The middle is the weakest spot for most players. When I say middle, I don't mean the middle of the table; it's the mid-point between the opponent's forehand and backhand, usually where the playing elbow is. Most beginning players play to the opponent's forehand or backhand, while most intermediate players play wider angles. Advanced players know that while angled attacks are good, the best place for the first attack (and often follow-up attacks) is right at the middle.

Why is the middle so weak when attacked? There are five (yes, five!) primary reasons.

1. The player has to make a decision on whether to play forehand or backhand, and often hesitates. When the ball goes to the forehand or backhand there is no such decision to make.
2. The player has to move in an uncomfortable direction. Most players find moving wide to cover the forehand or backhand an easier move since you are moving into the shot. Covering the middle means essentially getting out of the way of the ball, which is usually a more difficult move. 
3. When you attack the middle, it forces your opponent to move out of position to cover it. This opens up the corners. One of the best one-two combos is an attack to the middle followed by an angled attack. Or you can go to the middle a second or third time as your opponent struggles to cover it. 
4. Attacking the middle takes away the extreme angles for your opponent. If you attack a wide corner, your opponent can return at an equally wide angle.
5. Players don't get much practice covering the middle, both because opponents don't give them this shot much until the higher levels, and because most don't practice against it. (Here are three Tips on covering the middle: Covering the Middle; Covering and Recovering From the Middle; and Covering the Middle with the Forehand.)

Attacking the middle isn't just an option; it should be the default place to attack unless you have a reason to go elsewhere, such as an open corner, a slow opponent who doesn't cover the corners well, or an opponent who is weaker on one side. The nice thing about attacking the middle is that even if the opponent knows it's coming he can't really prepare for it. If he tries to favor one side to cover it, you simply move your target over to compensate.

While you should usually be aggressive when going to the middle, there are at least two other times you might go to the middle with a less aggressive shot. First, against a two-winged attacker, you might serve or push deep to the middle to make him decide whether to forehand or backhand attack and then move to do so. Second, going to the middle cuts off the angles, so a passive shot can't be attacked at a wide angle. (But a smart opponent might instead attack your middle!)  

Why don't players attack the middle more often? There are two primary reasons. First, it's difficult to hit because it's a moving target. When you attack the wide forehand or wide backhand, it's the same place no matter who you play. But the middle changes not only from player to player but throughout the rally against the same opponent, depending on where he is standing or looking to do. (An example of the latter is if the opponent is looking to attack with his forehand, then going to his middle only gives him an easier forehand, so his "middle" moves toward his backhand side.) The only way to develop the ability to attack this moving target is by doing it over and over in matches and drills until it becomes second nature. And this leads to the second reason players don't attack the middle more often: because they don't practice attacking the middle.  

Most players practice their attacks either crosscourt or down the line to their partner's block, and so they go to the partner's forehand or backhand, over and over. This becomes a habit. If all one does is attack to the forehand or backhand in practice, how likely is the player going to go to the middle in a match? You have to practice it if you want to do it in a match. Here are some drills you can do to practice attacking the middle.

1. Attack the Middle Drill. Have your practice partner stand in a neutral position so you can see where his middle is. Then drill into that spot, either looping or hitting. Your practice partner blocks moves over and blocks, either all forehand or all backhand. However, there are two variations to this. You partner can also block with either all backhand or forehand, but moves back to a neutral position after each shot, so he can practice moving to cover the middle. A third way, the most difficult, is he stands in a neutral position and blocks back either forehand or backhand.
2. Serve and Attack Middle Drill. You serve backspin, your partner pushes back (either to a pre-arranged spot or random), and you attack his middle. Then play out the point.
3. Practice Matches. Play practice matches where your first attack goes to the middle every time.

So learn to attack the middle, and soon you'll leave the middle of the pack as you move up the ladder of table tennis success!

The worst thing a coach can do is try to fill a player's head with all sorts of things he must do to get a shot right, and the worst thing a player can do is try to memorize all these things. A coach might look at a player and see several things that need fixing. But the last thing he wants is for the student to have to be thinking something like, "Let's see, my feet need to be like this, my arm like this, I have to rotate this way, keeping the racket at this height and my elbow bent this much, and then I need to start the swing with this part of my body, followed by that part, then that part, and finally that part, and make sure contact is like this, and then follow through so my racket goes here." That's how you might program a computer, but not a human brain!!!

Instead, the goal of a player (and therefore the goal of the coach) is to find the right "feel" of the shot. If all the aspects of a short are done properly, it should feel right, and once a player does a shot just right (perhaps with a coach pointing out the "right" ones), the player should never memorize all the aspects that went into making the shot right. He just needs to remember the feel of the shot - the feel of the stroke, the contact, and the timing, all of which go together.

Once a player gets the feel right, all he has to do is repeat that feel over and over, with minor changes based on the incoming shot that mostly affect racket angle. At its most basic level, that's all there is to learning a new technique - getting the feel right, and then repeating it. However, it's not always that easy. Two common problems are 1) getting the feel right when there are two things wrong, and 2) getting the right feel for forehand and backhand shots while using mostly the same grip.

Often a player has trouble doing proper technique because he's doing two things wrong, leading to an awkward but at least workable shot. If the player tries to fix one of the problems, the stroke falls apart unless he simultaneously fixes the other problem, which can be difficult to do together. For example, a player may have an improper grip, leading to an awkward stroking technique. But if he fixes the grip, it messes up the timing in the awkward stroking technique, and so the player gets worse, not better. The player has to both change the grip and the stroking technique at the same time. To do this takes practice, often with a coach - but once done properly, the player can remember the "feel" of the proper grip and stroke, and then he can learn to do it over and over.

Often a player learns the right feel for a forehand and backhand shot, but with different grips. This usually won't work - most players use the same grip for forehand and backhand shots, with only minor changes. (You don't have time for major grip changes.) So a player needs to not only get the right feel for each shot, but the right feel using a grip that can be used for other shots.

So focus on getting the right feel for your shots, and it'll feel more and more natural as you develop the timing - and soon you'll be feeling (and playing) like a champion! 

One of the more important concepts you should use in your training is to isolate specific techniques so you can work on them. At its most simple you work on individual shots, such as a forehand or backhand drive, loop, or push. Most players understand this and spend countless hours perfecting these shots.

However, once these shots are perfected in practice, should you go straight to matches? Probably not. Instead, the next step would be to isolate various combinations. For example, many players regularly loop against backspin, and then follow with a loop or smash against the likely blocked return. First you'd want to develop the loop against backspin, and the loop or smash against block. But once you have these two shots down, it's time to put them together. For example, you do a drill where you serve backspin to your partner's backhand; he pushes it back to a pre-set spot (such as your middle backhand); you loop a forehand (or backhand) to your partner's backhand; he blocks to your forehand; then you loop or smash that ball anywhere, and then it's free play until the rally ends. As simple as this is, this is one of the most important drills for most developing players.

Another example might be to have your partner push and then block to your backhand, and you backhand loop the first (or drive, if that's how you attack backspin), and follow with a backhand loop or drive against the block, then free play. This backhand one-two combo is extremely valuable and comes up in matches all the time, and yet many players fail to practice it.

There are many other example, though opening against a backspin and following up against a block is probably the most common. They key here is that you have to lift some against the backspin, while you don't lift much against the follow-up shot against a block, but unless you practice it, you might find yourself accidentally lifting the second ball and watching it go off the end.

If you are a hitter you might serve fast topspin to your partner's backhand; your partner counter-hits back your backhand; you backhand hit to your partner's backhand (or some other pre-set spot), he counter-hits to your backhand again (not too hard), and you step around and smash a forehand, then it's free play.

You can also add some serve and receive. For example, have your partner serve short backspin to your forehand (or backhand); you push back to a preset spot (and perhaps push short); partner pushes to your backhand; you backhand loop. Or some other version of this.

You can also add some more randomness to the drills. For example, you serve backspin to your partner's backhand, he pushes back randomly anywhere on the table, you loop (forehand or backhand) to his backhand, and he blocks either randomly or to a pre-set spot, and then free play. Or, if you do that drill well, go random on this drill from the start. If you are a hitter serving fast topspin, your partner can return anywhere and you have to follow with a smash, forehand or backhand. (Note - there aren't too many pure hitters at the higher levels anymore, alas.)

Think about your game and what types of shots and combinations you use (or should be using). Isolate two shots that you commonly do in combination. Then design a drill for those two shots and go out and practice! 

Returning serve skills can be broken down into three specific skills. To be a great returner of serves you need all of them. The three are the ability to 1) read and react to the serve; 2) make consistent returns; and 3) make effective returns. Let's look at all three.

1. Read and React to the Serve.
   All the great shots in the world won't help you if you can't read and react to the serve. This means reading and reacting to what type of spin is on the ball; the direction; the depth; the speed; even the height. You read the spin by watching the direction of the opponent's racket at contact with the ball, and by watching how the ball travels through the air and bounces on the table.  
2. Make Effective Returns.
   This means returning the serve in such a way that the server loses his advantage, and either get into a neutral rally or one where you have the advantage. For example, you may attack the serve by looping, driving, or flipping to put the server on the defensive. (Down side: it's easy to miss.) You may place the ball so the server is unable to follow with a strong shot. (Down side: it's not easy to receive accurately against a varied serve with lots of speed and/or spin.) You may push aggressively with heavy backspin to stop the server's attack. (Down side: Server may loop it, and turn your backspin into his own topspin.) You may push the ball back short so the server cannot loop. (Down side: it takes great ball control, and it's easy to pop the ball up, go into the net, or simply not push short enough.)
3. Make Consistent Returns.
   It's not enough to make effective returns; you have to be consistent. Most top players will tell you that returning serves is all about ball control. They may attack the serve when they see the chance, but mostly they just want to neutralize things while being extremely consistent. This doesn’t mean just pushing every serve back; it means using all of your receives to mess up the opponent, but doing so at a level where you rarely give away a free point.

Here are some other Tips of the Week on returning serves. Receive is often called everyone's weakness, but it doesn't have to be. Many players turn it into a strength. Why not you?

• Reading Service Spin
• What is the Goal of the Receiver
• How to Return Different Serves
• The Many Ways to Receive a Short Backspin Serve
• Returning Long Serves with the Backhand
• Returning the Tomahawk Serve (or a Lefty Pendulum Serve)
• Returning Hidden and Other Tricky Spin Serves

Returning serves effectively takes longer to learn to do than any other part of the game. This is due to the incredible variations in spin, speed, direction and depth available to servers. Worse, a good server disguises every aspect of the serve, especially the spin. We're going to focus the most difficult part here - reading spin. (For more info on spin, see my article Everything You Wanted to Know About Spin - But Were Afraid to Ask.)

Ideally, a player should read the spin off the server's racket. No matter how many motions a server goes through, all a receiver has to do is read the direction of the racket at contact, and he will have read the type of spin. This is easier said than done.

The receiver also needs to read the amount of spin. Against a somewhat grippy inverted rubber, this is roughly done by a simple formula: racket speed - ball speed = ball spin. What this means is that a server's racket speed at contact will convert to ball speed and ball spin; if the racket moves fast, but the ball comes out slowly, then most of the energy has been converted to spin. (It's actually a bit more complicated than this. You get more spin if you accelerate into the ball rather than moving the racket at a constant speed, but it's close enough. Plus you have to take into consideration the grippiness of the rubber, as a non-grippy surface will have less spin.) 

A server disguises spin in three major ways. First, his racket may go through a semi-circular motion, with contact at any point on the curve. This way, a server may give different spins with the exact same serve motion - the only difference is where in the serve motion contact is made. At the advanced levels, this semi-circular motion is so short and quick it's very hard to pick up. 

Second, a server may disguise spin by mixing up spin and no-spin serves. (If a receiver thinks there is spin on the ball, and there isn't, it's the same as misreading a spin.) There are two ways the server may do this. A server may contact the ball near the throat of the racket, where the racket travels slower than the tip. Or he may fake a grazing motion, but just pat the ball with the racket straight on. In both cases, the server may use an exaggerated racket snap after contact.

Third, the server may put so much spin on the ball that it is simply difficult to read the amount of spin.

The only way to learn to return serves is to understand them, and to practice against them. So how do you read the spin?

As your opponent is serving, keep your eyes on his racket. (Against a high-toss serve, you may glance up to see when the ball will be coming down - but as it comes down, you should be watching the racket.) Ignore the direction the racket is moving until contact. Then, right at contact - SNAP! Take a flash "video" in your mind of the split second of contact. In this split-second video, you should be able to see the direction and speed the racket was going at contact. From this, you can judge the type of spin. From the racket speed, and the speed of the ball after contact, you can judge the amount of spin. 

What happens if you absolutely cannot read the spin off the racket? Or if contact is hidden? If the contact is hidden (which isn't legal, though it often isn't enforced), you will have to read the spin mostly from the ball alone. The type of sidespin on the ball should be easy to read from the general racket motion - left to right or right to left. It's the reading of topspin vs. backspin that's tricky.

A ball with backspin tends to travel in a line, and slows down when it bounces on the table. A ball with topspin drops quickly, and jumps when it hits the table. A sidespin ball will curve sideways in the air, and jump sideways when it hits the table. If you let the ball come out to you and take the ball late, you will have more time to read this, and make the proper adjustments. However, reading from the ball alone will make your receive more tentative and late, and so less effective.

Eventually, reading spin will become more and more natural, and you won't even think about it so much. Then you can concentrate on what to do with the ball.