In table tennis, the forehand is often the more powerful shot – the point winner. But as rallies get faster and fast, the backhand counter becomes more and more important. If you don't have a strong backhand, you're at a huge disadvantage. At tournaments, in match after match, I find opponents who don't know how to score with their backhands. Equally important, they don't know how to stop their opponents from scoring with theirs.

The backhand counter should be both a controlling and aggressive shot. You can score with it by outlasting your opponent, moving him around, or by attacking. Anyone with a decent backhand can win (some) points simply by outlasting an opponent, but he would not be taking full advantage of the shot.

When countering backhands, don't keep hitting the same shot over and over like a drill. Move the ball around, change speeds and spins and force your opponent into a mistake. Experiment and see what works best for you.

There are four spots on the table you should aim for: wide to the backhand (outside the corner), deep to the backhand corner, to your opponent's middle (roughly the playing elbow, midway between forehand and backhand), and the wide forehand. Between the corners is no-man's land and you should rarely go there, except when going to the opponent's middle.

Your basic backhand counterdrive should be deep to the backhand corner. This gives you maximum depth, the most table to aim for, and a good angle into the opponent's backhand. A ball that doesn't go wide enough lets your opponent hit a shot without having to move to it, making it easier for him to play a strong backhand or even play forehand.

Off a short ball or balls that go to your wide backhand, you can hit your shot even wider, outside the corner. In a topspin rally, a ball that lands shorter is easier to attack than a deeper one, so you should play it more aggressively, while still using great ball placement. Make your opponent move! Yet most players either are not aggressive enough on this shot, or they don't go wide enough – they keep the shot well inside the corners, a poor tactic.

A ball hit to a player's middle forces him to decide whether to hit a forehand or a backhand. This often leads to more mistakes, weaker shots, and they have no extreme angle to play into. It also forces the opponent out of position, leaving at least one corner open.

When your opponent is out of position on his backhand side (because you played a ball to his wide backhand) you can snap in a quick, often point-winning shot to his forehand. But you must go to his WIDE forehand. Off a short ball, go very wide. When you go to the forehand, try to disguise your shot - don't make it too obvious. (You can even aim one way, then go the other way at the last second.) Also, try hitting it quick off the bounce - don't give him time to react to it.

In a game situation, you have to be able to put these shots together in combinations. If you go to your opponent's middle and he returns it with his backhand, he's left his backhand side open. Go for it. If he moves prematurely to cover that open backhand side, go to his forehand because he's already committed his weight in the wrong direction. If he gets the forehand shot back, be ready to attack his now open backhand, or if he moves too quickly again, go back to his forehand.

You might also try a tactic of hitting backhands deep to the corner over and over, waiting for a weak return to attack. If your opponent starts edging over to his backhand corner (either expecting more shots to his backhand or possibly to play a forehand), play an aggressive shot to his wide forehand when he's least expecting it. You can also try other tactics, such as mixing up hard and medium shots to break up your opponent's timing.

When playing a lefty (or a lefty playing a righty), things are different. Now your basic backhand shot is down the line, though that changes if the opponent has a weaker forehand. From your backhand side, your widest angle is to his forehand and since the backhand is usually a quicker shot than the forehand, you should take advantage of it. Don't hesitate to attack the wide forehand with the backhand, especially if your opponent is slightly out of position or gives you a weak return.

When you force your opponent away from the table, don't keep hitting every ball deep to him if he’s consistent off that ball. Mix in a few shorter, softer shots to bring him back and leave him vulnerable to a hard-hit follow-up shot, especially to the corners. You would rarely want to hit two soft shots in a row but to alternate soft and hard is a good tactic, because it brings him in and out. When your opponent is away from the table, he leaves the wide corners open. To keep you from going there, he must keep his shots deep. (But it's often best to attack the middle first, to draw them out of position, and then the wide corner.) Conversely, if you are forced off the table, you must hit your returns deep.

If your opponent's backhand is quicker or more powerful than yours, don't try to stay right up at the table with him. Of course, if you back up too much, you'll give him more time to set up plus you'll expose yourself to angled shots. So try to find a middle ground where you can compete with him and seek other shots and tactics to use. Or focus on making sure your first backhand shot is quick and aggressive and try to dominate from there.

Remember, while for many the forehand is the stronger shot, you must develop both wings, perhaps relying more on consistent aggressiveness on the backhand and more power on the forehand. If you play both wings well, you gain a huge advantage – and can now dominate most rallies.

Suppose you are way behind in a game. It's likely that the only way of winning is if you play well and your opponent doesn't. Therefore, assume this is true, and play your tactics accordingly. The same idea can be used when playing a much stronger player - if you can't beat him unless you play well and he doesn't, then assume both, and play your tactics accordingly.

In both cases, assume your opponent is going to be inconsistent if he is regularly forced to go for difficult shots, and so you give him those types of shots. At the same time, you assume you will make your normal shots, perhaps with more consistency than usual. Don't overplay - that's the quickest way to blow a lot of points. Find the right balance where you put continuous pressure on the opponent while staying consistent.

Confidence is key to both coming back and beating a strong player. The moment you doubt yourself, you'll be hesitant, lose consistency, and won't play well. So just convince yourself you can play well at these times and in these matches, play your game, and let yourself go! (Hint - try doing that in ALL matches.)

Many players have difficulty generating great speed on their smashes. Against lobbers and fishers, they often have to smash over and over and still they can't win the point. Often the problem is lack of forearm snap. To generate great force on the smash, your body has to work together – the legs, hips, waist, shoulders, and forearm, with a weight transfer from your back foot to your front foot. They should work in that order, in smooth progression, at about 70-80% power. (If you use more than that, it becomes a spastic motion, and you not only lose control, you lose power as you are not using all of your muscles properly.) However, it is the forearm snap at the very end that really gives the ball great speed – and is the part that is most often lacking in a weak smash.

One way of helping generate forearm snap and the proper timing is to imagine your legs, hips, waist, and shoulders as being used not to increase smashing speed, but to get the forearm going. Then really snap the forearm just before contact. You should sink the ball through your sponge and into the wood. Except against a very high ball (where you can hit the ball straight on), you should still smash with some topspin, so contact is a slightly upward stroke, even against topspin - contact is sort of like an upward slapping motion. Your smashes should all sound about the same, with a loud crack as the ball sinks into the wood. If the sound varies, then you are contacting the ball differently, which leads to inconsistency. (Some players “smash” with a looping stroke, and for that, it's more of a looping contact with extra topspin, and so less of a crack sound at contact.)

To develop the forearm snap for smashing, get a bunch of balls and go to the side of the table, near the net. Bounce the ball on the table somewhat high, and smash, using lots of forearm snap. Make sure to keep the elbow down. As you get better, move farther from the net and perhaps bounce the ball lower. (However, against lower balls it's usually better to loop, using the extra topspin to pull the ball down.) If you are doing this correctly, you can smash at full speed and carry on a conversation without missing a syllable.

A player isn't a threat to you if, at their best, they can't beat you at your worst. But there's an underlying assumption here that your "worst" is when you are taking the opponent serious and playing your normal game. Often, when playing a weaker player, one is overconfident and so doesn't play hard, or doesn't want to "risk" playing their normal shots, and so plays down to the opponent. This means that your new "normal" is at a lower level than your normal "normal" - and so your new "worst" is now worse than your normal "worst." Result? The player who wasn't a threat to you is now a threat.

Some players just look at the opponent's rating, and if it's low compared to them, they don't take the match as serious as they should, whether consciously or subconsciously. Again, they are playing down to an opponent who should not be a threat, thereby turning them into a threat.

So take ALL opponents seriously. If it turns out that the opponent is truly a beginner and really, Really, REALLY is not a threat, then you can choose to go easy. But in all other cases, the best way to make sure a player who is not a threat is not a threat is to treat them as a threat so they are not a threat. Play your normal game - physically, mentally, and tactically.

If you want to improve, then it's important you develop standard third-ball attack serves - serves that are difficult for opponents to attack and set you up to attack, but usually don't win the point outright except when the opponent is overly aggressive. These are usually short or half-long (where second bounce would be right about the far end-line, sometimes barely off). Most opponents will push them back long, allowing you to loop. More advanced opponents may try pushing short or flipping, but if the serve is done properly and with enough variation, it's tricky to stop those third-ball attacks. The importance for most players to develop their game around such serves cannot be overemphasized - not only do they set up the attack, but over time, they allow players to develop their third-ball attacks (like most top players), and so their attacks (including their footwork to position themselves for it) get better and Better and BETTER. Let us call this the Yin.

But there is also the Yang. If you only do third-ball serves, you not only are giving up "free" points, but you are also making things predictable and therefore easier for your opponent. So you should also develop tricky long serves that, if used sporadically, catch the opponent off guard and give you these "free" points, either by outright misses or weak returns. If overused, such serves are susceptible to strong attacks, which is why they should be used sparingly. But if the opponent has to guard against them, then he is less ready to make effective returns of your normal third-ball serves.

The most common third-ball serves (Yin) are short or half-long with backspin (often combined with sidespin) or no-spin. (To serve no-spin, use the same big spin motion you'd use when serving with spin, but contact the ball near the slow-moving handle.) As long as these serves are very low to the net, they will usually set up an attack. You can also serve short topspin or sidespin-topspin as a variation.

The most common tricky deep serves (Yang) are big, breaking sidespins that go deep on the table, often breaking into the wide corners, though they can also break the other way. Another is fast no-spin, which can catch opponents off guard, especially if done right at the playing elbow, between the forehand and backhand. The more you do these types of serves, the more you develop an instinct for when to use them.

Having said all of the above, tricky deep serves can dominate up to a somewhat high level. Even 2000 players struggle returning these serves, if done at a high level and not overusing any one of them. Relying too much on these serves can give a lot of success to a certain extent, but they are limiting, because opponents get used to them, because higher-level players have less problems with them, and because they do not lead to your developing your own game - you instead rely on opponents missing.

But the other extreme, relying completely on third-ball serves, while maximizing your own improvement by developing your attack, is limiting as you are giving away "free" points you might have won, and making things easy for your opponent, who doesn't have to guard against these serves. Plus, if you rarely use tricky deep serves, you won't develop an instinct for when to use them.

So what's the solution? Find a balance. If your goal is to reach the high levels, focus on third-ball serves, but develop a variety of tricky deep serves as variations. If your goal isn't so high, and you are looking for a "quick fix" to improve your rating or ranking, then perhaps develop your game more around such tricky deep serves. (A small number of players have reached very high levels doing this, but it usually involves acrobatic counterlooping when the opponent loops their serve. Some defensive players also do this.)

It's all about finding the balance between Yin and Yang.