There’s a simple reason players have so much trouble with no-spin or dead balls, whether in rallies or serves. The little plastic ball weighs very little and spins easily, and so even at the advanced beginning stage players are used to the ball having spin. Players learn to put spin on the ball almost from the beginning, with their serves, with topspin in their drives, or backspin in their pushes. And so you get used to reacting to these specific spins, especially topspin and backspin.

And then you play someone with dead rubber who gives you spinless balls. You are used to counter-hitting against topspin, and against backspin either pushing with an open racket or topspinning with an upward stroke. And so when you get that no-spin ball, all your trained reactions are off, and you find yourself struggling with someone who seemingly plays like a beginner who can’t put spin on the ball!

The answer? At some point in your table tennis playing days, as early as possible, find a way to do extensive practice against no-spin balls. Other than the fact that you haven’t trained to play them, they are easy to play against. Spins vary and so you have to adjust against these variations. But no-spin is just that – there is no spin variation, it’s always no spin. If you learn to, say, loop a winner against one no-spin ball, you can mentally close your eyes the rest of your life and do that same, exact shot, and you’ll never miss. (You do have to adjust to different depths and your own positioning.)

So, how do you play a no-spin ball? If you push, simply chop down on the ball so that it doesn’t pop up as it would if you push as if it were a backspin. Since there’s no backspin rebounding off your rubber as backspin, you’ll have to produce all of the backspin, so grace the ball and give it a good backspin. However, if the ball has no spin, why not attack it? It’s an easy shot; just play it like it’s halfway between a topspin and a backspin, and you’ll have it.

Against a slow incoming no-spin ball, players tend to lift like it’s a backspin and go off the end. Instead, loop more on top of the ball with very little lift. Practice, and you’ll find it easy to loop or drive away.

Against a dead ball in a faster rally players tend to fall back on their normal strokes and so go off the end. In this case you have to open your racket a little bit. See how easy that was? Since the ball won’t rebound off your racket as fast as if it had topspin, you might stroke a little harder, or you might put more of your own topspin on the ball. It may be hard at first since you aren’t used to it, but with some practice, and you’ll find it easy to counter-hit or loop against. And then you’ll turn that no-spin into a no-win situation for the opponent!

Let’s keep this simple. This is how a champion thinks:

1. The next point you play is the only thing in the world that matters. Note that it’s not the most important thing in the world – that type of thinking would just make you nervous. It’s simply the only thing that matters, and so should get your full attention.
2. The previous point is completely meaningless and should promptly be forgotten. It doesn’t matter if you were up 10-9 match point and missed an easy ball, or any other situation. The only thing you should remember of it (and all previous points) is the tactical aspect, so you can judge what tactics to use for the next point.

That is all.

Someone once complained that reading coaching articles was pointless since nobody ever became a champion player by reading. He was absolutely right and absolutely wrong.

No, you cannot become a champion by reading about it. Coaching articles and books (including mine!) are not meant to be used in isolation. They are supplements to improvement. As any good coaching article would say or imply, you need to practice what is being said.

But even more, to learn and improve at table tennis (and presumably all sports) you must watch top players and/or learn from a coach. (At the higher levels you definitely need both.) Coaching articles and books can really help in understanding these things, can point you in the right direction, and can help in your thinking about the game and how to improve. They are especially helpful in the realm of tactics and strategic development, since those are the aspects that require the most thought – but even there, you can’t learn tactics without trying them out and seeing what works.

And since every rule is meant to be broken, somewhere out there is the first future table tennis champion who’ll do it in the comfort of his home, by reading one of my books in a lounge chair. It could be you!

You only get one break that you can call during a match, and it's only sixty seconds long. How should you use it?

Here are four reasons you might consider a time-out, in rough order of how often you should use this reason. (Ideally, you should have more than one of these reasons.) One catch – for older players and players not in good physical shape, “To rest” is likely the most important one. The best timeout might be when you do three or four of these at the same time!

1. To regain your focus.
2. To think about tactics or discuss them with your coach.
3. To rest.
4. To let a hot opponent cool off.

Far too many players use their timeout as a desperation move when they are on the brink of losing. That’s too late. Instead, use it when it can make a difference. For example, if playing a very strong opponent in a best of five, many players will lose the first two games decisively and fall way behind in the third game, and then call a timeout. Instead, perhaps call a timeout halfway through that second game (or even the first), when you start falling behind, so you can clear your mind and consider new tactics before you fall behind 0-2. That could turn the whole match around, which is unlikely to happen if you wait until you are down 0-2 and way behind in the third.

One interesting thing – the Chinese like to call timeouts when they are on the verge of winning a game or match, such as serving up 10-8. It’s a way to lock up that game. But this differs from player to player – if you are completely focused and know what you want to do, there’s no reason to call a timeout there.

I’ve watched players, even top players, spend hour after hour practicing the simplest serves imaginable. Yes, you need to practice basic serves so you develop near-perfect control of their height, depth, and direction. But it’s drudgery to practice such serves over and Over and OVER when there’s so much more you can do.

Serve practice is where you also work on putting trickery into your serves, in particular deception. Imagine you are serving to a real player. Practice hiding your spin with fast racket movements where you exaggerate one direction of the racket while contacting the ball in a different way with a barely noticeable twitch of your racket. Or work on maximizing your spin to the point where the ball seemingly explodes into flame. Or, after developing super-spinny serves, learn to use the same motion but serve with no-spin by contacting the ball near the handle. Or work on fast and spinny aggressive serves where you jam your opponent’s middle or spin it away from him at the corners. Or fast dead ones, especially at their elbow, that they put in the net.

There is so much more to serving than just putting the ball in play. If you are doing it right, it’s both a science and an art – and a blast to practice!