Many players do lots and lots of forehand footwork drills. This allows many of them to dominate the table with their forehand. But there's often a missing ingredient here - backhand footwork.

Backhand footwork is similar to forehand footwork - you need to learn to move side to side as well as in and out. For example, a coach or partner simply hits the ball side to side to the backhand side, one toward the middle, one to the corner or wider. The player moves side to side, playing backhands. Players who don't do this often have trouble covering the backhand side effectively. They can move all over the forehand court fluidly, but on the backhand side they are in trouble. Often this means either weak and erratic backhands, or wild swats.

Often coaches don't work on this much. Why? First, the forehand tends to be the stronger shot, and so coaches and players stress that - and so do lots of forehand footwork drills. Second, many forehand footwork drills incorporate backhands as part of the drill, and so they do get some backhand footwork practice this way, and so think they are doing sufficient backhand footwork drills. However, most of these drills only cover moving from the forehand side to the backhand side, not just moving around on the backhand side itself. Third, by the time players reach the intermediate stage they have developed forehands and so are doing lots of forehand footwork drills - but often the backhand isn't as developed, and so coaches have them focus on continued technique development rather than moving about playing backhand. Many intermediate players are making the transition from normal backhand drives to topspinning their backhands, and coaches are reluctant to have them work on this and do footwork at the same time. (This one doesn't apply to coaches who introduce forehand and backhand topspin shots to developing players at about the same time, as more and more modern coaches tend to do.) And fourth, by the time the player does have a solid topspin backhand, both the coach and the player aren't in the habit of doing backhand footwork drills in their sessions, and so they just don't do them.

All this can lead to a weakness in the player's game as they don't move around as well as they could in covering the backhand side. This is a problem as the backhand by its very nature is a more cramped shot, with the body in the way, and so being able to move about and attack with the backhand is key.

Besides side to side backhand footwork, you can also try in and out. Ideally, learn to topspin both, but especially the one from off the table. You should also do random backhand footwork, where balls are played randomly to the backhand and you play aggressive backhands. You can also have your coach or partner attack randomly to your backhand so you can work on your backhand blocking footwork, or perhaps topspin defend from a few steps back.

Eric Owens attributed his upset win over Cheng Yinghua in Men's Singles at the 2001 USA Nationals to backhand footwork drills. Learn from the champions!

One of the secrets of coaching is that most of it isn't teaching someone what to do; it's teaching them what not to do. There's a reason top players make it look so easy - their strokes are easy, because they are simple and relatively short. There's no wasted motion, and very few actual components to each stroke - and the each part of the stroke naturally leads to the next. A good stroke is symphony of simplicity.

The best strokes are basically the most efficient ways of getting the racket to go from Point A to Point B while creating maximum power. Roughly speaking, correct grip and foot positioning are each one-fourth of the battle. Learning where Point A is - where the racket should backswing to, and the rest of the body's backswing motion - is another one-fourth of the battle. Then letting the shot go naturally and with proper contact is the final one-fourth. If you get the grip, foot positioning, and backswing correct, the rest is natural, though it is often amazing how many weird (and technically poor) incarnations of the stroke players can come up with. Most of these involve flopping the wrist or elbow, or holding back on part of the swing, such as stopping the body rotation so that you stroke mostly with arm, or swinging only with the upper body. Once you have this perfect (or near-perfect) stroke, then it's just a matter of developing the timing to turn it into a weapon of pong destruction.

Done properly, a good stroke is a thing of beauty that channels great power with minimal effort and maximum efficiency. It's the cartographical equivalent of driving from Point A to Point B. A coach's primary job is to get you buckled in properly for this journey (grip and foot positioning), get the backswing right (get you to Point A), and then set you on your way to Point B with no detours, and nothing but constant acceleration through the halfway point (contact) and continuing to Point B. 

Do you have a game plan when you play? Or do you just wing it and hope?

Many players mostly wing it, to their detriment. Most have patterns they use, but often they haven't really thought them through. Every serve and receive should have purpose; otherwise, you are playing without purpose. Often the plans they do have don't take into consideration the opponent's strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you are a looper, you probably have patterns to set up your loop, but how much do you focus on adjusting these techniques and your loop itself (placement, speed, spin, etc.) to your opponent?

What is the strongest part of your game? What is your opponent's weakest? How can you connect these two? Failing that, how can you get your strength against your opponent's average, or perhaps your average against your opponent's weakness? You need to be looking for ways to force these match-ups. (See "A Levels Approach to Tactics.")

If you have a good serve and loop, it's not enough to serve and loop; you have to know where to serve and loop. For example, I'm forever reminding players with good loops that they normally shouldn't just loop to the backhand, and then look for a chance to attack the middle or wide forehand, where most players are weaker defensively. Why not plan to attack the middle first? (At the higher levels, against a very good counterlooper who is waiting, you might not want to do this - but often they are hanging around their backhand side, leaving the wide forehand somewhat open. And yet, even at that level, the middle is usually the weakest spot.)

Think about someone you regularly play against. What is he uncomfortable against? You might want to consider how others play against him, since it's possible you are missing his problem areas. Then figure out how you can best match up against him.

But don't think of it as just one tactical solution to one player. The key is to make it a habit to develop game plans - something you automatically think about and implement every time you play. When game plans becomes a habit you'll get your better shots into play while picking apart the weaknesses of your opponents, leading to more upsets, beating your peers, and dominating against weaker players who might have given you problems before. 

Many players serve without any type of routine. They just go to the table, decide what serve to do, and then serve. If all you want to do is get the ball in play, that's fine. But if you want to serve effectively, there's more to it. (Before we go on, here's a Tip on Practicing Serves the Productive Way, one on Ten Steps to a Great Service Game, and one on Purpose of the Serve.)

First, you need to mentally prepare yourself for each serve. That means going through a pre-serve routine. It can be short and simple, such as just coming to a complete stop (as required by the serving rules), where you finalize what serve you will do, and then clear your mind to prepare for the upcoming rally. Or it could be a bit more. Some bounce the ball on the table or even the floor. Others wipe their hand on the table. I like to push up the sleeve of my serving shoulder, drop my serving arm so it hangs loosely, and then swing it back and forth one time like a pendulum (which also helps loosen the arm muscles). Then I come to a complete stop, visualize the serve, and then serve it. (I decide what the serve will be before I start this routine, though I often change my mind afterwards while visualizing the serve.)

Second, you need to visualize the serve. That means all aspects of it:

1. Height of toss (here's a Tip on Height of Service Toss)
2. Height of contact (low!)
3. Location of contact (here's a Tip on Service Contact Point)
4. Speed of contact
5. Contact itself (grazing for spin, flatter for speed; here's a Tip on Five Steps to a Great Spin Serve)
6. Direction of the serve (here's a Tip on Where to Serve Short, and here's one on Turn Opponents Into Puppets with Long Serves)
7. Flight of the ball (curving if there is sidespin, sinking if topspin, floating if backspin)
8. Location of first bounce (where on your side of table)
9. Break on first bounce (if a spin serve)
10. Where it crosses the net (always low)
11. Location of second bounce (where on table, both direction and depth; here's a Tip on Depth Control of Serves)
12. Height of bounce on far side (here's a Tip on Serving Low)
13. Break on second bounce (if a spin serve)

Does this mean going through a checklist of all of the above? NO!!! It means visualizing all aspects of the serve, taken as a whole. You can recognize a person's face without consciously noticing what makes it different from another's. Similarly, you can visualize an entire serve without consciously noting each aspect. (Here's a Tip that covers much of this - A Journey of Nine Feet Begins at Contact.)

Third, you have to be ready for the follow-up. This means getting into a proper ready stance immediately after the serve. It also means mentally being ready to follow up the serve. This has to be a flexible approach - never force something that isn't there. For example, you might decide you are looking to follow your serve with a forehand loop. If the opponent pushes and you are able to get to it, you get the shot. But if your opponent attacks the serve, drops it short, or catches you off guard with an aggressive push that you can't get your forehand on, you need to flexibly react to that shot. Similarly, a player may decide he's going to follow with a loop from either side, depending on where the ball goes - but if the opponent drops the ball short, you have to flexibly change your shot.

This last aspect takes experience to get right. For example, if an opponent pushes your serve back over and over, an experienced player may decide to use the following tactic: when he serves backspin, he'll likely get a heavier, lower return, and so follow with forehand or backhand loop, depending on where the ball goes. But if he serves no-spin, he'll likely get a lighter, higher return, and so look to follow with a forehand. (I do this tactic all the time.) In theory, this makes it look like you should serve more no-spin, but there's also a higher probability that it'll be attacked, plus you need to vary the serve so the opponent can't get used to one serve, so you have to vary between backspin and no-spin. (Here's a Tip on Serving No-spin.)

So consider taking a 1-2-3 approach to serving: mentally prepare yourself, visualize the serve, and prepare for the follow-up. 

The two most common mistakes players make in failing to create great spin are 1) a lack of smooth acceleration, and 2) grazing contact, which are the two pillars of creating spin, whether it be serving, pushing, chopping, or slow looping. (For faster looping, you sink the ball more into the sponge, but the smooth acceleration part holds for all looping.) I'm mostly writing for players using inverted sponge, but the same principles apply to most pips-out surfaces as well, as long as they have some grippiness.

When looping, players below the advanced level often try to get extra spin by "muscling" the ball, meaning they try to use nearly 100% of their muscle power as they go for maximum racket velocity. The actual result is they only use a few of their upper-body muscles (often mostly arm), and a loss of control. When they learn to slow down and use all their muscles (at perhaps 70%) and smoothly accelerate into the ball, that's when they get the acceleration needed for powerful loops with both spin and speed. That's why the most powerful loopers often make it look effortless.

When serving and pushing, beginning and intermediate players often use a short stroke and sort of jab at the ball. They are thinking that the velocity they get with this jabbing will create great spin. Actually, it just leads to a loss of control as you can't control the racket this way. Plus, for physics reasons I won't get into (partially because I'm not a physicist), you get more spin if you smoothly accelerate into the ball, with the rubber literally slinging the ball out as it accelerates through contact. (When looping with both speed and spin, where you sink the ball more into the sponge, it should feel like you're almost holding the ball on your racket as it carries it through the shot, with an even greater slingshot effect.)

But on slow spin shots (serving, pushing, chopping, slow loops), you only get this tremendous spin if you graze the ball - the second problem many players have. Too often players sink the ball too much into the sponge instead of the fine grazing motion needed. To learn to graze the ball, just toss one up and graze it with your racket, making it spin. Generally do this with a pendulum serve motion, but contact the ball on the left side of the ball (for a righty), with the racket going mostly up and slightly left, so that the ball goes straight up. Catch it and repeat. It's important to spin the ball so it goes straight up, both so you can catch it and repeat, and so you can develop ball control. (If you can't control the direction the ball goes when you graze it with this exercise, how can you do it when actually serving?)

I recommend beginning players get a multi-colored ball or put markings on one so they can practice grazing and see the spin they are creating. This gives feedback on whether you are really spinning the ball or not and how much.

For more advanced players, I recommend they also do the ball spinning drill I wrote about above. It's a great way to really develop those grazing skills so you can both spin the heck out of the ball and control it. Advanced players should also experiment with smooth acceleration and grazing on their spin shots, and see how much they can make the ball spin.

When you can put great spin on the ball with your serve, apply the same principles to pushing and slow looping. (Also chopping if that is in your arsenal.) Don't be afraid to throw in some slow, spinny loops, even if you normally loop pretty hard. Slow, spinny loops are extremely effective at the beginning/intermediate level, but many forget or never realize how effective they are even at the advanced level if not overused. They not only are effective on their own as the opponent struggles to adjust to the slower speed and higher spin, but the contrast makes your other loops more effective.