Picture two up-and-coming players. One has really tricky serves, often going long, and wins many points when opponents miss the serve or give him easy pop-ups – but when opponents read the serve, they often attack them, putting the server on the defensive. The other has simple serves that don’t directly threaten opponents as much, mostly very low and short backspin or no-spin, and so gets fewer easy points directly from his serve - but they aren’t attacked effectively that often. He learns to move and follow up each serve with an attacking shot, often against long pushes.

Guess which one progresses faster?

Players who rely too much on their serve often fall behind in the long run when they start facing players who return serves better, and that’s when the great server discovers he’s fallen behind in the rest of his game development. However, the player with simpler serves, while improving faster and perhaps reaching a higher level, is somewhat handicapped by the lack of serves that really challenge the opponent, including those few “free” points a player with good serves gets.

One note – it’s a myth that simple serves aren’t often popped up. But this usually happens when the server fakes backspin but serves no-spin, and the opponent pushes it back like it has backspin – and so pops it up a bit. But such serves don’t directly threaten opponents as much as tricky, spinny serves, especially long, breaking serves or fast no-spin ones. At lower levels, such serves are deadly; at higher levels, they get attacked, and so are mostly effective as surprise serves.

So, what should you do? Find a balance. Develop tricky serves, but learn to win in practice matches without using them except sparingly. But you do need to use those tricky serves in practice matches so you instinctively learn how often and when best to use them. Find a balance and develop your entire game, and you’ll have the best of both worlds.

Let’s keep this simple. If you lose the first game of a match because it takes you a game to adjust to something the opponent does, that’s okay. Ideally, you’d adjust sooner and perhaps win that first game, but credit your opponent if he’s developed something that wins him that first game.

But if you lose a match because you didn’t adjust to what your opponent did, that means either you messed up or your opponent is simply better.

How do you quickly adjust to an opponent? There are two ways. First, after going up against whatever your opponent does that gives you trouble, you should simply get used to it until it’s no longer a major threat. You might even play into it intentionally sometimes, so as to better make that adjustment – such as playing into an opponent’s long pips or other surface until you are comfortable against it. Second, you can adjust your tactics so the opponent can’t do whatever it is that gives you trouble. If you have a good serve and receive game, then you can control and dominate points, and with that, you can take away whatever the opponent does that might give you trouble.

Always remember that Adjustment is just an anagram for Student Jam – and if you are a good student of the game, you’ll get out of those jams by making an adjustment!

Suppose your opponent has a weak, erratic backhand but a strong forehand. Suppose you get into a fast backhand to backhand rally. Should you keep going to his weak backhand or should you vary things by going to the forehand? The same question can be asked of any tactic – if something works, do you keep doing it or do you vary things so the opponent isn't sure what's coming?

This type of thinking is central to tactical thinking. It’s a judgement call. On the one hand, using the weak backhand example, you could just lock him up on the backhand side and win that way. And that’s often all it takes. (If so, don’t overthink it – simple, winning tactics are the best tactics.) On the other hand, since he’ll know where you are going, his backhand will likely get better, and his weakness suddenly becomes a strength, or at least not a major weakness.

On the other hand, if you go to his strong forehand, you get his strong forehand. What to do?

Again, it comes down to experience. Some may fear going to the strong forehand, but with experience you learn when to do so. For example, if the opponent is camped on his backhand side and gives you a slightly weak or shorter ball, you can attack that ball hard to the forehand, knowing that he’s both out of position and you are making a strong, angled shot. Guess what? Not only will he likely have trouble with that shot, but it 1) puts him out of position for the next shot that, yes, goes to the backhand, and 2) it means he can no longer camp out on the backhand, and so his backhand side becomes weak and erratic again.

Another common placement tactic is to play the middle, where the opponent has to move to play their stronger side. When you play the (in this example) weaker backhand, you should really be playing both the wide backhand and at their middle (the midpoint between forehand and backhand), making them move to cover both spots – but perhaps a little to the backhand side if you want to avoid the stronger forehand. Make them cover as much table as possible with their weaker side.

So, it all comes down to experience and thinking about these things, and then going to the right spot with each shot will become a subconscious reflex.

Also try to see if from the opponent’s point of view. For example, I always had a strong forehand but my backhand, while consistent, wasn’t very strong. And so I’d often camp out on the backhand side, just keeping the ball in play, but watching the opponent carefully – and the instant I saw him going to my forehand, I’d jump all over it since that’s what I was waiting for. Smarter opponents realized this, and they’d instead either wait for a ball to put away from my softer backhand, or simply play at such wide angles to my backhand that I couldn’t effectively cover the wide forehand off a strong shot – and if I did, my backhand would be open. Or they’d attack my middle where I’d cover with my backhand – but since I’d have little angle into their backhand from that spot, they’d be able to end the point with their forehand.

Note that while I’ve used strong forehand/weak backhand in this example, it could be the other way around. Or the two sides could be equal, in which case you’d want to move the ball around a LOT, so that the opponent can never be comfortably in position. Or it could be some other tactic – for example, if they are weak against backspin, do you give them a steady diet of backspin, or do you mix it up? If they have trouble with your slow, spinny loop, should you do that over and over or mix it up with other types of loops? If they have trouble with a particular serve, how often should you use that serve?  

With experience, you’ll learn instinctively what to do, and then you’ll lock up opponents up with your tactics.

If you are roughly the same level as the crafty veteran, then the key thing to understand about them is that they are in a state of desperation. Why? Because they can’t beat you, shot for shot, and they know it. That’s why they are forced to be crafty veterans in order to win!

But table tennis is a highly tactical game, and thinking you can beat them because you have better shots is like thinking you can solve math equations on paper better than a math professor because you have a really nice pen and he has a crayon.

On the other hand, once you realize he’s playing with a crayon and you have a nice pen (even if you aren’t a penholder), which in this metaphor means you have better shots, and understand that the crafty veteran can only win if you beat yourself, you can learn to adjust your tactics so that you can beat him, instead of yourself.

For example, suppose the crafty veteran knows you have a powerful and (usually) consistent loop and aren’t afraid to use it. And so he loads up his pushes with extra backspin, and your powerful loop becomes inconsistent, and so you lose. What should you have done? Take advantage of his letting you attack first with his push, and learn to do a slower, more consistent opening loop. Place it well and deep on the table, and the crafty veteran will likely become a drafty veteran with holes in his game. The key thing to learn is he’s trying to win on your mistakes with that heavy push because he has no other weapons that threaten you. He wants you to beat yourself; don’t do that, and instead you’ll beat him.

This doesn’t mean it’s easy to beat the crafty veteran. It simply means that once you understand how to beat him, then with experience and practice, he will become somewhat easy to beat . . . because he’s armed with a crayon and you have that really nice pen.

There’s a simple reason players have so much trouble with no-spin or dead balls, whether in rallies or serves. The little plastic ball weighs very little and spins easily, and so even at the advanced beginning stage players are used to the ball having spin. Players learn to put spin on the ball almost from the beginning, with their serves, with topspin in their drives, or backspin in their pushes. And so you get used to reacting to these specific spins, especially topspin and backspin.

And then you play someone with dead rubber who gives you spinless balls. You are used to counter-hitting against topspin, and against backspin either pushing with an open racket or topspinning with an upward stroke. And so when you get that no-spin ball, all your trained reactions are off, and you find yourself struggling with someone who seemingly plays like a beginner who can’t put spin on the ball!

The answer? At some point in your table tennis playing days, as early as possible, find a way to do extensive practice against no-spin balls. Other than the fact that you haven’t trained to play them, they are easy to play against. Spins vary and so you have to adjust against these variations. But no-spin is just that – there is no spin variation, it’s always no spin. If you learn to, say, loop a winner against one no-spin ball, you can mentally close your eyes the rest of your life and do that same, exact shot, and you’ll never miss. (You do have to adjust to different depths and your own positioning.)

So, how do you play a no-spin ball? If you push, simply chop down on the ball so that it doesn’t pop up as it would if you push as if it were a backspin. Since there’s no backspin rebounding off your rubber as backspin, you’ll have to produce all of the backspin, so grace the ball and give it a good backspin. However, if the ball has no spin, why not attack it? It’s an easy shot; just play it like it’s halfway between a topspin and a backspin, and you’ll have it.

Against a slow incoming no-spin ball, players tend to lift like it’s a backspin and go off the end. Instead, loop more on top of the ball with very little lift. Practice, and you’ll find it easy to loop or drive away.

Against a dead ball in a faster rally players tend to fall back on their normal strokes and so go off the end. In this case you have to open your racket a little bit. See how easy that was? Since the ball won’t rebound off your racket as fast as if it had topspin, you might stroke a little harder, or you might put more of your own topspin on the ball. It may be hard at first since you aren’t used to it, but with some practice, and you’ll find it easy to counter-hit or loop against. And then you’ll turn that no-spin into a no-win situation for the opponent!