"If it weren't for your serves, I'd have won." How many times have you heard or said or thought that? Receive is seemingly everyone's weakness. But it shouldn't. The primary reason why so many people have weak receives is because they don't systematically practice it.

If you want to develop your forehand, you practice it. The same is true of just about any other part of your game, from serving to footwork to all the strokes. You'd practice it over and over until it's improved - that's systematic practice. But do you do the same for receive? Or do you just rely on practicing it in game situations, and somehow think that's all that's needed to develop one of the most difficult parts of the game?

How do you systematically practice receive? By (drum roll please) systematically practicing it. This means finding a practice partner or coach who serves to you, over and over, so you can (systematically) work on your receive. Have trouble looping a certain type of deep serve? Have your partner serve this deep serve so you can practice against it. Have trouble with a type of receive against a short serve? Have your partner serve it to you so you can practice it. The goal is to make your receive so relentlessly reliable that it not only isn't a weakness, it becomes a strength.

It doesn't matter whether your receive is aggressive (where you try to take the initiative, usually with a loop or a flip), neutral (where you nullify the server's serve and turn things into a neutral rally, in a number of ways - a consistent loop, flip, or long or short push, with the short push the most common way at higher levels), or passive (usually long pushes), it should be so relentlessly reliable that the server never gets a "free" point via you missing or popping up a ball and giving him an easy put-away. Even your "aggressive" flips should be toned down for consistency, using quickness and placement instead of overly aggressive and less consistent flips.

Once you are consistent against any given serve, have your partner or coach serve everything at you, with the intent to force mistakes. When you have a relentlessly reliable receive against all these serves, you are ready to face them in competition - and you'll never have to say, "If it weren't for your serves, I'd have won.)

Exactly as the heading says - this is the time to try out new things, develop new techniques, and improve your game. If a player has trouble looping, for example, many will fall back on more successful shots in practice - and so continue to have trouble looping. Instead, use those very shots that need to be developed in practice matches so that they will eventually be developed enough to use in more important matches.

So, take a good look at where your game is, and where you want it to (realistically) be in the relatively near future. Then play that way in practice until you can do it well.

One thing that really helps when trying out new things is to find a weaker player to work on using new techniques in a game situation. For example, if you need work on looping against backspin, play games against someone, usually a weaker player, where you can serve backspin, he likely pushes it back, and you get to work on looping against backspin. If you play a strong player, he'll likely make stronger returns (flips, short pushes, or long pushes that you aren't quite ready for yet), and you won't get as much practice. (Plus, the games likely won't be competitive.) Or just play improvised games where the receiver always has to push back long, and then you both get to work on looping backspin! 

1. "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."
2. "Strategic thinking is how you develop your game. Tactical thinking is how you use what you have to win."
3. "Tactical thinking is a habit you develop."
4. "If you couldn't write a book about your game, either you don't know your game, or you have no game."
5. "When you reach a new level in table tennis, it might take time before you win at that level as your opponents are tactically and psychologically used to that level, and you are new to it."
6. "Use in matches what you fear to use. Then you'll get better at it and won't fear to use it."
7. "Develop good serves and try to follow them with an attack. You'll not only have better serves, but your footwork and attack will also improve. It's a triple-whammy."
8. "When you win, learn why you won. When you lose, learn why you lost. Always learn."
9. "When you need to fix a weakness or develop a strength, for a time, focus almost entirely on that."
10. "If you aren't having fun on the inside, you are doing it wrong."

On the forehand side, when someone pushes long, it's almost always a good idea to loop. Because of this, many players are not comfortable forehand pushing except against a short ball. Against a deep ball, they almost always loop, and that's usually a good thing. The problem is when they play a chopper, where suddenly having a good forehand push against a deep ball becomes important.

When playing a chopper, one of the worst things you can do is attack over and over without letup. A chopper wins points on your mistakes, and so he wants you to play too aggressive, thereby making too many mistakes. Instead, it's almost always best to attack one ball, and if the chopper makes a good return against a strong loop - i.e. returns it so you can't put the ball away with relative ease - then you should usually push and start over. When they chop your loop back, you are usually getting much more spin than normal (especially if you loop to long pips), plus it's trickier to read accurately, plus the defender is already standing back there, in position for your attack. So instead of going for another risky attack, just push, bringing the chopper in, and then you can attack again. (This is especially true if they make a good chop return of your spinnier loops. If you loop with only a little topspin - i.e. roll the ball - then you generally get less backspin on the return, and so may be able to keep attacking until you see one to go after. It's a chopped return of your stronger, spinnier loops that you should more often push unless the ball is high.)

The problem is that, if you don't have a good forehand push, you'll make lots of mistakes. Matches are often won and lost on this simple shot, since so many attackers aren't comfortable forehand pushing against a deep backspin, and so lose far too many points that way. Or, since they aren't comfortable forehand pushing, they attack against balls where it would be higher percentage to push.

You could cover the whole table against a chopper with your backhand push, and many do - but that would mean you have to decide early on whether to forehand attack or backhand push, and so you might make the wrong call. It also means you would be telegraphing early on that you are going to push, and so the chopper can move in toward the table.

Instead, learn to forehand push against deep chops. That way, you can wait much longer before you decide whether to attack or push, thereby giving yourself more time to make the judgment, and not letting the chopper know early on which you will do. (In fact, it's often best to cover the entire table with your forehand loop and push against a chopper.) You might also find this valuable against other defensive players, such as a blocker who waits for you to attack - this allows you to push several balls before find the right one to attack. Or you can use it against an aggressive player who doesn't have a strong attack against push.

So even if you don't normally forehand push against deep balls, make sure to practice pushing with someone, including that not-as-often-used forehand push! The next time you play a chopper, you'll thank me for it.

A warm-up is different than practice. Practice is to improve, maintain, or fine-tune a technique. Few players improve unless they do lots of this. However, the focus of this tip is on warming up.

Warm-up is to groove your shots before playing matches. (You also warm up before a practice session, but that's more to loosen up before serious drilling.) How can you improve your warm-up?

Don't go to the table cold. Do some easy jogging and perhaps some shadow practice to warm up the muscles.

Especially for a tournament, try to arrange in advance to warm up with someone you are used to practicing with. The partner you choose should be a relatively steady player - you can't groove your shots against someone who hits each shot erratically. Your partner should also be reliable – it doesn't help if he doesn't show up or shows up late when all the tables are taken.

You should decide in advance what you need to warm up. Make sure to warm up every major aspect of your game! That means forehands and backhands, crosscourt and down-the-line, looping, blocking, footwork, and so on. Don't forget pushing! Many players will push erratically in a match because they didn't warm it up. Even serves should be warmed up, especially deep ones that can be tricky to pull off if not warmed up first. For most techniques, 2-3 minutes might be enough to warm it up, but take whatever time is needed.

A really good warmup, covering everything, takes at least 45 minutes or more, though you can probably get most of it done in 30 minutes. The less time you have, the more you'll have to cut corners. For club play, you might not be able to get all this in unless you come early. Many players simply warm up the basics for maybe 5-10 minutes, and then warm up the rest by playing matches. You can do that, but it might not optimize your play.

Finish the warmup by playing actual points. You might start off with common rally types. For example, you might have one person serve backspin, the receiver pushes long, the server loops, and play out the point. At the end, play regular points. Many players leave out this part - and the first time they play regular points is in a real match. Not the best way to prepare!

How do you know if you've had a good warmup? You'll feel ready to play. If you don't, then you didn't get a good warmup. And the nice thing is that, cumulatively, these warm-ups not only prepare you for a match, but they also help you improve as you groove your shots.