Here are six scenarios when serving short. You should incorporate these into your own serving game and learn to follow them up with strong attacks. For these scenarios, I'm assuming your forehand loop is stronger than your backhand loop, and so you'd want to favor it when possible. If you prefer to backhand loop, then make the simple adjustments. With experience, all players should build up various scenarios that match their strengths and playing style. Also note that while I'm emphasizing push returns below, receivers may also flip or push short. If I wrote up every scenario here . . . it'd be a book!!!

1. Backspin/no-spin to backhand. Most often you'll get a push return to your backhand that you can attack. You can either backhand loop or step around and forehand loop. But since it gives the receiver such a wide angle into your backhand, you have to go way out of position to forehand loop. But on the plus side, the receiver has no angle to your forehand, so you can cheat a little bit to your backhand side if you do want to play forehand.
2. Backspin/no-spin to wide forehand. This is an awkward receive for some players, and so can lead to weak or erratic returns. However, it gives the receiver a wide angle into your forehand. To guard against this, you have to stay centered, and so the receiver can just push down the line, taking away your forehand loop.
3. Backspin/no-spin to middle forehand. By the simple trick of serving to the middle forehand instead of wide forehand, you take out the extreme angle to the forehand. Many players also find it awkward playing forehand against balls toward the middle of the table. However, many will simply step over and receive backhand. (Note that this also applies to serving to the middle backhand, but in general that doesn't give receivers as much trouble.)
4. Backspin/no-spin to middle. This often gives you the best of all worlds and is often the go-to serve for most top players. It takes away both extreme angles, and so you have less table to cover. The downside is that the receiver can choose whether to receive forehand or backhand, and so can go with their strength.

That is the question, and whether you're Ma Long or Hamlet, you have to decide. Back when I started out, the answer was easier - except at higher levels, you mostly looped against backspin, and (except at higher levels) mostly hit against topspin or blocks, though there were plenty of forehand loopers, mostly playing from off the table. But as techniques advanced, and with modern sponge surfaces, the tide turned dramatically – and now intermediate players regularly do what only the top players used to do, especially on the forehand side, but often on the backhand side as well.

In the modern game, looping is almost always the better shot, if you can do it. The extreme topspin allows you to play almost any ball aggressively and yet consistently. (The exception is short balls, where the tables is in the way.) With sponges from when I started out, you needed a bigger swing to create this extreme topspin, and in a fast rally, you just didn't have time for this unless you backed well off the table. But with modern sponges and better techniques, even intermediate players can do this without backing up much, and so their shots are more aggressive and more effective.

So . . . which should you do?

If you are a beginner, you should start out with the basic strokes, which means hitting in rallies and (after you've played for a time) looping against backspin. But once you are proficient with these, it may be time to move beyond that.

If you are a junior player who dreams big, then you definitely should make looping the focus of your game. Do it on both wings, forehand and backhand. If you are a good athlete, you should do the same. This doesn’t mean you don’t block as well, but only when forced to.

If you are older, or aren't in good physical shape, you should consider focusing more on hitting and blocking. These are easier to do physically, and you can develop a winning game with them against just about anybody below the elite level. Or you might consider doing some physical training so you can play like the stars! Or you might decide, to heck with it, I'm going to play like the stars, and develop your game as a looper, like the best players, even if you might be better with more hitting and blocking.

In the end, it's a personal choice. I started out as a hitter many decades ago and reached a 1950 level in a little over two years. (I was a late starter at age 16, but I trained hard and long from the start.) Then I spent two years learning to loop and incorporating it into my game, and spent that time around 1800-1850 level. Then my game exploded - but I always could both loop and hit. Now, at age 63 (!!!), I can still easily loop in drills, but in games it's harder and harder to do so in a rally. And so I'm back to more hitting in rallies if I want to win. (It's also a primary reason I retired from regular tournaments, but still play hardbat tournaments, where I can just hit.)

So . . . what's your pick?

Some of these are table tennis specific, others are more general - but they are all tips for travel to table tennis events. (Some are things you should do in advance of the tournament to help prepare.)

1. Keep necessary stuff in carry-on bag when flying. Bags sometimes get lost. So try to keep your racket, shoes, and one set of playing clothes in a carry-on bag.
2. Rolling bag. Not only are they great for carry-on bags, but they make it a lot easier to carry your stuff around at tournaments without tiring yourself out from carrying a bag around. They also make handy stands to hold your drink when sitting down - the area where the handle comes out is usually perfect for that.
3. Shoes. Not all floors are equal. With a good, rubberized floor, you can get away with most table tennis shoes. But if the floors are slippery (often with wood or cement floors), you might want new shoes to maximize traction. If playing on cement floors, you might want shoes with more support.
4. Snacks. You need these both for travel to/from the tournament, plus during the tournament. You can't always count of getting what you want at the playing site, so it's best to bring snacks with you. I always bring granola bars.
5. Drinks. Check if water or other drinks will be available at the playing area. Sometimes they only have expensive bottles of water. If so, perhaps arrange a quick trip to a local grocery store for a case of water or sports drink.
6. Luggage scale. If you fly a lot like I do, and often take a lot of stuff - and sometimes more on the flight back (trophies! souvenirs!) - it's important to be able to tell if your bag is over the maximum weight limit if you check in a bag, usually 50 pounds. Here's the one I use – it only costs $10, and it's small and weighs only 3.2 ounces. It's easy to use - just clip it to the bag's handle, lift, and read the display.
7. Stay organized. Make sure you know your playing schedule and keep it handy.
8. Warm-up partner. While it's good to play many styles in practice matches to get used to them, and used to adjusting in general, for warmup you want someone you are comfortable with. Try to arrange in advance who and when you'll be warming up with. Come early - tables sometimes fill up early and then are hard to get.
9. Scout opponents in advance. In particular, watch their serve and receive. Imagine returning their serves, and imagine following up against the type of receives they give. If possible, watch them play from the far side so you can see their serve as the receiver sees it. You can also go to YouTube and put in a player's name, followed by "table tennis," and you'll be amazed how often you'll find a video of your upcoming opponent. If the video is old, however, things might have changed, especially for junior players or players who's level/rating have changed a lot.
10. Thank the tournament director and officials! Do this at some point during the tournament. They are putting a lot of time and energy into their jobs, and you'll likely be working with them in future tournaments.

We've all done it - faced with attacking a heavy backspin, often deep on the table, you get nervous and try to weakly topspin it up, and it goes right into the net, plop. Often players get frustrated by this heavy backspin, saying or thinking, "It's too heavy! I can't lift it!" That, of course, is downright silly. Even spinning, the ball still weights 2.7 grams (less than a tenth of an ounce), and anyone who wants to can smack it up over the net and off the end. (I tested this theory once with a two-year-old, who sat on the table and had no trouble smacking my heaviest multiball backspins toward the ceiling.)

The real problem is that your instincts tell you that if you aim up, you'll go off the end, and so while you know you have to lift, your subconscious doesn't want to do this. That struggle results in those weakly hit shots into the net. (Or, for some, wild shots into the net. And for others, an over-reaction where they throw their training to the wind and try to consciously guide the shot and end up lifting it off the end.)

How do you overcome this? As usual, it involves practice. Find someone who can push heavy, or feed multiball with heavy backspin, and simply get used to it. You have to make it a habit, because only then will your subconscious learn how to do this. And then it'll be automatic.

The catch is that if you've spent years struggling against heavy backspin, having trouble with it has become ingrained. Overcoming this will take two things: 1) Practice; and 2) Willingness to miss a shot in practice. Why the latter? Because it is that ingrained wish to make the shot that causes your subconscious to fight against the actual need to lift against the heavy backspin. Once you decide that all you want to do is topspin the ball up over the net, even if it goes off the end, then your conscious and subconscious minds can work together and ingrain just how much you should actually lift against a heavy backspin.

And now for the key part, right from the title. If you struggle lifting heavy backspin, have a simple rule - Never topspin into the net. Don't worry about going off the end, all you want to do is arc that ball over the net, and not worry about the rest. If you do this, then your technique, timing, and ball control for the shot will develop, and the topspin in the ball will pull it down and give you consistency.

And then repeat to yourself, over and over, "Though I loop against the heaviest of chops, I will fear no backspin." Amen!!!

I’ve seen coaches give tactical advice that wasn’t particularly helpful in itself. And yet, it often paid off with the player confidently executing the so-so tactics - and winning. Why? Because it's not always the tactics. Given confidently, these tactics, whether good or not, gives the player a plan, and that inspires confidence. And confidence means you are more likely to make your shots, which leads to confidence, which leads to making your shots, which leads to…

Yeah, it's circular reasoning - but you have to start somewhere. And that means developing confidence in any way you can - Confidence, Then Consistency!

You don't always need a coach to give you a tactical plan. With experience, you can come up with them yourself - and just as importantly, have confidence in your tactical plans, which leads to your making your shots, which leads to confidence, which leads to…

Yeah, I think you get it.

Many, many times in my coaching career I've thought of all sorts of ways that my player could win but realized that the key problem was the player wasn't confident in his shots. So, I'd tell him just one key thing he could do over and over. Alone, that one tactic probably wouldn't win the match, though it would make it closer. But by giving just one key thing, the player focused on that, and having that simple plan in mind led to the confidence needed to win. There's actually one go-to tactic that works wonders - just tell the unconfident player to go after the opponent's middle, relentlessly, over and Over and OVER. And in an amazing number of matches, that's all it takes. (This tactic works in most matches, but usually combined with one or two other key tactics. Normally the only time it doesn't work well is against an opponent who is effective at covering the middle with his forehand.)

The key takeaway? It's often better to have any tactical plan you are confident in then having a good one that you aren’t confident about.