will break sideways as if yanked by a string? Here's how. (The instructions assume you are right-handed; lefties adjust - sorry.)

Step One: Go to YouTube and put "pendulum serve" in the search box. Lots of videos will come up - study them! Study them. You want to have a good idea of what you are aiming to do.

Step Two: Hold the racket out in front of you, forehand side pointing up. (You don't need a table for this.) Toss a ball up, and on the drop spin the bottom of the ball with a right-to-left motion. The ball will jump some to your left. Now tilt your racket slightly so the left side rises (i.e. clockwise). Now repeat, this time contacting the ball on the bottom-left. Now you should be able to spin the ball so that it goes straight up. Catch it and do it again. Do this over and over until you can really spin the ball, and so that it goes straight up. This is how you learn both to spin the ball and to control it. Make sure to just graze the ball - the goal is to make the ball spin. If you do this exercise regularly, pretty soon you be putting tremendous amounts of spin on the ball.

Step Three: Repeat step two, except now go back to spinning the very bottom of the ball. The ball will jump to your left some; catch it. Again, the goal here is to both spin the ball and control it. You need to be able to control how far the ball jumps to your left before you go to the next step.

Step Four: Now you are ready to try this on a table. Repeat step three, except don't catch the ball - let it go. You should now be able to spin the ball and control it, and so should be able to control where it bounces on the table. Practice this until you can spin the ball and control it so it bounces over the net after one bounce, a legal backspin serve. Remember that the contact point is nearly the very bottom of the ball. Don't worry about the height of the serve; focus on great spin and control. When you get good at this, the ball will come to a stop on the far side, and even bounce backwards. Top players can put so much backspin on the ball that it practically jumps back into the net.  

Step Five: Now focus on contacting the ball very low to the table, perhaps six inches high, and keeping the ball low to the net. The lower your contact point, and the finer your grazing (i.e. more spin, less speed), the lower it will tend to bounce.

Step Six: Go back to YouTube and again put "pendulum serve" in the search box. Study them! The above is a great way to learn to put backspin on the ball and control it. Now learn to contact the ball with a sideways motion for sidespin-backspin and sidespin. As you get better at it, you'll learn to contact it on the upswing of the pendulum swing for sidespin-topspin. Once you can serve with heavy backspin and control it, it's not that hard to learn the same with other spins.

Step Seven: Now it's time to learn the Reverse Pendulum Serve. As above, start by going to YouTube and put "reverse pendulum serve" in the search box. Repeat the steps above, except now the racket tip points toward you - but otherwise it's exactly the same each step of the way. Good luck!

A few key points to remember:

1. Serving is a violent motion. If you want the ball to have lots of spin, you need your racket to move at high speed. That means using your service motion to drive the wrist into the serve, with the wrist snapping into the ball just before contact.
2. Graze the ball near the bottom. (Contact more toward the back of the ball only if you are serving longer and faster.) However, until you learn to really graze the ball very finely you'll end up serving high when you do this. To compensate, contact the ball slightly toward the back of the ball.
3. To keep the ball short, the first bounce on your side of the table should be near the net. However, if you want the ball to go half-long, so second bounce is near the opponent's end-line, the first bounce should be more in the middle of your side of the table (depth-wise). 

How high should you toss the ball when you serve? At all levels there's a huge range, from tosses that challenge the six-inch rule to ones that go up to the rafters. And yet most top players toss the ball up to perhaps head-high. What are the advantages of these different tosses, and how high should you toss?

Let's start with the rules. You must throw the ball up at least six inches (that's the height of the net for perspective), and contact it on the drop. There's no limit to how high you can toss it.

You can divide tosses into three types: very short tosses, medium-high tosses (the most common), and high tosses.

The purpose of a short-toss serve is to rush the opponent. So these serves should be as short as possible, probably in the 7"-8" range, and often challenging the 6" rule. Many players push this to the limit, and often toss it up less than six inches. (If you do, prepare to be faulted on it sometimes, and for opponents to complain. Ideally, learn to consistently toss it just over six inches.) Short-toss serves are usually done on backhand serves (since higher tosses are tricky to control on that side), though it can be done on other serves. Ironically, since players are so used to higher tosses on forehand serves, a short-toss on that side often appears lower than the same serve on the backhand side, and so a short toss on the forehand side is more likely to rush an opponent - or to have him (often erroneously) complain that the toss is too low. Another advantage of a short-toss serve is the ball is traveling slower at contact, giving great control, especially on height and depth, once the server masters the faster timing required. The disadvantage of a short-toss serve: the server is somewhat rushed.

The purpose of a high-toss serve is to maximize spin as well as throw off the opponent's timing. By throwing the ball high into the air it maximizes the speed of the dropping ball. A good server can use this to increase spin. To do so, he must still accelerate his racket into the ball at full speed and just graze the ball - not an easy thing to do with a fast-dropping ball. Below the elite levels most high-toss serves are more for show than actually improving the serve - the player often simply doesn't yet have the timing or skill to graze the ball; it takes lots of practice. (But it might still be a good variation if not overused.) By throwing the ball high into the air you also throw off the opponent's timing as he has to stand there, waiting for the ball to come down. It also means he may take his eye off your racket as he watches the ball, and so miss the actual contact when the ball finally reaches it. (Suggestion for receivers - watch the ball only far enough up so as to see how high it'll go, then focus on the server's racket so you don't miss contact.) You can actually divide high-toss serves into two types - high tosses, and super-high tosses. Some throw the ball up perhaps five feet over their head; some throw the ball high up into the rafters, making the receivers crane their necks to follow it. The disadvantage of a high-toss serve: loss of control on spin, speed, height, and depth.

The purpose of a medium-high serve is to maximize control. This means tossing the ball perhaps up to perhaps eye level or just above. This allows the server to serve without rushing, and maximizes the overall control of spin, speed, height, and depth. At higher levels, where depth control is so important, this is the most common serve. (Why is depth so important at the higher levels? Because they usually want the serve to be as deep as possible and still be "short," i.e. second bounce right at the end line, or the related version where the second bounce is just barely past the end line.) Another advantage of a medium-high toss is that it allows you more time to do deceptive motions as the ball reaches the contact point. With a short toss, you don't have as much time to do this; with a high-toss serve, the ball goes by so fast you also don't have as much time to do this. With a medium toss, you can do all sorts of racket movements as the ball goes by to deceive your opponent. The disadvantage of a medium-high toss serve is you aren't rushing your opponent, nor are you throwing off his timing or maximizing spin.

My recommendation is to focus on medium-high tosses at first, until you have great spin on your serves as well as excellent control. Then you can begin experimenting with shorter and higher tosses. By varying the height of your toss, you can throw off an opponent's timing. At the higher levels, high-toss serves are especially effective, but don't make the mistake of doing them for show; learn to do them effectively. And that takes lots and lots of practice. As do all great serves. 

Where should you contact the ball when serving? This is one of those subtle things that many players spend their entire playing lives or careers never realizing they are giving their opponents an advantage. Where you contact the ball makes a significant difference on how your serve goes out and how it is returned. Here are three things to consider when serving.

First, your contact point should be low. The higher you contact the ball, the higher it'll tend to bounce on the other side. At minimum, try to contact the ball no more than nine inches or so high, but ideally even lower, even lower than the six-inch net. The lower you contact the ball, the easier it is to keep the ball low. And keeping the ball low when serving is one of the most under-rated parts of serving. It's not just that slightly high serves are easier to attack - they are - but also that super-low serves have to be lifted over the net, forcing weaker and less consistent returns. They also cut off most aggressively angled returns.

Second, contact should be as close to the table's end line as possible. If you contact the ball a foot behind the end-line, you give your opponent that much extra time to react to your serve. Why give him that time? Some players do toss the ball backwards when serving, since this allows them to essentially throw the ball back into their racket, which can give extra spin. (It also makes it easier to illegally hide the serve.) The rules state that the ball must be thrown up "near vertical," so there is some leeway here. In general, however, you want to give the opponent as little time to react as possible, so even if you throw the ball back some (within the confines of "near vertical"), you should balance this against the extra time the opponent has to read your serve.

Third, for fast serves that go deep on the table, move the contact point back. To maximize the speed on your serve, you want the ball to travel over the table for the maximum time between bounces so that gravity (and topspin, if you served with that) has the most time to pull the ball down, thereby maximizing how fast you can potentially serve. This means the first bounce should be as close to your end-line as possible, with the second bounce very deep on the opponent's side. To do this, you need to contact the ball a little behind the end-line, perhaps a foot back. The contact point should be very low to the table, no more than a few inches higher than table height, allowing you to serve the ball mostly forward and very low to the net, to maximize the speed you can put on the ball and still keep the ball on the table.

So focus on the position and height of the contact point on your serves, and take your service game to new heights!