Many players are much stronger on one side than the other. Often this is the forehand, but not always. They generally find tactical ways through serve, receive, and placement to cover for their weaker side while trying to dominate with their stronger side. This often works, to a point. However, it means accepting an inherent weakness in one’s game, which often becomes a barrier to improvement.

Slightly stronger players – the ones you are trying to learn to compete with – will usually have the tools and tactical skills to play into this weakness. For example, if you have a strong forehand but weaker backhand, a smart opponent will simply serve fast and deep to the backhand, and hit fast, quick rally shots there, with the threat of a fast serve or shot to the forehand if you try to cover the backhand with the forehand. Or he might serve short to the forehand, drawing you in over the table, and then go deep to the backhand. Or he might just serve deep to the forehand and quick-block your return to the backhand. There are many ways of finding the weak side. 

Supposed you are stronger on one side. Much of this might be because of your grip, playing stance, or just your mental mode, where you focus on the strong side (for example, are stuck in “forehand mode”), and so get caught on the weak side. But these are relatively easy things to fix, if you know what you are doing. (If you don’t, get a coach or consult with a knowledgeable player.) Spend some time developing that “weaker” side so that when you are forced to use it, it’s pretty strong, even if not as good as your stronger side. It might be as simple as learning to mentally change from “forehand mode” to “two-winged mode,” or even “backhand mode.” Or it might mean small changes in your grip or stance.

What you want to do is to dominate many points with your strong side when you can, but also force your opponent to sacrifice his own normal tactics, forcing him to instead use his tactics to find your “weaker” side. To do so he’ll have to adjust his tactics and game, which puts him at a disadvantage until he actually gets to the weaker side, which essentially means he’s willing to give up points in return for doing so. And then, when he finds it, you want him to find that weak side isn’t so weak, and that even after giving up points to get to it, he still has a difficult struggle to score.  

And so he’ll be stuck trying to decide whether it’s worth giving up points to find your “weak” side, which isn’t so weak, or give up on the tactics that avoided your “strong” side – and so you’ll be able to play your strong side more often. It gives him a no-win tactical choice. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

What is a good receive? It’s whatever maximizes your chances of winning the point. End of story.

But let’s elaborate. Many players fall into one of two bad habits when receiving: too passive or too aggressive. The ideal receiver can do both, depending on the situation. Plus, what might seem passive to some observers might, in the situation, actually be quite aggressive, such as a sudden quick and aggressive push or drop shot that catch the opponent off guard.

• Too passive. Usually this means players who push long against most backspin serves (even long ones), or make safe blocks or counters off topspin serves. Players like this develop great ball control, and if they have good defense (such as a good block), they can get away with this, to an extent. But these players are giving the server a predictable defensive return they can attack, and this becomes lower and lower percentage as you improve and play better players. And yet, even at higher levels, a good push can be an effective return, as long as it really is a good push – quick and rather fast, deep, heavy or varied spin, low, and well angled, with the direction disguised or changed at the last second. But a long push receive is a lot more effective if the server doesn’t know it’s coming, so it’s important for a good receiver to at least have the threat of something else – either an attack or (against a short serve) a short return.
• Too aggressive. Usually this means players who essentially attack every serve. While this is high percentage against deep serves (especially at higher levels), doing this over and over isn’t usually the highest percentage receive against short serves. This is where variation becomes important – so learn to push long, short, and flip.

So what is the best receive? It’s a combination of both of the above, but where each receive is chosen wisely so as to maximize your chances of winning the point. One could spend hours going over the possibilities, but all a player really needs to do is focus on one opponent at a time, and with a little experimentation and observation, figure out which receives will maximize your chances of winning the point.

If pushing over and over works, then that is the best receive; if attacking over and over works, then that is the best receive. Usually, but not always, the best is a mixture of the two, though that might take practice. Or you might get creative and use more advanced variations, such as sidespin pushes or blocks, changes of pace, and last-minute changes of directions. 

There are at least two cases where you might not want to receive so as to maximize your chances of winning the point.

• Mix things up. You might receive in a way just to mix things up or give the server something to think about. For example, on a short serve to the forehand, if you don’t have a good flip the better receive might be to push, but perhaps an aggressive flip will both make the server hesitant to serve there again, and make future pushes more effective as he guards against the flip.
• Practicing for the future. You may go for more advanced but lower-percentage (for now) receives so as to practice and develop the shot. For example, on that short serve to the forehand where pushing might be higher percentage you might want to flip so as to practice that flip, so that in the future, that might become a higher-percentage receive – and thereby making your receive that much better.

So find the right balance between passive and aggressive receives, while adding in variations and practicing for the future to find the ideal receive. And if you get it wrong, there’s always the next serve. 

Have you ever been in a close match, began to think about winning and losing, and fell apart and lost? Or perhaps you were winning, began to think about it, and again fell apart and lost. It’s almost certain that you have been in both scenarios. So how do you avoid this?

A key thing is to have something else to think about. The mind can only think about one thing at a time. As an experiment, try thinking about what serve you might use in a match against a specific player you play regularly, and see if you can think about winning and losing at the same time. You can’t – in fact, the very thinking about what serve to do will likely wipe away most nervousness as nervousness comes from thinking (i.e. worrying) about winning and losing.

So give your mind something else to focus on. And that should be basic tactics. In theory you could think about anything else, but then you might not be paying attention to what’s going on at the table, and you probably wouldn’t play so well or as smart. But if you focus on basic tactics you get a double whammy – you play smarter table tennis, and you stop worrying about winning or losing. The key is to keep it simple; don’t overthink. Focus on why you are winning – which serves, receives, and rally shots are winning points for you. Ask yourself:

• Which serves are working for you? This is the one time where you have complete control of the start of a rally, so take advantage of it. Focus on what to do with expected receives, but keep the mind clear and ready for anything.
• What receives are working for you? Focus on what to do with expected serves, but keep the mind clear and ready for anything.
• What types of rallies are working for you? Focus on the one or two most important things. It could be specific placements, a type of shot you want to use, or something as simple as “keep attacking.” But again, keep the mind clear and ready for anything.

If you keep your mind on these basic tactics, then you’ll keep your mind occupied so you won’t think about winning or losing, which is a quick way to blow a match.

Here are a few additional tips:

• If you are winning and start thinking about it, perhaps convince yourself that you are losing. Reverse the score in your mind if necessary. Then think about what basic tactics are winning points for you, and focus on those.
• If you are in the “zone,” and playing extremely well, the worst thing you can do is think about it. If you do, just smile inwardly, and think of yourself as an observer watching while your body and subconscious perform. (But you’ll get the credit!)
• If you do lose your focus in a contested game, that’s when to take a time-out. Any time you lose focus you need to clear you mind, and then get it back on track, thinking about basic tactics and nothing else. 

Free Points – who wants ‘em?!!! Oh, you, the reader? Well then, here’s the easiest way to get a free point in table tennis – a fast no-spin serve to the middle. (That’s usually the opponent’s elbow, the transition point between forehand and backhand, though it varies for some players.) Here is what often happens when you do this:

• Because it comes to the middle, the receiver has to make a snap decision on whether to use forehand or backhand.
• The receiver then has to move quickly against a fast incoming ball, often after a slow start as he decided between forehand and backhand.
• Because it comes fast, the receiver is rushed and has little time to make these decisions and movements.
• Because the receiver has little time to make these decisions and movements, he tends to shorten his stroke and lose some control.
• Because it has no spin, the ball tends to “dies” when it contacts the opponent’s racket.  
• Because the receiver tends to shorten his stroke and lose some control, he isn’t able to generate the extra force needed to lift the no-spin ball, nor does he have the control to get the proper racket angle, and so the ball dies and goes into the net.
• Because the ball is coming fast, and most fast serves have topspin, the receiver tends to receive it like a topspin, and so goes into the net.

Even when this serve is read properly, most players are forced to take the serve late and lift it, often setting the server up for an easy attack. But unless overused, many receivers will struggle with this over and over. If used two or three times a game, this is a free point about half the time against players rated under 2000, and it can be pretty effective against stronger players as well. It is especially effective against your normal two-winged player, who is ready to receive forehand or backhand. It is a bit less effective against a one-winged looper with fast footwork, who will usually loop the serve, but against that type of player you change and serve fast no-spin to the wide corners.

How do you do the serve? First, learn a basic fast topspin serve. Contact the ball perhaps a foot behind the end-line, as low to the table as possible (below net height), with some topspin. Hit it so it hits as close to your own end-line as possible; this maximizes how much table you’ll have for the ball to drop on the far side. By serving crosscourt you’ll be able to serve faster, but you should also learn to serve it down the line and of course to the middle. If the ball hits near your end-line, crosses the net low, but doesn’t bounce within about six inches of the opponent’s end-line, then you haven’t maximized your speed.

Put bottles or other targets on the far end of the table, right at the edge - one on each corner, and two where the opponents’ playing elbows would be. (One for a righty, one for a lefty.) Then practice serving fast and knocking them off. Until you can do this pretty consistently, you aren’t really controlling your serve. Use targets that won’t fall over or you’ll have to constantly pick them up. (But it’s fun to sometimes use paper cups and see how easily you can knock them off the table.)

Now you’re ready for the real point-winner – a fast no-spin to the elbow. There’s only one difference between this and a regular fast topspin serve: at contact, instead of putting topspin on the ball, you hit the ball with a very slight downward motion. Don’t think heavy backspin; it’s more of a glancing downward blow to put a little backspin on the ball. If you serve no-spin, after two bounces on the table the ball has topspin. To truly deaden it, you need a little backspin at the start.

Now work on speed. Because you won’t have topspin to pull the ball down, you won’t be able to serve a no-spin (or slight backspin) quite as fast as with topspin, but you can still serve it very fast. It just takes practice. Put the target where the opponent’s elbow would be, and practice hitting it as fast as you can. If you have trouble generating speed, stop trying to serve on the table and just serve as fast as you can. Then gradually work on getting the ball to hit the table, slowing down the serve only as much as necessary.  

The fast no-spin serve to the middle is not nearly as hard to learn as it might sound. You just have to put in a few hours of practice. And once learned, you’ll have it for the rest of your table tennis life – and the number of free points you’ll get from the serve over a lifetime will dwarf the time you spent on learning it. 

Far too many players judge themselves by their results rather than their performance. While it’s importance to use results as goals, all you can really control is your performance. What’s the difference?

Performance is what you do. Results are what happens based on the performances of both you and your opponent, as well as perhaps some luck. (Bad luck comes in many ways, such as nets and edges; bad draws, such as drawing a playing style you don’t play well against; or ill-timed injuries or illnesses.)

It’s normal to be unhappy with a poor result. But there’s a huge difference between a high-performance loss and low-performance win. You need to judge them separately. There really are four possibilities:

1. Happy with result/happy with performance
2. Happy with result/unhappy with performance
3. Unhappy with result/happy with performance
4. Unhappy with result/unhappy with performance

The first case is win-win - go celebrate! Have a hot fudge banana split. That doesn’t mean you can relax and rest on your laurels. You might be able to coast and keep your current performance level, but guess what? The players you beat are all gunning for you, and will likely raise their performance, especially against you. So if you want to keep the same result, you need to continue to improve your performance.

The second case is cause for celebration, but should leave you determined to play better. No hot fudge on your ice cream. You won, and should be happy with this result, but know you should have performed better. Perhaps you won because the other guy didn’t perform well enough or perhaps you got lucky. You should celebrate the win, but be dying to get to the playing hall to practice and get your performance to where it should be.

The third case is bittersweet. You played well, and yet you lost. Have some plain vanilla ice cream. Now you have to make a calculation: Do you want to put in the effort needed to improve your performance to the point where you might change the result? There are no guarantees; you may practice and train with the best coaches and still lose, even to the same player who might also improve his performance. But guess what? If you put in the time, your changes of changing the result to a win go up dramatically. And even if you don’t change the result in question, you’ll be a better player, and you will have better results overall.

The fourth case is the toughest. You played poorly and of course have nothing to celebrate. No ice cream for you. You know you could have played better. You should be dying to get to the playing hall so you can practice and eventually put in the performance you know you can do. You may or may not change the result, but you’ll at least be satisfied that you did your best – and your chances of the changing the result to a win go up dramatically.

In all four cases, you need to examine the match, see where you won and lost, and practice to improve your performance in both of those areas for next time. Bottom line: Judge your performance by your actual performance, and use results as goals to reach by improving your performance.