Good technique should feel right. If it doesn't, there's probably something wrong with it, and you should probably have a coach take a look at it. Good technique feels right because it is, almost by definition, the simplest and most efficient way of doing that particular stroke to maximize speed, spin, and/or control.

What this means is that once you have gotten the basics of a new technique, you don't have to go through a checklist to make sure you are doing it properly. (Let a coach do that.) A coach or top player can help identify when you have done a "good" stroke, the one whose feel you should remember and repeat. There might be one or two things you need to remember and focus on while developing the stroke, but mostly just remember the feel of a good stroke, and try to repeat it. Learn the specifics only so you can get the right feel back. Then just let the shot go.

Besides the stroke itself, you should remember the feel of the contact. This is how you maximize control, as well as spin and speed. A consistent contact, combined with a consistent stroke, leads to great control and consistency.

When something feels off, then all you have to do is remember the feel of the stroke and contact and it'll come back to you. Try to remember a particular practice session or match where the feel was just right, and regularly use that memory to get the proper feel back.

While you don't need a checklist for your technique, you should have a specific memory of a time when you were doing it just right, and remember the feel of it. Then all you have to do is replicate the feel of the shot, and you should be able to do it just right again. Do this every session, and watch your level improve. 

What is the proper ready position? It's the position that'll allow you to react most rapidly to the opponent's next shot. It's extremely important in a sport as fast as table tennis. And yet many players have very poor ready positions. They stand up too straight, their feet are too close together, their weight isn't on the balls of their feet, and their non-playing arm hangs loosely at their side like a dead snake.

You want your feet somewhat wide (at least shoulder width apart or more), at least slightly bent, and either parallel to the table or with the right foot (for right-handers) slightly back. The latter puts you in a slight forehand position, but many players actually play their backhands from that position. If you play a flatter, steadier backhand (i.e. blocking and countering), then you don't need to be in a backhand stance to play backhands. The more aggressive you play the backhand (hitting or looping) the more you'll need to be in a ready position that allows you to quickly move into a backhand stance, and so you would want the feet more parallel to the table. Experiment and find what's comfortable for you.

Some players stand in a very backhand stance and greatly favor their stronger backhands. This may work for them somewhat, but it further weakens their already weak forehands. They would probably do better to adopt a more neutral stance.

The racket should normally point at the opponent, or more specifically, where the opponent would hit the ball. This allows you to move to forehand or backhand equally well. Some players tend to hold their playing arm out to the side too much, and so are more ready for forehands than backhands. Try holding the racket more in front of you, even if it means bringing the playing elbow more out in front.

Some players, including me, prefer to hold the racket in a slight backhand position (so the backhand side is partially pointed toward the far side). Conventionally, the backhand is hit quicker off the bounce than the forehand. This means you have less time to hit the backhand. In many cases, this doesn't matter since the stroke is shorter. I find the backhand rushed and awkward when starting from a truly neutral position, while the forehand, where you have plenty of time to get the paddle into position as you turn sideways, is much easier. So years ago I adjusted my ready position so that the racket is in that slight backhand position. This gives you a head start on backhands, while I still have plenty of time to move the racket over for the forehand. I don't normally coach this, but I have advised some players who feel rushed on the backhand to experiment with this.

Weight should be equally distributed between your legs, with your weight centered and balanced, with weight toward the inside balls of your feet. The feet should point slightly outwards, allowing quick sideways movement. Lean slightly forward at the waist. The non-playing arm should be raised as a counter-balance to your playing arm, with the hand at least as high as the elbow.

Want to see examples of good ready positions? Google "table tennis ready position pictures," and dozens of great examples will come up. Pick what looks right for you.

You also want good playing shoes. (A good ready position with bad shoes is like running in dress shoes; not a good idea.) Ideally, get table tennis shoes, which are made for table tennis. They range from what are essentially socks with rubber soles (i.e. highly flexible but little support) to ones with great support. If you have foot problems, are overweight, or play mostly on cement, you probably need extra support. Don't use running shoes, which are designed for running forward, not quick side-to-side movements.

Here's an easy way to find a good ready position. Imagine you are covering someone in basketball. Notice how you automatically spread your legs and bend your knees? This lowering of your center of gravity puts you in the proper ready position, allowing you to move quickly either way. (The only catch - lower your arms, since you don't have to cover someone trying to shoot a basketball over your head!) You can use similar examples for a shortstop in baseball or a goalie in soccer. 

Serving low is one of the most underestimated skills in table tennis. The problem is that while some opponents will attack slightly high serves, more often it simply gives the opponent more leeway for their returns, making both controlled and aggressive serve returns much easier. Players at the beginning and intermediate levels often get away with slightly high serves for a time, especially if they have otherwise good serves (i.e. spinny or deceptive), but inevitably, at some point, they will lose winnable games because of these serves, often without realizing the problem. A low serve forces the opponent to hit up on the ball instead of driving the ball forward, making receives more difficult.

An exercise I sometimes recommend to players is to stand to the side of a match between a very strong player and a much weaker one and see the contrast. You may have to watch several match-ups as there are relatively strong players who don't serve super low just as there are weaker players whose serves almost skim the net. Watch the world-class players and see not only how low their serves cross the net, but how low the ball bounces on the far side.

So how do you keep your serve super low? Here are five tips. 

1. Contact the ball low to the table, ideally at about net height. The higher the contact point the higher the ball will tend to bounce. There are top players who contact the ball seemingly high but that's because they've developed such incredible touch that they can get away with stretching this. It's a lot easier to have a low contact point than to have incredible touch.
2. Barely graze the ball when serving, especially when serving short with spin. The more you graze the ball, the more energy goes into spin instead of speed, giving the ball a lower bounce. (You should graze the ball even on no-spin serves, since the key to a no-spin serve that looks like a spin serve is using a regular spin motion but contacting the ball near the slow-moving handle, so grazing the ball will not create much, if any, spin.)
3. Don't think of it as serving low. Think of it as a struggle to get the ball over the net. If you contact the ball very low and barely graze the ball, there should be little energy in the motion of the ball, and it should barely even reach the net, much less go over it. So instead of trying to lower your serve, think of having to raise your serve so that it barely goes over the net.
4. Note that the key is not just serving low to the net, but making the ball bounce low on the far side. Besides serving so the ball crosses the net low, you do this by having the ball bounce on your side as far from the net as possible. It's easier to serve short by having the first bounce on your side be relatively close to the net, and that's how it's usually taught. However, as you improve, move the first bounce farther from the net. If the ball bounces near the net, it has a higher upward angle to cross the net, and so bounces more downward on the other side, meaning much of its energy is going downward, which means it'll bounce up higher. However, if the first bounce is farther from the net, then it'll cross the net with a lower angle, and so bounces less downward on the other side, with more of its energy going forward instead of up, and so you get a lower bounce. The problem, of course, is that the farther from the net the first bounce is the harder it is to serve short (with the forward energy making it go deeper), so you have to practice and work on seeing how far away from the net you can make the first bounce and still keep it short. (Jan-Ove Waldner is often credited with being the one who discovered this connection between first bounce and the height of the bounce.)
5. Practice!!! When you can start half the rallies with a low, spinny serve, you have a tremendous advantage. If you want to have this tremendous advantage, you know what to do. Go to it.

One of the more subtle ways of turning an effective serve into an ineffective one is to telegraph it. Players often telegraph their serves for years and never realize it. They get away with it because most players don't pick up on it, and so don't realize the server is essentially signaling the serve in advance. However, as you reach higher levels, opponents pick up on these subtle signs more often, often subconsciously, and the server doesn't realize it - he just thinks he's playing stronger opponents who return serves better. The most common example are servers that telegraph whether they are serving long or short.

As an example, I recently played a top player, rated about 2350. He would serve short most of the time, but about every fourth serve he'd switch to a deep serve to my backhand. I could see it coming every time (and would step around and loop it with my forehand), but it took two games before I figured out what was giving it away - whenever he served deep, he'd set up with his racket slightly farther back and more closed than when he was going to serve short. I beat him three straight, and then told him what had happened.

There are many other examples; players tend to set up differently for different serves. They may start with their racket in one position to serve short backspin, another for sidespin and topspin serves, perhaps another for no-spin. Or it might be something more obvious. For example, many players like to high-toss serve, but can't really control them. And so the serve might always be predictably long, or the same type of spin over and over. (Many high-tossers serve only backspin serves that go long.) One player I know always sticks his tongue out at the start of his serve motion when he's serving deep! (I used this against him for years, both as a player and when coaching against him.) At the recent U.S. Open one opponent had an obvious different motion for his short and long serves, and so very early in his service motion perceptive receivers were already moving in for short serves or preparing to loop the long ones. 

How do you read a telegraphed serve? If you observe the server, you might not consciously see differences in his serve motion any more than you consciously see differences in, say, people's faces. But subconsciously, just as you can recognize a person's face without consciously seeing what makes it different, you can subconsciously recognize different motions that go with different serves. Once you can do that, you can try to figure out what it is that gives the serve away - but surprisingly, from a player's point of view, that's not important. All that's important is that you are able to recognize what the serve is in advance. Let your subconscious be your guide.

How do you avoid telegraphing the serve? It's actually very simple. Set up each time as if you plan to serve the same serve, and only after you are set to serve do you "change" your serving plan to what you really want to serve. This doesn't mean you can't decide earlier what serve you are going to use; it means that after deciding what serve you are going to use, you still consciously set up as if you are serving your most common serve, and then make the mental switch to the serve you are really going to use.

Five-time U.S. Champion Dan Seemiller once told me that he could often tell what an opponent was serving before they served. The subtle clues are often there, you just have to look for them, both consciously and subconsciously. Trust your subconscious when it picks up on something. It usually knows what it's doing. 

Okay, let's be up front about this - the game is not all mental. Or is it? At least indirectly, everything comes from the mental side. Even physical training cannot be effective unless you push yourself - and that's mental. Even more specifically, as a member of the USA Mini-Cadet Team recently reminded me, once you are out at the table playing a match, the game is all mental.

To quote Derek Nie (age 11, rated 2146), "You can't improve your skills at a tournament. So at tournaments, the game is all mental." I was his coach at the Eastern Opens a few weeks ago when he said this. He is a wise fifth grader.

In the middle of a big match, you are not going to get stronger, faster, or improve your stamina. You are not going to suddenly learn how to loop if you couldn't do so before. You won't suddenly learn techniques you didn't have before. What you have is what you brought into the match, and how you use them. The former you no longer have control over; the latter you have complete control, if you know how to do so. And it's all mental.

The mental game generally breaks down into two aspects: sports psychology and tactical skills. Sports psychology is your ability to play your best despite the pressure of a match. Tactical skills are your ability to figure out how best to use what weapons you have - and much of that comes from clear thinking that comes from sports psychology. Together, they should be your primary focus in a match. If you are able to play with relative calm and focus, and are able to think clearly and figure out how best to use your various techniques to win, you have a strong mental game. And that is why the game is all mental.