Fundamental tactics are the standards used against specific playing styles. If you are playing a chopper, fundamental tactics include attacking the middle (roughly the elbow, the transition point between his forehand and backhand chops), moving him in and out, giving dead balls to a side with long pips, or mixing up your spins (especially to the inverted chopping side). If you are playing a looper, a fundamental tactic would be to serve short and return short serves back short, so he can't loop, or to go to his stronger looping side to bring him out of position so you can then go to his weaker side.

You can learn fundamental tactics talking to other players or coaches; watching others; experimenting; or even by reading about it.

While fundamental tactics are key, it's also helpful to learn to be creative. Everyone plays different, and everyone has different weaknesses. That means studying opponents and finding what specifically gives them trouble.

Perhaps your opponent has a less common grip - say, the Seemiller grip, where he uses one side for both forehand and backhand. If you attack the middle like you should against most shakehand players, you might not do so well, since the Seemiller grip is very strong against these middle shots. But it's usually not as good against shots to the wide corners, especially the wide forehand. They often have trouble with the wide backhand as well, but make up for this by standing well over to that side, turning that into a strength, but leaving the forehand a little more open. But most players just automatically play to their backhand. So watch how this player stands, and go after those corners - perhaps going to the wide forehand first, then back to the backhand, which is now open. (This grip also has trouble backhand looping, so you might take advantage of that as well.)

Or perhaps he puts his finger down the middle. Some players with this grip have trouble returning short balls to the forehand down the line - he'll likely be forced to go crosscourt, since it's often harder to bring the wrist back with this grip. So you test it - serve short to the forehand, and if it works, you can camp out on the forehand side for the return. (Some have no trouble going down the line, so test it out.)

Or suppose you're playing a chopper who returns your attack to his middle with ease. Then he's probably cheating over - meaning his middle is more toward his forehand side, and his wide backhand is open. So you punish him with those two spots, which are now far apart and hard to cover.

Or suppose he's a looper, and so you don't want to serve long to him, giving him the loop. But test him on this. If he's like me, then he might loop some serves really well, but struggle with others. (I always had trouble looping deep serves with backhand-serve type sidespin.)

The goal is to early in a match find out what fundamental and creative tactics work. If you combine these two, you'll become a master tactician!

The history of footwork in table tennis could take up a book by itself. If you watch videos of the best players in the world every 20 years or so, you can see the footwork techniques developing, though some of it is subtle and hard to pinpoint.

But one thing has been established at the world-class level since at least the 1960s - the best players almost all have wide stances. This gives greater stability and power to their shots while allowing great mobility. When moving, they often move both feet together. However, this is the result of years of training, especially physical training. Unless you are in good shape, using such a wide stance can be difficult. Find the right balance for you, which usually means as wide as you find comfortable.

Most footwork involves shuffling. Watch videos in slow motion of top players to see this, and how their feet move almost together. But for most of us, it's usually better to use what's called two-step footwork. Let's suppose you are a righty and want to move to your left.

Start with a neutral stance - left leg slightly forward, knees bent, weight on the inside balls of the feet, relaxed. Your first move should be a short step to the left with your left foot. Next, by first pulling with the left leg, you shuffle to your left, with both feet now moving together, almost a jumping motion except your feet almost brush across the floor. As you get better and better, the short step and the follow-up shuffle become closer and closer until they are almost one movement.

To move to the right, do the opposite - start with a short step with the right foot, then shuffle both feet together.

If stepping around the backhand corner to play a forehand, when shuffling both feet together (after the initial short step with the left), make sure your right foot swings far enough around (i.e. backwards, relative to you) so that you won't be cramped on your shot. Rotate your shoulders as your right foot goes around so that you end up with your shoulders at least parallel to the direction you are going to hit. Pull the playing arm back as you step around. Most of your weight should now be on your right foot. You are now in perfect position to attack with your foreland. Step into the shot with your left foot while rotating your shoulders, and either loop or smash. Make sure to finish the shot balanced so you can quickly move back in position for the next shot. If you don't follow through back into position, you will be out of position for the next shot.

Since the forehand is generally more powerful than the backhand, as well as better for smashing high balls, it is often important to be able to use the forehand out of the backhand corner. An inability to do weakens your game. Of course, some players are not fast enough to do this regularly, but even they should consider doing this against certain shots.

Stepping around the backhand involves five parts: (1) Setting up the shot, (2) assessing whether to step around or not, (3) the footwork itself, (4) the shot itself, and (5) return to ready position.

Getting a shot to step around on involves good shot selection on your part, ball placement, and quick judgment. Generally, there are four shots that you might step around the backhand to use the forehand against: pop-ups, pushes, blocks or weak drives, and deep serves. Pop-ups are the easiest as they allow the most time to move into position. Blocks and pushes are more difficult because you will have less time to react.

Generally don't move until your opponent is committed - the better the player, the longer you have to wait since a good player can fake or change his direction at the last moment.

You can anticipate most pushes going to the backhand as your opponent often doesn't want to give you a forehand shot by pushing that way. Of course, besides direction, you will have to judge the depth of the return or you might find yourself trying to loop a ball that lands short.

Unless your opponent is very predictable, you will have difficulty anticipating where his block or drive is going. You'll just have to wait for him to commit, and then, if he goes to your backhand, you'll have to quickly decide if you should step around for it. The important thing is to force a weak return that you can step around on (or perhaps not, if the return doesn't go to the backhand). There are many ways to do this, such as spin (especially heavy topspin), speed, quickness, ball placement, shot selection, varying the speed and spin of your shot, and, of course, tricky serves. Experiment and see how and where your shots are returned. For example, if you are in a backhand-to-backhand exchange and you suddenly hit a quick one to your opponent's middle (his playing elbow), you might force a weak return to the backhand that probably won't be too angled. Be ready to step around, but be careful - he may go down your forehand line at the last second and all you'll be able to do is applaud his fine play.

If you have a strong forehand (relative to your backhand) but rarely step around your backhand, you will not be taking full advantage of the natural strength and power of the forehand, therefore handicapping your game. Turn your forehand into an all-table weapon!

Players are often caught out of position, leading to the opponent hitting an easy winner to an open part of the table as you lunge for the ball. But did he really force you out of position?

For example, suppose the opponent finds a chance to hit an angled ball to your wide forehand. You run it down, but before you can get back into position, your opponent has blocked a winner to your wide backhand, and you can only wave at the ball and say, "Nice tactic." But did he really force you out of position, or did you allow it?

Most often, when the above happens, it's not really because of what the opponent did, but because of one of two things you didn't do.

First, were you really in position to cover the forehand on the first shot there? Often a player isn't positioned well, and so when the ball goes the forehand (in this example), he gets a late start, and so is already almost lunging for the ball. Result? Even if you make the return, your momentum keeps you from making a quick return back into position, leaving your wide backhand open.

Second, while making the return from the forehand side - key word is while, not after - were you pushing yourself back into position with your right leg (for righties) so that you'd follow through back to the table? Many players finish their stroke, including their follow-through, and then start their return to position. Instead, returning to the table should be part of the follow-through.

If you fix these two problems, then your opponents will find it much, much harder to force you out of position, since he hadn't been doing so before - you had been doing that all by yourself!

When a student pushes against a slightly long serve ("half long") or push, I almost always remind them that they should usually loop such balls. Inevitably, the player will respond, "The ball was too short, I couldn't loop it!" But the ball was long, they just didn't read the depth quite right.

How do you learn to read and loop slightly long balls? Here are three tips.

First, practice. Get a coach or practice partner and have them serve to you where they try to make the second bounce right about the end of your table. Your job is to either loop it or let it go. If you think it's too short to loop, by letting it go you get feedback on whether it really was too short to loop. You'll be amazed at how often it really was long enough to loop.

Second, a serve doesn't have to be truly long for you to loop it. A loop is a forward stroke (as well as up), even against backspin, and so you can go over the table some. If the second bounce is at about the table's edge, you can loop it.

Third, jam the table a bit. You can read and loop these serves better if you are looking more down on them than if you are hanging back and seeing it at an angle. As soon as you see the ball coming somewhat short, move in - which means stepping in with your left leg (for righties). This also puts you in a better position to loop with power to all parts of the table - if you are farther from the table, you'll likely only be able to loop with power to the left (for a righty). So loop away!