What does it mean to move up a level in table tennis? I'd define two players to be on different levels if it would be a major upset if one defeated the other. Another way of looking at it would be to say that if the stronger player plays his normal level, he would win pretty much every time. Based on this, I'd say a level in table tennis ranges from about 300 points at the lower levels (under 1000 or so), to about 100 points at the higher levels (over 2500 or so). For most USATT members, a level would be about 200 rating points or so.

How can you move up a level in table tennis? It means improving all parts of your game, as one weak link in your game is like a weak link in a chain.

You could work hard, dramatically improve one aspect of your game, and hope to move up a level. But it's not that simple. Suppose you develop a really nice forehand loop. With this weapon, you would think that your level would go up dramatically. And sure enough, you will do better against players around your own level. But when you play players a level higher, their level is far enough ahead of yours that they'll simply do something to disarm your new weapon. They may serve short, push short, push very heavy, throw spinny or fast serves at you, use ball placement, block well, force backhand exchanges, play quick shots so you don't have time to loop, or simply attack first. In each case, they'll take your weapon away from you, and you still won't move up that coveted level. Often, a stronger player will seem to win on one of his strengths, when in fact he is winning by exploiting a weakness of yours that allows him to use his strength.

The lesson is that to move up a level, you need to improve your overall game, not just one aspect. A player who is a level stronger than you rarely defeats you on one aspect of his game (although many erroneously believe this to be true); he does so by improving the overall level of his game. (There are, of course, players who have improved all but one aspect of their game, and by improving that one final aspect, suddenly go up the coveted level!) A strength in your game can compensate for a weakness, but only to a certain extent.

So how do you go about improving the overall level of your game? To move up a level in table tennis, you have be able to match the players a level higher than you on five key things:

1. You have to return your opponents' serves as well as they return your serves.
2. You have to either rally as fast as your opponents can rally, or force your opponents to rally at your pace (by slowing the pace down with pushes, slow loops, controlled drives, etc.). Rallying at their pace means either hitting at their pace, or simply reacting to their pace (i.e. blocking or chopping). "Pace" means both speed and quickness.
3. You have to be able to react to your opponents' rallying spins (loops, pushes, chops, lobs, spins returned by long pips, etc.) as well as they react to yours.
4. You have to be able to end the point (i.e. smashing, loop kills) as well as your opponents do. This means either being able to end the point as well as your opponents, or being able to stop them from ending the point better than you can by not giving them shots where they can end the point. Ending the point does not always mean ending it with one shot - it can also mean a series of strong shots that win the point.
5. And finally, you have to have at least one strength that threatens your opponents as much as their strengths threaten you, and a way of getting your strength(s) into play.

You may have noted that tactics is not one of the five "keys." This is because tactics is part of all five keys. Stronger/weaker tactics simply make you stronger/weaker in each key.

Do some (but not all) of the above five keys, and your performance in a tournament will go up some, perhaps half a level, but not a full level. Developing a single "overpowering" strength won't raise your level as much as you'd think, as opponents a level higher will beat you on the less developed parts of your game. Even players at your "previous" level will still often beat you by exploiting these weaknesses. But ... if you improve all five things, even just a little bit, you'll go up dramatically.

What's stronger, a chain with four powerful links and one weak one, or a chain with five pretty strong ones?

Two of the most common reasons players don't play their best are overplaying and underplaying. Overplaying is when a player goes for shots that are beyond his level, such as trying to rip winners over and over rather than use more consistent opening attacks to set up easier winners (as well as winning a surprising number of points outright as opponents miss against your steady opening attack). Underplaying is the opposite - when a player plays too safe. Both of these often take place when a player is nervous. Under pressure, many players do one or the other, either getting wildly aggressive or too safe. The key is to find the right balance.

The way to develop a high-level attack isn't to rip every ball; it's to attack at the level you are consistent, and keep working to increase that level until you have a high-level attack. Way too many players want to rip that first ball when, if they'd take just a little off the shot, they'd be far more consistent and on the path to improvement. Top players may rip the ball harder on the first shot, but that's because they are farther along that road to improvement - they've put in the hours of developing that shot. So should you. So focus on making strong first attacks, and perhaps rip the next ball. A good general rule is this - until you have an easy pop-up, never attack at more than 80% speed.

The reverse are the players who have developed strong attacks, but are afraid to use them. If that's you, then the key is to simply learn to use those attack shots you've worked so hard to develop. If you can't do it in a tournament, perhaps work your way up to that. First use them in practice or league matches, especially against weaker players. Then against players your own level. When you can do that, then start using them in tournaments. If you have difficulty doing that, then the answer might be to play a series of tournaments in a row. That way you'll get used to playing tournament matches. You might only have to do this one time, i.e. find a series of weekends where you can play tournament after tournament, until you get used to it, and using the shots you do in practice becomes more natural to do in tournaments. Once you can do this one time, it's a habit you should be able to keep for a lifetime, at least as long as you practice enough to keep the shots in practice.

So a key to table tennis is that you not only have to develop your shots, you have to use them at the proper level, without over- or under-playing them, and keep developing your game so that this middle area gets better and better. 

There's a best-selling book called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The book lists these as the "7 Habits": 1) Be proactive; 2) Begin with the End in Mind; 3) Put First Things First; 4) Think Win/Win; 5) Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood; 6) Synergize; and 7) Sharpen the Saw. (There's also a best-selling sort of sequel from the same author, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.")

These books have had a major impact on many people's lives. And there's a correlation between some of these and the habits of "highly effective table tennis players." For example, you don't get to be a top player without being proactive, i.e. striving to do what it takes to improve. However, I'm not going to try to create a one-to-one correlation between the seven habits listed and ones used by top table tennis players. Instead, I'm going to list my own list of seven habits of "highly effective table tennis players." Follow these 7 habits, and see how it improves your game. Here's my list:

1. Loves to practice.
   It's not enough to just put in the motions. You have to want to improve, and want to so badly that you love practicing as it allows you to do what you want to do. Going through the motions with your mind blankly just going along is a waste of time. If you love to practice, you'll improve far faster than one who is just doing the motions.
2. Proactive in finding ways to improve, strategically and tactically.
   Strategic thinking is about developing your game for the future. Tactical thinking is about developing the habit of winning with what you have. You need to learn both, and you need to take the initiative in doing so. Don't leave this to your opponents, who will happily figure it out for you while beating you in competition. But when they do beat you, that's the feedback you need to analyze so you can find ways to improve.
3. Is working toward specific goals, both short-, intermediate-, and long-term.
   Mindless practice is just that - mindless. Decide what you need to work on, and focus on that like a laser.
4. A perfectionist in most or all aspects of the game.
   If you strive for perfection, you'll come a lot closer than one who strives for something less.
5. Never gives up, whether in tournaments or practice.
   Fighters do a lot better than those who don't have a burning desire to win every point.
6. Loves to compete and win.
   If winning isn't fun, then why are you practicing? Sure, you could be practicing just for the sake of having better shots or for exercise, but this isn't about the "seven habits of highly effective exercisers or having better shots without trying to become a better player."
7. Respects opponent's game while looking to dominate it.
   If you don't respect an opponent's game, it's hard to try your best against it. 

(Note - this was originally a blog entry, but I decided this expanded version was worthy of a Tip of the Week.)

When players play poorly, relative to their normal level of play, they usually attribute it by just saying they played poorly. That's circular reasoning - they played poorly because they played poorly? Actually, there's always a reason when you play poorly. And the reason is almost always mental.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Unless something is physical wrong with you or your equipment, or you are seriously out of practice, playing bad is always mental. Period. It's a simple concept that many don't get.

Is there something physically wrong with you? Don't say you are old or out of shape; these are constants that limit your playing level, but they don't make you play bad, relative to your normal level, since dealing with these factors is part of your normal level. No, something is physically wrong with you only if it's something that's not normal. Other common chronic problems that might lower your level include knee problems, back problems, sore arm, etc. But again, these do not make you play poorly; they simply lower your overall level of play. Maybe you were just tired? Well, that's a reason to play poorly; get more rest!

Is there something wrong with your equipment? This can happen, but it's rare. Usually it's your own fault. Is your rubber surface dirty and so not grabby as usual? Clean it. Is it getting old and so is losing its bounce? Get new sponge. (If you can't afford new sponge, then it's a chronic problem.) Is it humid? Keep a towel just for your racket and ball so you can keep them dry. I'll also include here other factors in the equipment category. I'm used to playing in near perfect conditions, and so when I play on slippery floors, on brown wood floors with orange balls (where the floor and ball are similarly colored so I lose the ball in the background), or in bad lighting, I play poorly. Is this an equipment problem or a chronic problem? This might classify as both. The fact that I don't play well in poor conditions is a chronic problem that lowers my overall level of play, but only in certain circumstances.

Are you out of practice? Whose fault is that? Solution: Go practice. If you don't have time to practice, then it's a chronic problem that simply lowers your overall level of play.

So if nothing is affecting your play physically, and you can't blame it on your equipment, and you are in practice, what can you blame your poor play on? Yes, it's all mental. There are so many ways a player can talk himself out of playing well. The most common is by harping on the poor shots instead of the good ones. Harp on the good ones, and you'll likely begin to emulate them. Harp on the bad ones, and that's what you'll continue to do since that's what you're thinking about, and the brain (i.e. the subconscious) tends to mimic what it is thinking about. Or perhaps you got nervous? Yep, that's all in your head. Or you got defensive when you had a lead? Another mental problem. Or you just weren't up to playing? Yep, that's mental.

I could go on and on, but the conclusion over and over is the same. When you play poorly, it's almost always mental. And guess what? With practice, you can get control over the mental aspect. You have to choose to do so, but once you do, you'll rarely have a bad day again. Here are some resources on sports psychology.

If you want to reach a high level in table tennis, it's pretty much a given that you need to serve and attack. There are many ways of doing this; it's just a matter of finding ways that match your game. At the higher levels, it's almost all serve and loop, though others serve and hit. You can serve backspin and loop against the likely pushed return, or you can serve topspin and loop or hit the likely countered or topspinned returned.

Should you try to serve and attack with your forehand? Or should you attack with your backhand? That's a question every aspiring player needs to address. And the answer is yes and no.

In general, the forehand attack is more powerful. Therefore, when possible, most players should look to follow their serves up with their forehand. Players who are very fast on their feet and with very good forehands might even force it, running around their backhands to play forehands nearly every time the serve is returned there (at least if it's deep enough to loop). Players who aren't as fast should still look for chances to follow up with the forehand, especially off weak returns off the serve that can be put away.

But even if you can follow the serve up with a forehand, should you do so every time? Probably not. A forehand from the backhand side puts you out of position, and so allows your opponent to block or counter-attack to your wide forehand. You may be fast enough to get to that ball, but it's going to wear you down, and even if you make the shot, it leaves you open on the backhand side. Plus, to cover that wide forehand, you probably have to more immediately after the first forehand, meaning you'll likely be open on your backhand side if the opponent returns the first ball there. The more you attack from the backhand side with your forehand, the more your opponent can get into a rhythm off your attacks, and so he'll get more and more consistent at it.

So rather than become predictable and allowing your opponent to get into a rhythm, mix in some serve and backhand attacks. If your opponent pushes long to your backhand, backhand loop. If you serve topspin and he counters or topspins to your backhand, drive or loop with the backhand. Don't let him get into that rhythm where he knows what you are going to do before you do it. Make him adjust to both forehand and backhand attacks - the shots come out differently, and can cause havoc if you mix them up.

There are advantages to backhand attacks. Besides staying in position, you are facing the opponent as you hit or loop the shot, so you can see what he's doing and where he's positioned right up until the instant you are committed to your own shot. This allows you to more accurately go after his middle (transition between backhand and forehand, usually around the playing elbow), or to switch to a wide angle if you see him out of position. Also, backhand attacks are often quicker and with a shorter stroke, and so will cause timing problems for the opponent, especially if you go back and forth between forehand and backhand attacks. Even the spins are different; most players get more topspin from one side or the other. (A surprising number of players get more spin on their backhand loops than their forehand, causing a lot of balls to be blocked off the end.)

Another consideration is your own serve. If you serve heavy backspin, you are likely to get a heavy push return to the backhand. There's often no huge advantage to looping this with the forehand, so you might as well backhand loop. On the other hand, if you serve with more sidespin or no-spin, and your opponent still pushes it, it's likely to have less backspin and likely pop up a bit. So for those serves you might want to favor the forehand so you can more easily put the ball away.

So develop both a serve and forehand attack and serve and backhand attack. Two guns are better than one.