Unless it’s a put-away shot, you should approach every shot as if you are setting yourself up for the next shot, and sometimes the next two. I'm always amazed at how many players play it one shot at a time – it’s like playing chess where you just push pieces without any thought to the next move. There are no certainties, and you will not always get the shot you were hoping to set yourself up for – but you should be using shots that maximize the probability of getting the shot you want to get. Here are some examples. And always remember – table tennis is just chess at lightspeed!

• Opponent serves short. Rather than just push it back long all the time and letting the server attack first, push it back low and short. This will often result in the server pushing it back long, and then you get to attack first. Or you could push it back aggressively – quick, fast, heavy, deep, and well angled – and get either a push return you can attack, or a weak, erratic first attack that you can hammer.
• Opponent serves long. The most important thing in receive is often just consistency – but if you can loop those long serves deep on the table to the server’s weakest spot, that’ll often set you up for the next shot.
• Opponent pushes long effectively. Rather than go for a wild point-ending loop against a good push, instead loop it medium or slow, with lots of spin, and deep on the table to their weakest side, or their middle. This will often set you up for the next shot. It’ll also increase your chances of making the first shot, while still getting you a lot of points when the opponent misses against your first loop.
• Opponent attacks your backhand. Rather than just return it crosscourt, perhaps try blocking or countering aggressively at the opponent’s weakest spot, which is most likely his middle (roughly the playing elbow, halfway between the forehand and backhand). This will often result in a weaker return you can attack, as well as many outright mistakes. If the opponent is looking for a forehand and seems ready to go after shots to the middle with the forehand, then perhaps go aggressively at the wide corners – the wide forehand is often open – often forcing a weak or erratic return.

The statement, "Whoever works hardest becomes the best" is often true, but the reality is that it sometimes is not. To give an obvious example, suppose there's a ten-year-old and a sixty-year-old of about the same level. Suppose they both train hard for five years, but the older player trains a little harder. Do you think he'll end up better? Probably not.

And like it or now, often a lazy player with seeming talent improves faster than his harder-working peers – at the start. In the long run, assuming similar physical attributes, the harder-working player almost always comes out ahead if he trains intelligently.

And hard work often doesn't pay off if the work isn't done intelligently. That's a reason to work with a coach, so he can guide you into intelligent practice. (Here’s my tip, Deliberate Practice in Table Tennis. Or Google "Deliberate Practice" for more many articles on this. Hard Work + Deliberate Practice = Reaching Your Potential.)

But here's the key thing for players. If you aren’t sure your hard work will pay off, it’s hard to really put your heart into it, and you likely won’t improve as fast as you could. But if you truly convince yourself that the hardest-working player will come out ahead, then you are halfway toward becoming the hardest-working player, and thereby maximizing your own improvement. And THAT is key to maximizing your success.

Now is the time to focus on WINNING!!! A big part of that is playing smart tactics.

Whenever possible, scout out your upcoming opponents. This means three things: watching them play at the tournament; watching them on video; and asking others about that player.

If you watch them in the tournament or on video, try to watch from the far side, as if you were receiving their serve. That way you can see their serves in advance as if you were receiving them. By the time you play them, it’s almost as if you had already practiced against their serves. You not only should be more comfortable against those serves, but you should now know what receives will give that player the most trouble.

Whether it’s before the match starts or during the match, you need to figure out what tactics to use. That means balancing tactics that set up your game against tactics that stop their game. But some think too much about this and are unable to play free. Instead, keep it simple. How do you do that? I’ll give you what may be my most famous quote, the words that open my book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers:

"Tactics isn't about finding complex strategies to defeat an opponent. Tactics is about sifting through all the zillions of possible tactics and finding a few simple ones that work."

And that is your tactical goal in a match. Don’t get too caught up in finding the “perfect” tactic – find a few that work. Experiment to test them out until you find the right tactics to win.

Here’s my tip, Finding Simple Tactics That Work.

Practice matches are just that; practice. If you can’t practice your shots in a practice match, then how can you possibly develop them so you can use them in a tournament? (Or any other “big” match.)

Before you play a practice match, decide what you want to accomplish in that match. Is your goal to win? Then you won’t get the most out of that practice match. Instead, think about how you can win while using the techniques you need to develop for tournament matches.

It’s so easy to use the same shots you’ve always used to win rather than develop other more advanced techniques. Perhaps play weaker players and try winning with these more advanced shots you need to develop – and when you can do that, you’re ready to use them against your peers. (Who you may soon leave behind.) For example, suppose you can win a practice match by pushing and blocking. If that’s all you want, then do so. But if you want to improve to a higher level, perhaps focus on trying to win by playing more aggressive. Sure, you may miss too many of your attacking shots and lose that practice match – but it’s a practice match, and if you keep doing it, you’ll develop those more advanced shots, and soon you’ll be beating players you couldn’t beat before, and dominating against players who used to battle with you.

So, think about what type of game you want to develop, and play that way in practice matches. And soon, that will be your game, and you’ll be a much better player.

One related area – don’t play dumb. Some players are so focused on playing high-level shots they don’t develop the tactics that go with them. If you are trying to win by looping, for example, focus on placing those loops so that placement becomes a habit that will become part of your game. And don’t be afraid to occasionally throw a “trick” serve at an opponent in practice – that’s how you learn which ones are effective and when to use them. Just don’t rely on them – instead, focus mostly on serves that set up the shots you are trying to develop.

Here’s my tip, Use Practice Matches to Practice.

Serve practice is my favorite practice. You want to know why? Because I know most of my opponents don’t practice their serves as much as I do (or used to, anyway), and so I will always have an edge on them!

The most important aspects of serve practice is to develop high-level serves that match your game, or the game that you want to play. (Note the difference there.)

Imagine your game, either as it is now or as you want it to be. What serves would you want to develop for that game? If you are a standard attacker, then you want serves that set up your attack. Some want opponents to push their serves back long so they can loop (forehand or backhand), and so do a lot of backspin serves, with other spins mixed in. (Mixing up short and very low backspin and no-spin serves are especially effective.) Others might want soft topspin returns, and so may serve more sidespin or side-top, and may also focus on half-long serves, where the second bounce, given a chance, would be right at the opponent’s end-line. Or you might want to focus on deep serves, such as big breaking sidespin serves. (This doesn’t work as well at the higher levels where they are usually attacked, but are effective as a variation.)

Besides your standard serves that set you up, what surprise serves should you develop that will both give you perhaps a few free points as well as make the opponent guard against those serves, thereby making your other serves more effective?

Perhaps have a coach or high-level player take a look at your serves, or show you his. Then practice and develop your serves to the highest level you can. Here’s a hint – you may never move or stroke at the pace and consistency of a world-class player, but there’s NOTHING that keeps you from developing world-class serves.

Here’s my tip, Practicing Serves the Productive Way.