In table tennis and other sports, your subconscious is trained in a training environment, where there's no pressure and so players can relax and just drill their shots or play practice points. With no pressure, there's little hesitation or rushing of shots. If one of those happens, the player or coach makes sure to fix it, and without pressure, it's not hard to fix.

Then you get into a match where there is pressure. A confident player does the same under pressure as he does without. But even the least, tiny bit of hesitation can completely destroy your timing for an entire match. It usually starts with a hesitant shot that misses because you (rightfully!) didn't train to do hesitant shots and so have little control over them. Trying to compensate, you then rush a shot. Suddenly your subconscious doesn't know what to do - all that training is gone as it can't time hesitant or rushed shots.

Ironically, the player often thinks he just needs to practice the shot more until he can "do it in his sleep." While that's helpful, it doesn't really fix the problem here. The real problem is if you aren't confident, then neither is your subconscious, which is what times and executes your shots.

So the real problem here is confidence. When walking, you have complete confidence you will make that next step without tripping - but you don't actually think about it, you just keep walking flawlessly. Similarly, you need to have complete confidence in your shots without actually thinking about it. The key here is sports psychology. Here are a few links. Go to it - and don't hesitate!

Everyone plays a little differently, and it's important to play as many different players as possible. Some might think this is so you can learn to play every style, and there's some truth to that. But that's only for learning to play general styles - two-winged loopers, one-winged loopers, hitters, blockers, choppers, lobbers, and so on. But there's something even more important, and that's developing the subconscious habit of adjusting.

Suppose the players at your club have varied styles, and you play them regularly. Then you get used to playing each of them. The problem is that instead of adjusting to each of them, you are now playing the way you are used to playing them. Instead, you need to develop the habit of adjusting to new players. Otherwise, when you play new players in a tournament, you become robotic, unable to fully adjust to new players since you are only used to playing those specific players you are used to playing. If, instead, you regularly play different players, then it becomes a subconscious habit, and adjustment comes naturally. When this happens, you no longer have to worry about playing "weird" styles or shots, since you are used to adjusting - and that means you can adjust to anything.

Playing lots of different players can be difficult if the number of players at your club near your level is limited. Here are three ways to make up for that. First, play players who might not be near your level but play different styles. If they agree, perhaps have the stronger player spot points to make it competitive - with the spot going up or down a point based on who won each game. Second, play at other clubs. And third, play lots of tournaments!

Nobody likes losing. (If you do, Dumb Ways to Lose might help.) There are always those players who smile immediately after losing, but usually that's either hiding an inferno on the inside, or it was against a much stronger player where they simply enjoyed the opportunity.

The reality is that losing a match that you could have won is frustrating. It takes time to get over a loss. Some recover quickly, others mope on it all day or week. The further reality is that if you don't get over it, it will affect you in future matches.

So, what should you do after a bad loss? There's a simple one-two combo.

1. Sit down and think over why you lost. Was it a technique that needs more work? Tactical? Physical? Sports psychology? Whatever it was, figure out what you need to do to do better next time. As soon as you've figured this out, go directly to part 2.
2. Five-Minute Rule. Within five minutes of losing, you have to be over it so that your mind is completely clear and ready to go again. You can time those five minutes starting either from when the match ended or after you finished your analysis in part 1. How you do this is up to you. Some just sit back and clear their mind. Others listen to music. Still others talk to others to get their mind off the match. Whatever works for you.

When you first start out, players are taught to move the back foot backwards for forehands. (This would be the right foot for righties, the left for lefties.) This makes it easy to backswing and opens up a larger hitting zone from the side. Historically, this is how forehands were taught. However, as the game got faster and faster, at higher levels there simply wasn't time to bring the foot back while staying close to the table. This meant that those who did bring the foot back were often forced to step back in a fast rally, putting them at a disadvantage against a player with a quicker forehand stroke, who would now dominate over the table.

And how did that player get that quicker forehand stroke? By not moving the back foot backwards in fast rallies, i.e. there's no back foot, the feet stay parallel to the incoming ball for both forehands and backhands when taken near the table. (When you have more time or are forced off the table, then the foot usually goes back.)

As you improve, experiment with playing forehands with the feet parallel to the incoming ball, or closer to that than you normally do. This allows the quicker stroke. However, you need to be a bit limber to do this - you might need to do some physical training - so not everyone can do this effectively. (I can do it, but not very well - either because I learned early on to always bring my foot back, or because I'm older and no longer train. I always bring my foot backwards for forehands except when blocking.)

In general, if the ball is coming at you slow or if you are off the table, bring the foot back. If you are closer to the table or rushed, keep the feet more parallel. Add that to your Fact Book - which is just an anagram of Back Foot!

Here is an example (8 sec), with 14-year-old Stanley Hsu (far side, about 2400, who just swept the Under 15 Boy’s Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles at the 2023 Nationals) with Coach Cheng Yinghua. Stanley blocks two, and then counterloops close to the table for a winning shot - and does so with his feet parallel to the incoming ball. If he'd tried to bring his right foot back, it would have slowed him down, making the shot more difficult and probably rushed.

One of the toughest things is convincing developing and even advanced players to slow down for consistency. Too often they want to play at a rat-a-tat superspeed, believing that the way to develop fast rallying speed is to practice using full speed before they can control it, and that consistency will eventually come.

Wrong!!!

All this does is ingrain the habit of spraying the ball everywhere with erratic, inconsistent shots. Instead, find a pace that you can rally at consistently, and practice at that pace, so you can actually develop that consistency with good technique. As you improve, you can increase the pace. The goal is good technique and timing. Once you have those two ingrained, power is easy.