In a game dominated by forehand looping, many players forget there's another side and other point-winning shots. One of the best is the backhand loop followed by a backhand hit - a devastatingly effective one-two punch. It doesn't even have to be a backhand smash - quick, well-placed aggressive drive will usually win the point or set up an easy follow.

On the forehand side, many players loop over and over. It's usually easier on that side than on the backhand because you have a bigger hitting zone. On the backhand side, the body is somewhat in the way when backhand looping, and so you have a smaller hitting zone - mostly in front of the body. While many top players learn to backhand loop over and over, many players - including many top players - instead open against backspin on the backhand side with a backhand loop, and (if it's blocked back to the backhand, as most often happens) follow it with a backhand hit against the normal blocked return.

There are several advantages to this. First, as noted, it takes out the problem of the body being in the way, which is primarily a problem against a fast incoming ball (i.e. a block or topspin). Second, a hit takes less time than a loop, so even if your opening loop is quick-blocked back at you, you aren't rushed. Third, it means the opponent has to adjust to both your spinny topspin backhand loop and your not-so-spinny backhand hit. And fourth, it's easier to make last-second changes in your placement with a backhand hit, allowing you to move the ball around the table more easily (to wide angles or to opponent's elbow, the midpoint between forehand and backhand).

You should vary the placement of your opening backhand loop. (And loops to an opponent's forehand are often more effective, since most players block better on the backhand.)  However, most players tend to block crosscourt against an incoming crosscourt loop. So if you have a good backhand follow-up, it's often an advantage to open crosscourt, where you both have more table (across the diagonal, corner to corner), and can expect a return to the backhand. This allows you to dominate with that backhand loop & hit one-two. Or open to the middle, which most players will cover with their backhand (when blocking), and usually also block back where the ball came from.

The key to developing a good backhand loop and hit - besides getting some coaching - is to really commit to the two shots. Decide you will backhand loop any deep ball with backspin, and that you will backhand hit any blocked or topspinned return. This tends to simplify things for you while complicating it for the opponent, who has to adjust to both. (You can actually backhand loop against a short ball with backspin with a wristy shot, but that's another topic.) When going for the backhand hit, some players think of it more as a punch-block, where they essentially hit a hard block, right off the bounce.

So take down your opponents with your new dynamic duo, or force them to feed you easy forehand balls to avoid it. 

Want to twist your opponent into a pretzel? You can do so with one of the most common serving combos in table tennis: short serves to the forehand and long, breaking serves to the backhand.

Short serves to the forehand are usually more awkward to handle than short ones to the backhand. This is because the wrist is freer on the backhand side to adjust the racket angle, and also because contact is made in front of you, right in front of your eyes, instead of to the side with a forehand receive. Long serves to the backhand are usually trickier to handle than long ones to the forehand. This is because most players loop better on the forehand side, and because you have a bigger hitting zone on that side than on the backhand side, where a breaking serve can be awkward to handle.

Serving short to the forehand or long to the backhand also maximizes the amount of table the receiver has to cover. Suppose you serve very short and wide to the forehand, so the receiver has to contact the ball one foot from the net near the sideline. Suppose you serve long to the backhand, so the receiver contacts the ball about a foot past the end-line behind the backhand corner. Then the distance between these two contact points is about 6.7 feet. (The same is true, of course, if you serve short to the backhand or long to the forehand.) If you instead serve short and long to the forehand (or to the backhand), then the distance is about five feet. That's over 20 inches of extra movement for the receiver. It's even more if you serve wide to the backhand, and perhaps break it even wider with sidespin, so the receiver has to take the ball from outside the backhand corner. The contact points between a short serve to the forehand and a deep breaking serve to the wide backhand can be seven feet apart.

So why not combine these two into a deadly duo?

You can do this with forehand or backhand serves. (It's usually a bit more effective with a forehand pendulum serve, which allows you to break the deep serve to the backhand away from the receiver. However, a backhand serve type sidespin allows you to actually break the short serve a bit away from the receiver, though not as much since has less travel time.) Make sure to start out the same, with the same motion until just before contact. Then either serve very low and short to the forehand, or a long, breaking serve into the backhand.

Short serves are often best where the second bounce on the far side of the table, if allowed, would be near the end-line. However, in this case, it's better to serve very short to maximize how much distance the receiver has to reach to get to the serve. Make him cover the full seven feet.

The receiver also has to prepare for the deep serve into the backhand. By making it break, it makes the receiver reach even more. (This is especially true if you can break it away from the receiver, such as a forehand pendulum serve if both players are righties.) It's often effective to focus on deep spin serves, but not too fast. A fast serve to the backhand can often be more easily backhand countered, using your own speed against you.

So the receiver has to be ready both for the quick step in to reach the short serve to the forehand, while also covering that deep, breaking serve into the backhand. This is not an easy task, and leads to many mistakes. On top of that, it also makes it almost impossible for a receiver to forehand loop the serve from the backhand side.

So twist your opponent into a pretzel as he tries to cover these two diagonally opposed serves that the human body was never designed for. Make him cover the full seven feet as you turn him into a cooked pretzel . . . and break him. 

At the intermediate and advanced levels (below world-class level), the most common rallying style combines forehand looping and backhand hitting. These players often attack backspin by looping from both sides, but once in a fast topspin rally mostly hit on the backhand side. It's simply easier for most to loop in a rally on the forehand side because the body isn't in the way, so you have a huge hitting zone. On the backhand side, players are often cramped as they try to backhand loop a fast incoming ball, so hitting is easier and more effective. This often means trying to hit the backhand close to the table while looping the forehand from farther back. How can a player handle this?

The problem is that hitters usually play closer to the table than loopers. If they stay at the table to hit their backhands, they are jammed and rushed on the forehand side if they try to loop. If they take a step back to loop their forehands (usually after the top of bounce), their backhand hits become late and less effective. This is further aggravated because most players hit their backhands on the rise, before the top of the bounce, meaning they want to play the backhand even closer to the table. Many players face this type of problem, even at the world-class level. Players such as Gue Yuehua and Jan-Ove Waldner favored hitting or blocking their backhand close to the table, combined with a looping forehand, and they are considered two of the greatest players of all time. So how do you solve this problem? There are several options.

First, let's look at what a hitter does. Often he hits the backhand on the rise, and the forehand at the top of the bounce. This isn't a problem because when you turn sideways to hit the forehand, the hitting zone opens up and hitting at the top of the bounce is easy. So there's no problem in hitting backhands on the rise and forehands at the top of the bounce. The problem is when the backhand is hit on the rise and the forehand loop on the drop. Here are six ways to handle this problem in a fast rally.

1. Develop diagonal footwork. Playing a quick backhand but a forehand loop farther back means moving diagonally back and forth rather than side to side. So practice this footwork in drills. Start with a practice partner alternately hitting balls side to side as you develop the footwork and strokes together. Then have your partner hit the ball randomly side to side as you learn to react to these shots as if it were a game. (It might be easier to do these drills with a coach or player feeding multiball rather than doing it "live.")
2. Learn to both hit and loop the backhand. If the ball is coming at you very fast, or if you are close to the table, favor the backhand hit. If you have more time, or are off the table, you favor the backhand loop.
3. Hit the backhand at the top of the bounce. Just as there's no real difficulty in playing the backhand on the rise and the forehand on the drop, there is no real difficulty in playing the backhand at the top of the bounce and the forehand on the drop. You can still start the rally by hitting backhands closer to the table, but once into the rally the natural distance would be half a step back. (And alternate version of this is to simply learn to backhand loop in the rally - but of course that defeats the whole purpose of this article, which is how to combine a hitting backhand with a looping forehand.)
4. Loop the forehand at the top of the bounce. This takes some athleticism, and isn't for everybody. But if you are fast over the table and can smoothly and rapidly loop the forehand, you can hit the backhand on the rise and loop the forehand at the top of the bounce. Sometimes you will be forced back on the forehand, and in those cases you'll have to play your backhand late (playing backhand at the top of the bounce, backhand looping, or fishing), but when you do play the forehand at the top of the bounce, the extra effectiveness of the shot (opponents have little time to react) offset that. If you go this route, you'll want to play with a somewhat shortened forehand loop stroke.
5. Play the backhand with your feet in a slight forehand stance. For most backhands you don't really need your feet in a backhand stance. And so many players play their backhands with their right foot slightly back (for righties). This gives them a slight head start in playing their forehands, allowing them to play the backhand closer to the table while still reacting to a quick shot to the forehand. Make sure when hitting backhands that the upper body is rotated to face the direction of your shot; it is only the back foot that should be in a slight forehand position.
6. Learn to loop the ball late in the forehand zone. This means taking the ball near the back of the big forehand hitting zone that is created when you turn sideways. Some players learn to loop the forehand so late in the zone that they almost take it behind their body. This means learning to loop with the contact point almost directly to the side of the body, by the right shoulder (for righties). Players who do this tend to lose power (less time to accelerate), can be rushed (since they only have a small part near the back of the forehand zone to contact the ball), and have trouble going crosscourt. I don't particularly like this option, but some players do this effectively.

I've put these six very roughly in order of preference, but everyone's different. Experiment, take your pick or picks (you can use more than one method), and go through your opponents like a buzzsaw with your two-winged hitting/looping attack. 

Far too often players don't think tactically, believing the game is too complex for them to play and think at the same time. And it's true that you shouldn't be doing any conscious thinking during a point. But between points a smart player does think tactically. The key is to keep it simple.

"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 developing reflexive tactics to cover other situations." (That's the opening of my upcoming book, "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.") What does this mean?

The first part means you don't need to fry your brain working out complex patterns or finding ten ways to beat someone. Find two or three simple ones, and that'll usually suffice. Be flexible in adjusting these tactics if they stop working or trying out new ones, but keep it simple.

The second part means you should develop the habit of thinking tactically, and your subconscious will get the idea. It'll soon become automatic - you'll develop reflexive tactics to cover most situations. If you tactically tell yourself to play certain shots in a certain way to a certain spot against a certain player, it soon becomes automatic both against him and against similar players, and you can focus on just two or three other tactics instead. To any experienced observer, you'll be playing a very smart tactical game, but in reality you're only aware of two or three aspects of it. You should be no more consciously aware of most of your tactical play than you would the angle of your racket when blocking a loop - not aware at all. You just do it.

Most tactics should become second nature, allowing you to focus on just two or three things in any given match. And yet you'll be playing many more tactics without even thinking about it, because they will have become ingrained on your subconscious. You'll be tactically placing your shots side to side and in and out, varying the speed and spin, and doing all the tactics necessary to win - and you'll barely even notice you are doing it. What a smart player you are!

So many players have this strange idea that the best way to develop a smash is to, well, smash a lot. It seems to make sense, but isn't always the best way. I've seen this in student after student - they work on smashing by smashing a lot, and the balls spray all over the place as they ingrain the habit of spraying the ball all over the place. Smashing is, first and foremost, a precision shot, and if you practice smashing by spraying the ball all over the place, you are being counterproductive.

Instead, focus on driving the ball only at the pace that you can control, and develop the precision at that speed. As you get better, increase the speed. If you find yourself spraying the ball all over the place, take it down a notch. Precision comes from good technique and timing, and these are things you should work on at a pace you can control. Spraying the all over the place is a great way to develop bad technique and poor timing.

How do you develop the precision needed to have a consistent smash? It starts with the fundamentals. A coach can help you with this, but here are five techniques that lead to precision on the forehand smash. (Most apply to the backhand smash as well.)

First, balance and positioning are key. If you aren't in position, or if you are off balance or not set for the shot, everything will be thrown off. When you turn sideways to hit a forehand, you have a big hitting zone to hit through, so positioning isn't so hard as long as you have active feet to move into position. You don't have to be fast, you just have to develop the habit of getting into position for each shot. If the ball is smashable, even a slow person should almost always have time to get into position. And balance is part of this, since if you step to the ball instead of reaching, you'll usually stay balanced.

Second, always use the same backswing. I believe this is the single biggest problem with players who can't smash well - they vary their backswing, and so never develop precision. It's like trying to hammer a nail where you bring the hammer up differently every time. Find that perfect spot to backswing to, and do it every time. Even if the ball is high, backswing to the same spot, and then raise the racket as needed in a continuous motion. It should become so natural and automatic that any variation to the backswing should feel unnatural and strange.

Third, use the whole body in a smooth progression from bottom to top - legs, hips, waist, shoulders, and forearm. (No wrist needed for this shot - it takes away some of the precision, though some do use it for extra power, especially against shorter balls. More often a wristy smash will just cost a player precision.) Many players tend to overuse their arm, resulting in a strained and awkward smash. The arm (specifically, the forearm) breaks into the shot only near the end, as part of the natural progression, after the shoulder rotation.

Fourth, and closely related to the third item above, is that you shouldn't have to strain to smash. A good smash is the result of good technique as power is created from that progression from legs to forearm. If you have to strain for a shot, it means you are overusing one muscle group at the expense of others. Here's a simple test - you should be able to smash at full power while carrying on a conversation. "Full power" may be misleading since you shouldn't actually try to smash using every muscle at full power. If you try to do so, you'll just get jerky muscles that don't work together instead of the smooth progression needed, and you'll lose both precision and power. Think of using each muscle at perhaps 80% power, which allows you to use all the muscles in conjunction, which actually leads to "full power."

Fifth, there should be a slight upswing with most smashes (unless the ball is somewhat high), which results in topspin to control the shot. Even a little topspin greatly increases your target area by making the ball drop. With a fast and grippy inverted surface, the upward part of the strokes is small; with a slower, less grippy surface (including all non-inverted surfaces), there should be a little more upward motion. Careful, however, not to stroke too much up, leading to a "rolling" forehand, where a player starts with the racket too low and strokes with too much topspin for a smash. This might be the beginning of a good loop (and some players use a loop kill instead of smashing whenever possible), but not very good for a smash. Instead, focus on meeting the ball more straight on, with only a slight upward motion, and sink the ball into the wood. There should be a satisfying smack when you make a good smash.

With these five tips, and with overall good technique, you can turn your forehand smash into a weapon that'll terrify opponents as they struggle to find ways to avoid it - which is a double-whammy, since you can dominate with both the smash itself or with the other strengths of your game that your opponent is no longer focused on avoiding.