A match doesn't always go to the player with the best shots. Just as often it goes to the player who knows how to control play. It doesn't matter how strong the opponent's shots may be if he rarely gets a chance to use them effectively. How do you do this?

You control a match primarily with serve and receive, which sets up your first shot in the rally. When choosing these shots you should ask yourself three questions: 

1. What serve/receive is your opponent weakest against?
   This is the most obvious and needs little explaining. It's also the most overused, as opponents expect this, and develop ways to overcome these weaknesses. This doesn't mean you shouldn't pound your opponent on his weaknesses, but if that's the limit of your tactics, you'll have trouble controlling a match against many players. 
2. What serve/receive will put your opponent into a weak position?
   Sometimes this overlaps with #1 above, but not always. For example, a player may have a very good forehand flip against a short serve to the forehand, but it draws him over the table, and if he's weaker on the backhand, it might leave him open on that side. So you might sometimes serve short to the forehand, and prepare to block his flip to his backhand, and then take control of the rally. Or, against a strong forehand player, sometimes challenge his forehand by serving deep there, and quick block to the weaker backhand side, and take control of the rally. (The reverse of both of these also works, where you serve to the backhand and block to the forehand.) 

   The same idea works when receiving. For example, a player may have a strong forehand loop against backspin, but if you aim your receive to the forehand, and then at the last second instead quick push to the backhand, it takes away the opponent's forehand loop and puts him in a weak position. In general, if an opponent is strong on one side but weaker on the other, you might want to go wide to the strong side first, then quick block to the weak side, catching the opponent out of position and forced to use his weaker side while moving or reaching.

3. What serve/receive is your opponent not expecting?
   This is probably most underused tactic. If a player has trouble with a certain serve, receive, or shot, he'll likely be expecting it. While you should still pound him on this weakness, you'll do even better if you regularly catch him off guard with the unexpected. Examples are endless - you simply vary all of your serves, receives, and shots to keep the opponent off guard, forcing erratic or weaker returns, and then take control of the rally. But there are a number of standard combinations that can keep an opponent guessing. For example, using the same serving motion, serve either short to the forehand with varying spins (including no-spin), and deep, breaking serves to the backhand. The opponent doesn't know if he's got to be ready to step in for the short serve to the forehand or cover the wide, deep backhand. Then throw in a few other serves, such as a fast no-spin to the middle, and watch the opponent wither. 

   This tactic is also way underused when receiving. Far too many players receive predictably over and over rather than catch the opponent off guard. This is often because a player doesn't have confidence in more than one type of receive against a given serve - but rather than resigning himself to mediocrity, why not develop a full range of receives, so that you can both receive in the way the opponent has the most trouble against (#1 above), as well as being able to vary the receive and so leaving your opponent never knowing what to expect?

Always remember - whoever has the bigger serve & receive arsenal - and knows how to use it to control play - usually wins. 

There's a myth that to be light on your feet, you have to be in great shape. It's true that being in great shape will allow you to move faster than one who is not. But this is not the same thing as being light on your feet, which is about how quickly you start to move, not how fast you move once you get going. 

How quickly you start to move - i.e. how light you are on your feet - is mostly a technique thing. If you watch the top players or anyone who seems to move quickly, watch how they take a slight hop as the opponent is making his shot. It is this slight bounce that prepares a player to move almost instantly. Those who simply stand there, waiting to see if and where they have to move, lose the bounce that comes from this, and so they are very slow to start to move. 

There are players a hundred pounds overweight or in their seventies who are light on their feet, and players in tiptop physical condition who are not. This doesn't mean they move fast; it means they get started quickly, and so while they may not cover a lot of ground, they often seem to always be in position - because they are never flat-footed and stuck in place. It means they react to shots very quickly because they are always ready to move. 

Are you light on your feet? There's a simple test. When you are caught off guard, such as against a net or edge ball, do you step to the ball, or do you just reach for it? If the latter, you are flat-footed. 

To see this little bounce that players do between shots, you can watch just about any video of top players, and focus on one player. You'll see this slight bounce as the opponent is hitting the ball. Few people see this because 1) it happens too fast, and 2) when watching a match, most viewers are watching whoever is hitting the ball rather than the one who is not. Ideally, see it in slow motion. Here's video of Zhang Jike doing multiball. Watch seconds 45-50, and you can see (in the slow motion) the very obvious bounce he does between shots.

Or just watch video of just about any other high-level match, such as the video highlights (4:50) of the Men's Singles Final at the 2015 World Championships. Focus on either player (Ma Long in Black, Fang Bo in orange), and watch their knees. For example, in the very first point, see how Ma Long returns the serve, and then makes two great forehand loops. But it is the slight hop he takes before moving to each of these shots that allows him to get the quick start that positions him for these shots. 

Another thing that's important is the foot positioning. To be light on your feet, use a relatively wide stance in a slight crouch, knees pointed slightly outward, with weight on the inside balls of the feet. 

The thing to emphasize is that you can be overweight, old, and have bad knees, and you can still take this slight bounce - it's just a matter of making it a habit. How do you make it a habit? Like anything else - practice. But the nice thing is that this is one of those few things you can practice doing just as well in a match as in a drill, so there's no excuse for not practicing it. Just do it. 

Many coaches and players try to fix problems by fixing the symptoms. In many ways, this is what separates a good, experienced coach from, say, a top player who knows proper technique but isn't that experienced in coaching it.

Here's an example. Suppose a player tends to fall back as they loop forehands. The "simple" solution, of course, is to tell them to focus on rotating around and forward into the ball, i.e. "don't fall back." And many coaches try this many times, and it doesn't work – because they are treating a symptom of a problem rather than the root of the problem. The real question is why is the player falling backwards – and the answer almost every time is that he's too far from the ball, with his left leg too far from the table. And so he's forced to reach a bit forward. The falling back is to keep his balance. Solution: Have the player stand closer to the ball, with the left leg closer to the table. Then he'll have a natural rotation into and through the ball, with no falling backwards and off balance afterwards.

Here's another. Some players struggle to rotate their body backwards (to the right for righties) on the forehand. The more they try, the more awkward they look. I've seen coaches struggle with this, not being able to figure out why the player has so much trouble with something that's so easy for others. And so they'll keep telling the player to rotate more on the forehand. But the player simply can't do the rotation comfortably – the symptom of a problem – because they haven't fixed the root of the problem – which usually is their knees are facing forward. If you watch top players, the knees point somewhat outward in their ready stance, which allows easy rotation in either direction. Here's an example – see how the knees point somewhat sideways, not forward?

And here's another. Often players struggle to get great spin on their serves. Rather than converting most of their energy into spin, and getting slow but super-spinny serves, their serves go long, with only moderate spin. Often they are told to graze the ball more, but when they try, they are unable to do so – because the inability to graze the ball is a symptom of a problem, not the root of the problem. The root of the problem usually is they are contacting the back of the ball, often toward the top. If they want to graze the ball more, they need to contact more under the ball and more on the side. If the player doesn't change his contact point, he'll continue to struggle to graze the ball as his racket will be approaching the ball too directly to graze the ball, resulting in a flatter contact. You can still get moderate spin this way, and many players (and coaches) settle for that, never realizing how they are limiting themselves.

Here are ten tricky things you can do to win a few points here and there – as well as make the game more interesting!

1. Muscle-Tensing Ball Clench. When hiding the ball under the table at the start of a match to see who serves first, subtly clench the muscles in the hand not holding the ball, and you're opponent will likely choose that hand, giving you the choice of serve, receiver, or side.
2. The Left-Right Shuffle. This is for when you are playing someone who will almost for certain push your serve back, and who will push to your wide forehand if you leave it open. (We'll assume both players are righties for this.) You serve backspin to their backhand, and then, before the opponent hits the ball, you step to your left as if you are looking for a forehand from the backhand corner. Then, just as the receiver is predictably pushing to your open forehand, you step that way and have an easy forehand loop.
3. The Server Stare. As you are serving look intently at one spot, but serve to another spot.
4. Ready Position Switch. As the opponent serves, change your ready position. You can vary from a neutral position, a backhand position, or a forehand position.
5. Funky Serves. There's nothing like a weird serve to throw an opponent off. For example, did you know it's legal to serve off the back of your hand? The racket is considered to include your playing hand below the wrist. Or any weird or "funky" move as you serve. Some Japanese players are infamous for rather weird arm contortions as they serve. Or just develop some sort of rare serve that might not be so effective on its own, but because they don't see it often, if you use it sparingly it becomes effective.
6. Varying Bounce Serve. Before serving, bounce the ball on the table a number of times, as many top players do. Most of the time do the same number of bounces – say, five – and then quickly serve. Then, at a key moment, only bounce it once, and then quickly serve. It may throw off your opponent's timing.
7. Fake Loop. When an opponent pushes, wind up as if you are going for a big loop, but at the last second push. Your opponent will likely be getting set to block, and so will be caught off guard by this.
8. Dummy Loop. Loop the ball, but keep your wrist up so there's little snap into the shot. Exaggerate your follow-through. The ball will look spinny but will be relatively dead, and your opponent will likely struggle to adjust or he'll go into the net.
9. Dummy Push. Push, but use no wrist at contact, and just pat the ball back rather than spin it. Right after contact do a big wrist snap. The push will look spinny but will be nearly spinless, and the opponent will likely pop it up or go off the end.
10. Last-Second Changes. With any shot, aim one way, and change directions at the last second. This is especially effective with short, quick shots, such as pushes and blocks, but also works for other shots, including loops. 

Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In some contexts, this might not seem to make sense. If you are learning something new in table tennis and can't get it right, you keep doing it over and over until you do get it right. However, the key point is this – if you are learning something new and keep missing, that means you are doing something wrong, and until you change that, you'll keep missing.

Change is the key when learning. And yet, over and over, players do the same old things and expect different results. I'll watch players lose because they keep blocking an opponent's loop off the end, and then, instead of doing some saturation training to fix their blocking, they'll go practice what they've always practiced – looping, hitting, whatever – and of course that's why they are strong on the things they practice a lot, and not strong on the things they don't practice as much. Or they'll be unable to return a certain serve, and yet, when it's over, rather than find someone who can do that serve so they can practice against it, they'll practice the same things they've always practiced. They won't even try to learn the serve that gave them trouble, when of course it might be a weapon they could use against others.

So go take a good, hard look at your game. What problems do you see? What can you change to fix that? Perhaps ask a coach or knowledgeable player the same question. Then address the problem.