One of the so-called axioms of table tennis is this: Against balls to your middle, if you are close to the table or rushed, favor your backhand; if you are not close to the table or have time, favor the forehand. It's a useful guideline for most players. (Note - a ball to the middle is a ball hit at the transition point between your forehand and backhand, usually the playing elbow.) However, if you have a strong forehand, you might want to cover the middle with it, even when rushed or close to the table. How do you do this? You have two options.

Historically, the standard way was to step off the table to give yourself time to get into position for a forehand, and hit a late but strong forehand. This especially worked for loopers, who can use both spin and speed in powering a forehand loop from a few feet further back than usual. Hitters, however, had a problem with this as hitting the ball late made their shots a lot less effective than their usual hitting at the top of the bounce or earlier. So many hitters, especially pips-out penholders, developed techniques where they'd take the rushed forehand from the middle closer to the table by shortening their stroke, leaning to their left (for a righty), and rotating their upper torso backwards. They would also use this technique when stepping around their backhand to play a rushed forehand.

Some loopers experimented with this, such as 1993 World Men's Singles Champion Jean-Phillipe Gatien, who was famous for looping from close to the table. Since then generations of world-class players have copied that, and many high-level matches become battles over who can loop from closer to the table. The first one that backs up gives the other player time to wind up as well as having more ground to cover. So these days many world-class players (including most of the best ones, pretty much all of them loopers) favor the same technique pioneered by hitters and then adopted by loopers such as Gatien, which is to simply shorten their swing and lean to the left (for righties) and rotate their upper torso to cover the middle with their forehand while staying close to the table. Like hitters, they also adopted this for when stepping around their backhand to play a rushed forehand.

Here's a classic example of this technique, with Gatien himself. Go to the point starting 33 seconds in, and see Gatien's third shot, the forehand 36 seconds in. (Gatien's the lefty on the far side.) Most players, of course, will not do this with as much power as Gatien.

This is also an example of where an old dog can learn new tricks - both older players reading this, and this coach as well. I don't know if I qualify as an "old dog" yet at 53, but it wasn't long ago that I was still coaching most players to take these middle balls farther off the table with their forehands. Now I teach both ways, but favor taking the ball quicker with a shorter stroke. Who did I learn this from? Another "old dog," 1971 World Champion Stellan Bengtsson, now a top U.S. coach. 

One of the axioms of coaching is that you can't fix technique in the middle of a match. Whether coaching someone in a match, or trying to make adjustments yourself in a match, technique is something that needs to be honed in practice so it becomes automatic (i.e. subconscious) in an actual game. The reason for this is that the game is mostly played subconsciously. You don't consciously do technique very well in a game situation, or even choose the proper racket angle - your subconscious does all this after you've honed it in practice. There are just too many things to remember to do for one to do so consciously; the minute you take conscious control all that training is out the window. To fix something in mid-match means to consciously take control, and that rarely goes well.

This is why the conscious mind's task during a match is mostly tactical - choosing what serves to use, how to receive, how to rally, etc. (And even there, much of it becomes subconscious - for example, when your conscious mind decides to attack deep serves, for this to work the subconscious has to get the message so it does so automatically.) The conscious mind should also focus on sports psychology - but that's basically techniques to get the conscious mind out of the way so the subconscious can take control.

There are a few times when you can make basic fixes to stroking problems, though not necessarily technique problems. (I will write this as if I was coaching a player in a match, but you can do this yourself, i.e. coaching yourself in the same way.)

Suppose your player lifts way too much when looping or smashing, and keeps going off the end. (There could be a dozen technical reasons for this; he might be standing up too straight, or using too much arm, or not transferring his weight forward, etc.) Trying to fix his technique directly probably won't work - that's something you'll have to do after the match, when you can zero in on the specific problem and drill the player to do it properly. So what can you do? Instead of trying to fix the technique, understand that the poor technique is putting the ball off the end when it aims for the table. So change the target; tell the player to aim for the top of the net. If the player makes a conscious decision to aim for this, and then lets the subconscious do this, it'll probably get the message and aim for the top of the net - and will likely do just what it was doing before, i.e. aiming too high, and so it'll instead go over the net and hit the table.

Suppose your player has, say, a wristy forehand that causes him to lose control. Telling him to change his technique isn't going to help in that match; it'll just put him in the position of trying to learn a brand new technique, i.e. a wristless forehand he hasn't used before. His subconscious doesn't know what to do, and so you essentially turn the player into a beginner, at least with this one aspect. You could, of course, think of the match as just practice and have the player focus on the technique. Then it's not really a "match" so much as a practice session. But it's a highly inefficient practice session as the player will only haphazardly get to use the shot in question, and when it comes up, guess what? He'll reflexively do what his subconscious is used to doing, i.e. the poor technique. That's why to fix technique you have to practice it in a drill situation, where you do it over and Over and OVER until it is so honed that the subconscious can do it in a match. If it can't, then it'll fall back on old habits during the match, and re-enforce the bad habit.

Suppose your player is standing up too straight, which leads to all sorts of technique problems, such as lifting too much when looping. If he's used to standing up straight all the time, there's not a lot you can do in the middle of a match. On the other hand, if the player sometimes stays low but other times (perhaps in the pressure of a match) stands up too straight, reminding him to stay low is a simple message that the subconscious can get since it's used to staying low, and it solves the technique problems.

Sometimes it's not a technique problem so much as adjusting to something the subconscious hasn't seen before, and so isn't able to react properly. For example, suppose my player keeps blocking an opponent's slow, spinny loops off the end. The player hasn't seen such spinny loops before (at least not enough for the subconscious to learn what to do automatically), and so nearly every block goes off. I could tell him to close his racket angle - but that probably wouldn't work. In a game situation the subconscious automatically chooses the racket angle, and trying to adjust this against these super-spinny loops in the middle of a match is slow and difficult. If you tell your player to close the racket more, and he tries to do so consciously, he will likely lose what little control he had as his conscious mind can't reflexively do the proper angle in the split second it has to do so, and will tend to fall back on the reflexive angle that wasn't working before. So consciously telling oneself to close the racket more isn't really that helpful - the subconscious can see that it's blocking off the end, and is already trying to make adjustments (often too slowly) if you let it. (The more you play the easier these adjustments become.)

However, if you tell the player to block more aggressively, then the spin won't take on the paddle as much, and the player won't be as susceptible to heavy topspin as before. It's a simple message to the subconscious - "block harder!" - and as long as it's not overdone ("harder" doesn't mean "smash"), it will often solve the problem.

Here's my recommendation: focus on developing proper technique in practice, not in matches. Work with a coach or top player if possible, or watch videos. Get the technique down before using it in serious matches. It's okay if you don't yet have the timing for the techniques as long as you are doing it mostly properly. Matches are a great way to learn, but they are not the place to develop technique. 

Everyone has a weakness in their game or a shot they'd like to perfect. How do players go about addressing these problems? Usually in haphazard fashion. They'll either try to work on it in actual matches, or they'll work on it some in practice, along with everything else. The result is usually a little improvement, which often convinces them they are on the right track. And so they progress very slowly. But it can be done much quicker with a little "saturation training."

What this means is that for a time you should focus almost entirely on whatever it is you are trying to improve. It means devoting both practice time and match play to the single-minded goal of improving a weakness or perfecting a strength. You can still practice other things, but during the time of saturation training this should be kept to a minimum, and mostly to maintain other aspects of your game. The saturation training should include lots of shadow practicing the new technique as you work to ingrain it. 

Let's say you want to develop a backhand loop against backspin. You could practice it for 5-10 minutes with a partner, and then look for chances to use it in a game against your usual practice partners. Or you could arrange to practice it for perhaps an hour a day for a time, and arrange practice matches specifically around developing this shot. Let's look at both of these methods of practice, using the backhand loop against backspin as an example.

How do you practice the backhand loop against backspin? Ideally, find a coach or player who can feed multiball to you and go at it. (Make sure to have a coach or top player help you out first so you do it right.) Or practice it against a robot, though don't do this exclusively - you want to learn to react to a ball coming off a racket as well. Or have someone just push your backspin serve back over and over so you can practice the shot. (But remember that you get many more shots per time with multiball or a robot.) Do the shot over and Over and OVER until it is so ingrained you can do it in your sleep. It has to become muscle memory, and that doesn't happen by practicing it haphazardly now and then. You have to practice it relentlessly until it becomes a part of you.

Once the shot is pretty much ingrained in this way, you need to use it in practice matches. And here is where many players make a major mistake - they look to use it against their peers, who may not give you the shot you want. Instead, seek out someone who will normally push your serve back right at your backhand, allowing you to use the shot over and over. Or someone who will serve and push, allowing you to backhand loop. This usually means playing a weaker player, where you can control the start of the rally and get the shot you want to practice. Get the shot ingrained in this way as something you can do regularly in a match.

It's only after this that you would focus on using it in matches against your peers. Now you might not get as many easy chances to do the shot, but when the chance comes, hopefully it's now so ingrained you'll do it automatically. And at this point, it is part of your regular repertoire.

Whatever shot you are trying to perfect, use the same type of thinking shown here to saturate your practice so you can develop the shot. And then keep developing it, while perhaps sometimes using a little saturation training to develop other parts of your game. 

"Real Tactics" are the tactics that a player should use in a given match to maximize his chances of winning. "Parroting Tactics" are the tactics that many players use because it's what everyone seems to be doing, and so they figure (consciously or subconsciously) it's what they should be doing as well. When two players of equal ability play, and one uses "Real Tactics" and the other uses "Parroting Tactics," guess who usually wins?

The classic example of "Parroting Tactics" would be rarely serving deep to the forehand. At the higher levels, if you serve deep to the forehand, the opponent almost always loops, and the server is at a disadvantage. And so at higher levels you rarely see deep serves to the forehand except as an occasional surprise. At lower levels, opponents often cannot loop effectively or consistently against deep serves to the forehand, and usually have better control on the backhand side, and so are much better if the opponent serves to their backhand side - which most players obligingly do, since that's what they see stronger players doing.

There is some argument to the idea that a player should play higher-level tactics if he wants to be a higher-level player, and so should avoid serving deep to the forehand since that's generally not a higher-level tactic. But this misses the point. The higher-level tactics that usually goes on in higher-level matches is not about avoiding serving deep to the forehand because others don't do that; it's about zeroing in on the opponent's weaknesses and going after them. They don't think, "I'm a higher-level player, and so I shouldn't serve deep to the forehand." They think, "My opponent has a strong forehand loop, and so I shouldn't serve deep to the forehand." The same higher-level tactics, if applied at lower levels, would be, "My opponent has a weak forehand loop, and so I should serve deep to the forehand." And that's what most lower-level players should do, if the tactic works.

You don't develop higher-level tactical skills by playing weak tactics. You develop them by playing strong tactics, i.e. "Real Tactics." If the opponent has a weak forehand loop, you serve to it, no matter what the level. Against six-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion David Zhuang, a pips-out penholder, most players would serve short (which he was very good against) or long to his backhand (allowing him to control the backhand diagonal, which he was also very good at doing), rather than serve long to his forehand, where his pips limited the effectiveness of his receive and where he'd be drawn out of his favored backhand position. A few players figured this out and would regularly serve long backspin to his wide forehand (often "half-long," so the ball barely went off the end), and then counter-attack effectively to his open backhand side.

I once coached a player who had lost the first game at deuce after serving over and over to his opponent's strong backhand. I told him he should both serve AND receive every ball to the opponent's weak forehand until the opponent won two points in a row. I even had him serve from the middle and forehand side so he could get a bigger angle into the forehand side. My player went up 9-0 before losing a point, and won the next three games easily by relentlessly going to the opponent's forehand side.

Obviously there is a limit. If the opponent knows you are going to the forehand, and you do so over and Over and OVER, he might get used to it. So you would mix in shots the other way, especially if the opponent is camping out over there. But guess what? If your opponent does camp out on the forehand side to protect that side, then his backhand opens up, and so you go there. That's "Real Tactics." "Parroting Tactics" would be to continue to go to the forehand because the player read an article that says he should go over and over to the opponent's weak forehand. 

Many players understand the need to serve short (in addition to long serves), since short serves stop the opponent from looping. More advanced players learn the control to serve "half-long," so the second bounce, given the chance, would be right about the end-line. However, many players who serve short do not think about the placement. There are five: short to the extreme forehand, middle forehand, middle, middle backhand, and extreme backhand. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each. (Some of these are written as if both players were righties. It would be a long article if I covered all possibilities.)  

Every opponent is different, so test each of them out on these five types of placements and see which one works best for you.

Extreme Forehand

• Advantages: It makes the receiver reach way over the table, often leading to awkward returns. To guard against this the receiver often has to stay close to the table, making him vulnerable to deep serves, especially to the wide backhand. After returning these serves the receiver may have trouble getting back into position.
• Disadvantages: It gives the receiver a big angle crosscourt, and also gives maximum table as a target, since there is more court diagonally than down the line. To guard against this angle, the server might not be able to effectively cover down-the-line receives. For a righty serving to a righty, this means the receiver can flip to the wide forehand, and to cover this, the server may have to move to his right, leaving the backhand side vulnerable.

Middle Forehand

• Advantages: It takes away some of the angle into the forehand and gives less table to flip into. It also forces the receiver to move in differently than against the wide angle - often having to step slightly to the left (for righty versus righty) - and some players have trouble doing this.
• Disadvantages: The receiver doesn't have to move as far in, so can get in and out more quickly. The receiver also now has a slight angle into the backhand as well as into the forehand. It also allows a receiver with a strong backhand flip (especially a "banana flip," a heavy topspin/sidespin attack against a short ball with the backhand) to more easily step over and use the backhand.

Middle

• Advantages: Receiver has to decide in a split second whether to receive forehand or backhand. Serving to the middle takes away the extreme angles in both directions, and leads to the least amount of table the server has to cover. It gives the receiver the least amount of table to receive to since there are no long diagonals from the middle. This is the most popular location for elite players, though of course they vary it.
• Disadvantages: Receiver can more easily use their stronger side for receiving, forehand or backhand. The receiver can angle the ball equally to both sides.

Middle Backhand

• Advantages: Only gives a slight angle into the forehand side, so the server can often follow the serve with a forehand from the backhand side. If the serve goes slightly long, he might still get a backhand return instead of a forehand loop.
• Disadvantages: It allows the receiver to receive backhand without having to reach too much over the table. It gives an angle into the backhand and some angle to the forehand. It's the most common serve at the beginning and intermediate level, so those players are used to this.

Extreme Backhand

• Advantages: It takes away any angle into the wide forehand (for righty versus righty), and so the server can try to cover the backhand side with his forehand, knowing that if the receiver does give an extreme angled return, he can always switch to backhand. It brings the receiver well over the table, making him vulnerable to deep ball on the next shot. If the serve goes slightly long, you'll most likely get a backhand return instead of a forehand loop.
• Disadvantages: It gives the receiver an extreme crosscourt angle. It takes away any indecision from the receiver since he'll almost always receive backhand.