At the intermediate and advanced levels (below world-class level), the most common rallying style combines forehand looping and backhand hitting. These players often attack backspin by looping from both sides, but once in a fast topspin rally mostly hit on the backhand side. It's simply easier for most to loop in a rally on the forehand side because the body isn't in the way, so you have a huge hitting zone. On the backhand side, players are often cramped as they try to backhand loop a fast incoming ball, so hitting is easier and more effective. This often means trying to hit the backhand close to the table while looping the forehand from farther back. How can a player handle this?

The problem is that hitters usually play closer to the table than loopers. If they stay at the table to hit their backhands, they are jammed and rushed on the forehand side if they try to loop. If they take a step back to loop their forehands (usually after the top of bounce), their backhand hits become late and less effective. This is further aggravated because most players hit their backhands on the rise, before the top of the bounce, meaning they want to play the backhand even closer to the table. Many players face this type of problem, even at the world-class level. Players such as Gue Yuehua and Jan-Ove Waldner favored hitting or blocking their backhand close to the table, combined with a looping forehand, and they are considered two of the greatest players of all time. So how do you solve this problem? There are several options.

First, let's look at what a hitter does. Often he hits the backhand on the rise, and the forehand at the top of the bounce. This isn't a problem because when you turn sideways to hit the forehand, the hitting zone opens up and hitting at the top of the bounce is easy. So there's no problem in hitting backhands on the rise and forehands at the top of the bounce. The problem is when the backhand is hit on the rise and the forehand loop on the drop. Here are six ways to handle this problem in a fast rally.

1. Develop diagonal footwork. Playing a quick backhand but a forehand loop farther back means moving diagonally back and forth rather than side to side. So practice this footwork in drills. Start with a practice partner alternately hitting balls side to side as you develop the footwork and strokes together. Then have your partner hit the ball randomly side to side as you learn to react to these shots as if it were a game. (It might be easier to do these drills with a coach or player feeding multiball rather than doing it "live.")
2. Learn to both hit and loop the backhand. If the ball is coming at you very fast, or if you are close to the table, favor the backhand hit. If you have more time, or are off the table, you favor the backhand loop.
3. Hit the backhand at the top of the bounce. Just as there's no real difficulty in playing the backhand on the rise and the forehand on the drop, there is no real difficulty in playing the backhand at the top of the bounce and the forehand on the drop. You can still start the rally by hitting backhands closer to the table, but once into the rally the natural distance would be half a step back. (And alternate version of this is to simply learn to backhand loop in the rally - but of course that defeats the whole purpose of this article, which is how to combine a hitting backhand with a looping forehand.)
4. Loop the forehand at the top of the bounce. This takes some athleticism, and isn't for everybody. But if you are fast over the table and can smoothly and rapidly loop the forehand, you can hit the backhand on the rise and loop the forehand at the top of the bounce. Sometimes you will be forced back on the forehand, and in those cases you'll have to play your backhand late (playing backhand at the top of the bounce, backhand looping, or fishing), but when you do play the forehand at the top of the bounce, the extra effectiveness of the shot (opponents have little time to react) offset that. If you go this route, you'll want to play with a somewhat shortened forehand loop stroke.
5. Play the backhand with your feet in a slight forehand stance. For most backhands you don't really need your feet in a backhand stance. And so many players play their backhands with their right foot slightly back (for righties). This gives them a slight head start in playing their forehands, allowing them to play the backhand closer to the table while still reacting to a quick shot to the forehand. Make sure when hitting backhands that the upper body is rotated to face the direction of your shot; it is only the back foot that should be in a slight forehand position.
6. Learn to loop the ball late in the forehand zone. This means taking the ball near the back of the big forehand hitting zone that is created when you turn sideways. Some players learn to loop the forehand so late in the zone that they almost take it behind their body. This means learning to loop with the contact point almost directly to the side of the body, by the right shoulder (for righties). Players who do this tend to lose power (less time to accelerate), can be rushed (since they only have a small part near the back of the forehand zone to contact the ball), and have trouble going crosscourt. I don't particularly like this option, but some players do this effectively.

I've put these six very roughly in order of preference, but everyone's different. Experiment, take your pick or picks (you can use more than one method), and go through your opponents like a buzzsaw with your two-winged hitting/looping attack. 

Far too often players don't think tactically, believing the game is too complex for them to play and think at the same time. And it's true that you shouldn't be doing any conscious thinking during a point. But between points a smart player does think tactically. The key is to keep it simple.

"Tactics isn't about finding complex strategies to defeat an opponent. Tactics is about sifting through all the zillions of possible tactics and finding a few simple ones that work, and developing reflexive tactics to cover other situations." (That's the opening of my upcoming book, "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.") What does this mean?

The first part means you don't need to fry your brain working out complex patterns or finding ten ways to beat someone. Find two or three simple ones, and that'll usually suffice. Be flexible in adjusting these tactics if they stop working or trying out new ones, but keep it simple.

The second part means you should develop the habit of thinking tactically, and your subconscious will get the idea. It'll soon become automatic - you'll develop reflexive tactics to cover most situations. If you tactically tell yourself to play certain shots in a certain way to a certain spot against a certain player, it soon becomes automatic both against him and against similar players, and you can focus on just two or three other tactics instead. To any experienced observer, you'll be playing a very smart tactical game, but in reality you're only aware of two or three aspects of it. You should be no more consciously aware of most of your tactical play than you would the angle of your racket when blocking a loop - not aware at all. You just do it.

Most tactics should become second nature, allowing you to focus on just two or three things in any given match. And yet you'll be playing many more tactics without even thinking about it, because they will have become ingrained on your subconscious. You'll be tactically placing your shots side to side and in and out, varying the speed and spin, and doing all the tactics necessary to win - and you'll barely even notice you are doing it. What a smart player you are!

So many players have this strange idea that the best way to develop a smash is to, well, smash a lot. It seems to make sense, but isn't always the best way. I've seen this in student after student - they work on smashing by smashing a lot, and the balls spray all over the place as they ingrain the habit of spraying the ball all over the place. Smashing is, first and foremost, a precision shot, and if you practice smashing by spraying the ball all over the place, you are being counterproductive.

Instead, focus on driving the ball only at the pace that you can control, and develop the precision at that speed. As you get better, increase the speed. If you find yourself spraying the ball all over the place, take it down a notch. Precision comes from good technique and timing, and these are things you should work on at a pace you can control. Spraying the all over the place is a great way to develop bad technique and poor timing.

How do you develop the precision needed to have a consistent smash? It starts with the fundamentals. A coach can help you with this, but here are five techniques that lead to precision on the forehand smash. (Most apply to the backhand smash as well.)

First, balance and positioning are key. If you aren't in position, or if you are off balance or not set for the shot, everything will be thrown off. When you turn sideways to hit a forehand, you have a big hitting zone to hit through, so positioning isn't so hard as long as you have active feet to move into position. You don't have to be fast, you just have to develop the habit of getting into position for each shot. If the ball is smashable, even a slow person should almost always have time to get into position. And balance is part of this, since if you step to the ball instead of reaching, you'll usually stay balanced.

Second, always use the same backswing. I believe this is the single biggest problem with players who can't smash well - they vary their backswing, and so never develop precision. It's like trying to hammer a nail where you bring the hammer up differently every time. Find that perfect spot to backswing to, and do it every time. Even if the ball is high, backswing to the same spot, and then raise the racket as needed in a continuous motion. It should become so natural and automatic that any variation to the backswing should feel unnatural and strange.

Third, use the whole body in a smooth progression from bottom to top - legs, hips, waist, shoulders, and forearm. (No wrist needed for this shot - it takes away some of the precision, though some do use it for extra power, especially against shorter balls. More often a wristy smash will just cost a player precision.) Many players tend to overuse their arm, resulting in a strained and awkward smash. The arm (specifically, the forearm) breaks into the shot only near the end, as part of the natural progression, after the shoulder rotation.

Fourth, and closely related to the third item above, is that you shouldn't have to strain to smash. A good smash is the result of good technique as power is created from that progression from legs to forearm. If you have to strain for a shot, it means you are overusing one muscle group at the expense of others. Here's a simple test - you should be able to smash at full power while carrying on a conversation. "Full power" may be misleading since you shouldn't actually try to smash using every muscle at full power. If you try to do so, you'll just get jerky muscles that don't work together instead of the smooth progression needed, and you'll lose both precision and power. Think of using each muscle at perhaps 80% power, which allows you to use all the muscles in conjunction, which actually leads to "full power."

Fifth, there should be a slight upswing with most smashes (unless the ball is somewhat high), which results in topspin to control the shot. Even a little topspin greatly increases your target area by making the ball drop. With a fast and grippy inverted surface, the upward part of the strokes is small; with a slower, less grippy surface (including all non-inverted surfaces), there should be a little more upward motion. Careful, however, not to stroke too much up, leading to a "rolling" forehand, where a player starts with the racket too low and strokes with too much topspin for a smash. This might be the beginning of a good loop (and some players use a loop kill instead of smashing whenever possible), but not very good for a smash. Instead, focus on meeting the ball more straight on, with only a slight upward motion, and sink the ball into the wood. There should be a satisfying smack when you make a good smash.

With these five tips, and with overall good technique, you can turn your forehand smash into a weapon that'll terrify opponents as they struggle to find ways to avoid it - which is a double-whammy, since you can dominate with both the smash itself or with the other strengths of your game that your opponent is no longer focused on avoiding. 

The Falkenberg Drill (also called the Two-One Drill and the Backhand-Forehand-Forehand Drill) is probably the most popular drill for players at the intermediate and advanced levels. It combines three of the most common moves in table tennis: covering the wide forehand, covering the wide backhand, and the step-around forehand from the backhand side (since you often want to end the point with your forehand against a weak ball to the backhand). Go to any major tournament and you'll often see the top players warming up with this drill.

The drill was popularized by 1971 World Champion Stellan Bengsston. While he was developing as a player at the Falkenberg Club in Sweden in the 1960s, one of the most common drills was forehand-backhand footwork, where a player alternated hitting a backhand and then a forehand from the backhand corner. The problem was this only practiced one of those three common moves - the step-around forehand - and half the drill was following a forehand from the backhand side with a backhand, which isn't as commonly done. Stellan made the Falkenberg Drill central to his training, and soon players around the world took notice.  

In the most common way of doing the drill, you keep returning the ball to your partner's backhand. Your partner hits two balls to your backhand, one ball to your forehand, and then repeats the sequence. You return the first ball with your backhand, step around your backhand corner and return the second ball with your forehand, then move to your wide forehand and return the third ball with your forehand. You should use the same strokes in the drill as you want to do in a match - hitters should hit, loopers should loop. Many loop the forehand and hit the backhand.

There are many variations. You can start the drill off backspin with a loop, and then continue. You can either hit or loop the forehands or backhands. You can do the drill to your partner's backhand or forehand. You can have free play after a certain number of repetitions, such as after three (nine shots). Or use your own imagination and make something up. Or just use the basic standby, as described above, as many do.

The drill can also be done with multiball. This allows a player to maximize how fast he can do the drill, since miss-hits by either player no longer affect the drill.

A key factor in the drill is balance. If you are even slightly off-balance at any time, you'll have trouble recovering for the next shot. When I say "off-balance," I don't mean actually stumbling-around off balance; if your center of gravity goes outside the area between your feet, or even goes too much on one foot, it'll slow down your recovery for the next shot. The most common problem here is letting the weight go too much to your left (for a righty) when playing the forehand from the backhand side. It is this constant state of balance that allows top players to seemingly get to every ball since balance is the key to getting a quick start. So keep your weight between your feet.

Here are some examples of the Falkenberg Drill. Watch, learn, and become a Friend of the Falkenberg!

• Here's a 31-second video of Denmark star Mie Skov-Pedersen (world #79) doing the drill.
• Here's another video of the Falkenberg Drill (3:10), explained demonstrated by Tom Nguyen and Richard Lee.
• Here's former Chinese superstars Kong Linghui and Ma Wenge demonstrating the drill (9:51), with a Chinese narrator. 

One of the big mistakes players at the intermediate/advanced levels make is to serve short over and over against an opponent who doesn't attack long serves. I've watched national championships lost because a server insisted on serving short against a receiver who was very comfortable returning short serves but had great difficulty against deep serves. At the lower levels, and often well into the advanced levels, players often serve long because, even though serves are generally easier to attack (usually with a loop), they have major advantages as well. Done well, a deep serve turns the receiver into a puppet, with the server holding the strings.

The main advantage of a short, low serve is that it is difficult to attack, since the table is in the way, making it difficult or impossible to loop. It also brings the opponent in over the table, leaving him vulnerable to a deep attack.

However, a short serve also allows the opponent to rush you with a quick, angled flip or push, or to drop the ball short. The shortness of your serve means the opponent can contact the ball much closer to you than off a long serve (so you have less time to react), as well as giving him a wider angle. A receiver can also drop a short serve short (so that, given the chance, it would bounce twice on your side of the table), stopping the server from looping as well as catching him off guard if he was looking to attack a deep return.

Serving long takes away these advantages for the receiver, and if he can't attack the deep serve effectively, then there's little reason to serve short too often. Instead, serve as deep as possible, knowing you'll have more time to react to his shot and that his returns will have less angle available. Deep serves should go very deep, with the bounce somewhere near the receiver's end-line. Serves where the ball bounces more toward the middle of the table (depth-wise) are not nearly as effective - they are more easily attacked, they don't jam or force the opponent off the table, and they allow the receiver to hit the ball quicker and with better angles than off a truly long serve.

This doesn't mean you serve long every time, allowing the receiver to hang back, waiting for the deep serve. Mix in short serves so he has to watch for those as well, making the deep serve even more effective. A mixture of long serves to the backhand and short to the forehand are especially effective.

If you like to serve backspin and loop against pushed returns, and your opponent doesn't loop against deep backspin serves, why serve short? Serve long, giving yourself more time to react to the receiver's push, while also cutting down on his possible angled returns.

There is one variation of long serve that doesn't go very long - the half-long serve (sometimes called a tweeny serve). With these serves the second bounce on the receiver's side, if given the chance, would go just barely off the end (or, as a confusing variation, the second bounce would just barely hit the table near the edge). These are difficult to attack effectively, they don't allow the receiver the quick, angled returns they could off a shorter serve, and they are almost impossible to drop short.

Placement is also important. Often players serve right into an opponent's waiting forehand or backhand. Instead, serve at either extreme angles or to the middle. If you serve at extreme angles and very deep, the receiver will have to move to the ball, and it's not easy for him to make a strong return off a deep ball when he has to run it down. When you serve to the middle, it should be right at the receiver's playing elbow, the mid-point between forehand and backhand, and very fast, forcing the receiver to make a quick judgment on whether to use forehand or backhand, and then moving to cover it - not an easy return.

Deep serves should focus on either speed or spin. Speed serves rush the opponent, forcing weak returns. They are often most effective if served dead, i.e. spinless or even with a very light backspin, forcing many receivers to put the ball in the net (especially when served to the middle), or to over-compensate and go off the end. Spin serves can be served either fast (so they rush the opponent, but allow him to use your own speed against you with a counter-hit) or slow (so they break more dramatically but give the receiver more time to react), and should break as they approach the receiver, so the receiver has to both move to reach the ball and have to compensate for the spin. Most often you want the breaking serves to break away from the receiver, especially if you can serve deep into a receiver's backhand so it breaks away from him, making him reach for it. (Most players have less range on the backhand, so forcing them to chase after a breaking serve here is especially effective.) When reaching for a ball, receivers often lower the racket, and so they lift the ball high (giving you an easy smash) or off the end.

So develop those deep serves as a powerful weapon, along with short serves. The only thing more fun than turning a receiver into a puppet as you pull the strings, moving him around at will with your varied serves, is to win national championships with them. You might not do the latter, but you can be a serving puppeteer.