Good contact with the ball is key to making a good shot. There’s even a stereotype that all Chinese coaches do in training sessions is walk around watching the player’s feet and listening to the sound of the contact. (There’s some truth to this – I’m not Chinese but sometimes this is what I do when coaching.) You should learn to listen to your own contact, and try to repeat both the sound and the feel. That, along with good positioning and stroking technique, is how you get consistency.

With any topspin contact, you stroke upward at least some. (More up against backspin, less against topspin.) The direction of the stroke, the angle of the contact, and how much you sink the ball into the sponge all affect the shot.  

I divide topspin contact into roughly five types, as follows. The first four would be considered loops. How many of these do you do?

1. Barely grazing. This is for slow, spinny loops, especially against backspin, where you barely graze the ball, creating tremendous topspin. Contact is mostly with the rubber, and only slightly into the sponge. This is mostly done against heavy backspin, with a mostly upward stroke. The focus here is huge amounts of topspin but little speed, with the ball making a huge arc. The sheer amount of spin gives opponents trouble. However, the problem with a slow loop is that if they go deep on the table (as they usually do), then you have to arc them relatively high to get the depth, and so opponents can attack them. If you loop them short, then the opponent can even more easily attack them, if he reacts immediately. However, by varying the depth, it can create havoc with opponents – and many players struggle against them in general.
2. Medium into sponge. This is for medium loops. They are usually the most consistent loops, with your power going equally into speed and spin. They are often used to keep an attack going. If well placed, they can be effective.
3. Deep into sponge. This is for stronger loops, where you are putting great pressure on the opponent and often winning the point outright.
4. Sponge and wood. Now you are sinking the ball deep into the sponge at an angle, but with enough power that it still goes into the wood. This is for kill loops. They aren’t supposed to come back. Because of the sheer speed on these shots, they should only be done against a weak ball, or (occasionally) against a more difficult ball where you are in perfect position and read the ball (especially its spin) perfectly.
5. Glancing blow. This is for smashes, regular counter-hits, and most blocks. For this, you hit the ball at an angle, but sink mostly straight through the sponge into the wood, with a slightly upward stroke, giving moderate topspin. This is also how you hit most attack shots with a hardbat or pips-out. When blocking, you can meet the ball almost straight on for a “deader” ball, but this would have little or no topspin.

Many players hold back on their trickiest serve until it’s close. This is usually a mistake. If you have such a tricky serve, you should use it early – probably with your first serve. (This is especially true for deep, spinny serves.) Here’s why.

1. You don’t really know if the serve will be effective against this player without trying it out – and by using it early, you’ll know whether you want to use it later in a close game.
2. If the serve is effective, by using it early you can come back to it sooner without overusing it and letting the opponent get used to it.
3. Perhaps most important, it forces the opponent to watch for that serve, thereby making all your other serves more effective. This is especially true of tricky deep spin serves. The receiver has to guard against them, making them a bit slower in reacting to other ones, especially shorter ones. You should generally develop your game around shorter serves that are harder to attack effectively and that set up your own attack, but if that’s all you do, the opponent will quickly get used to them.

However, there’s an exception to this. If you play someone regularly, then they may anticipate that you’ll start with that serve, and be more ready for it. But if you are playing a new player, why not throw your trickiest serve at them the first time you serve, and go from there?

These five tips won’t generally help you win, at least not directly. They won’t score points for you. But they will make certain non-playing aspects more efficient and more fun – and indirectly, may subconsciously intimidate an opponent when faced with these displays of “professionalism”!

1. Picking up ball with feet. If the ball hits the ground, the point is over, and someone has to pick it up. But if it’s bouncing more than a few inches, why lean down when, with a tap of your foot, you can bounce it up in the air and catch it? You’ve probably seen players do this. How do you learn to do it? By practicing! Drop a ball on the floor, wait until it’s bouncing somewhat low, and then tap it with the balls of your foot. With a little practice, you’ll be able to control it so it bounces right into your hands. Bonus – if the ball is lying on the floor stationary, you can also pick it up by putting both feet on each side, and lightly jumping. This lifts the ball up enough so that you can then tap it with your foot and into your hands.
2. Returning balls to other courts with backspin. Nothing screams “Amateur!” more than picking up a loose ball from another court and wildly smacking it back at them. “Pros” do it professionally – they backspin it with a simple chopping motion, as if serving forehand backspin. This makes the ball float relatively slowly and on a line right at the person you are hitting the ball to. The backspin also makes it travel much farther so you can return the ball even to someone way off in the distance, and they can catch it easily. How do you learn to do this? Practice a few times, and it becomes easy!
3. Measuring net with your racket. Is the net six inches? You could bring a net measurer or some other measuring device. (Dollar bills are exactly six inches.) But there’s a simpler way – the sponge on most rackets, from tip to handle, is usually exactly six inches. Measure yours to be sure. Then, at the start of any match, just hold the racket next to the next, tip down, and see if it’s the right height. If not, adjust it.
4. Backspin to hide the ball. Most matches start with one of the players hiding the ball under the table in one hand, with the opponent trying to choose which hand the ball is in. But why not do this with flair? If you are hiding the ball, put the ball on the table, put your index finger on the top near side of the ball, and press down, spinning the ball away from you with backspin. With a little practice, you can make it so the spurts out, then returns because of the backspin. Let it pass the endline, catch it in both hands, and then spread your hands under table with the ball in one hand. An impressive way to start a match!
5. Dress like a pro. If you dress like one, your opponent will subconsciously think more highly of you, and that might subconsciously intimidate him. Better still, if you dress like a pro, you’ll subconsciously feel like a pro, and so are more likely to play like one!

Every opponent has a weakness relative to their level. Even Ma Long, often considered the greatest of all time, was “weak” to his wide forehand – but only relative to the rest of his game. I’ve written many tips about how to find and go after these weaknesses.

But one common issue that comes up is when a player says, “But this tactic will only work against this one player, so using it won’t really help my game.” But that’s missing the point. I once played a guy with a tremendous backhand, and he obliterated me in backhand rallies. I finally just served fast down the line to his forehand every time I served, and amazingly, he couldn’t do anything with it – and it set me up every time while taking his backhand out of play. I don’t think I’ve ever played a competitive match against anyone else where this specific tactic would have worked – but that’s not the point. I may never use that specific tactic again – but the habit of finding the weak shots and spots to go after works against everybody. And it was that habit that led me to serving fast down the line over and Over and OVER, and turned a difficult match into an easy win. (And note that you usually don’t want to overuse a successful tactic – variation is key.)

It won’t usually be something as unusual as serving deep to a person’s forehand over and over. But once it becomes a habit to look for every opponent’s weak shots and spots, it becomes easy to find. I played a guy who had no trouble with my usually very effective serves – until I discovered he couldn’t do anything effective against a simple short, low no-spin serve. Another difficult match became an easy win. Another player drilled me in rallies – until I discovered how weak he was against a big breaking serve to his wide backhand. Others had trouble with specific ball placements or shots. I beat one very strong player by attacking the middle and following it up with a shot to the extreme wide backhand. She covered the middle well but didn’t get back into position quickly enough for the wide backhand shot. Another lost against quick pushes to the wide backhand. Another fell apart when I started slow looping. Another telegraphed his usually effective long serves so I was ready for them when he tried to “surprise” me. And so on. Make a habit of finding them, and you’ll find them. And that habit will work against everybody.

It’s not enough to move to the general vicinity of the ball. Table tennis is a game of precision, and almost moving into position is the same as almost making the shot. Instead, focus on that last couple of inches. Don’t lean and make a slightly off-balanced or awkward shot. Those last few inches of movement, often made as a last-second adjustment after getting close to where you should be, can be the difference between a high-precision and oiled machine . . . and a slightly rusty jalopy stroke that never seems quite perfect, though you’re never really sure why.

You can do this last second positioning either by stepping with either foot, or shuffling. The key is to expect to do it, not wait until you realize you have to, and then belatedly try to get into better position – and almost always ending up leaning and making a slightly off-balanced or awkward shot. Expect to make that last-second move, and it’ll become a habit.