(Excerpt from Table Tennis Doubles for Champions by Larry Hodges. April is Doubles Month!)

Here are ten components, not necessarily in order of importance. On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you and your partner(s) come in on these ten?

1. Willingness to play as a team. Some players are simply unwilling or unable to make any adjustments to their game to make their team stronger. Example: If you have a good loop but your partner has a great loop, and you are hitting to someone who mostly pushes, then why loop when you can push, knowing it’ll set up your partner’s even better loop?
2. Experience in doubles. Well, this is obvious, isn’t it? Of course, reading this book can be a shortcut toward that experience—but nothing can replace playing doubles to gain experience. And make sure to see #8 below.
3. Experience together. The more you play together, the better you and your partner get at playing together.
4. Compatible styles. If you only play offense and can’t handle an opponent’s attack, and your partner is a defensive player who lets the opponents attack, then you may not have compatible playing styles. Of course, players can adjust their games to become more compatible. The defensive player could play more aggressively. Or you can practice what you are weak at, such as learning to handle the opponent’s attack—which would also help your singles game, of course.
5. Compatible personalities. It’s hard to play well if you don’t get along. Sometimes it’s obvious, with the players constantly squabbling. Sometimes it’s less obvious, such as one player yelling at the other, while the other stays silent—but inside is burning up at the yelling, and so doesn’t play well.
6. Communication skills. You are on a team. If you can’t communicate with your partner, you have a problem! This can be as simple as talking over what type of serves and receives are best, or more complicated, such as discussing footwork in different situations.
7. Tactical flexibility. If a player is unable to adjust his game to the various needed tactics in doubles, then his team will be at a disadvantage. For example, a singles player with a good blocking or chopping game may get away with pushing the serve back long over and over, but may need to push short in doubles. If he can’t do this, then his team will be at a disadvantage in many matches. (Note that it’s a LOT easier returning the serve short in doubles, where you know where the serve is going, it’s usually short, and the serves are often simple backspin or no-spin, so even if you don’t do it in singles, it’s easy to learn for doubles. More on this in chapter on Receive.)
8. Willingness to learn doubles skills. With experience, you’ll learn what you are weak at in doubles. Are you willing to learn these new skills, such as doubles serves (mostly short, from right-hand court), pushing short, doubles footwork, and so on?
9. Patience with your partner. If you are the type who rolls his eyes when your partner makes a mistake, maybe, just maybe, doubles isn’t for you. Or maybe you can learn to understand that disappointment with your partner for their play is like your forehand being disappointed in your backhand? It doesn’t make sense!
10. Self-confidence. Many players get nervous when playing doubles, since they are afraid of letting their partner down. Self-confidence is a must if you want to play your best in doubles. This doesn’t mean over-confidence, where you go for heroic shots you can’t do consistently. It means having confidence you can do the shots you normally use.

There are two main characteristics to consider in table tennis shoes. They are how well you can move in them, and how much support they give. (Durability is another issue, but I won’t go into that here.)

Table tennis shoes are designed to maximize mobility for table tennis movements – and that means mostly moving side to side. So, most table tennis shoes are made to essentially grip the floor, with relatively thin soles (especially toward the front), making it easy to move side to side. The treads are also designed for this, especially around the inside balls of the feet, where most of your weight should be in your ready stance and when moving.

The problem with thin soles is they give less support, which can lead to foot and knee problems. Younger players can generally get away with thinner soles, but as we get older, we need more support. You have to find a balance. If you play on cement regularly, then you need shoes with much more support than if you play on wood or a rubberized floor. The same is true if you play a tournament that’s on cement – you’ll want shoes with more support for that.

One option that I used during my playing years was to have two different types of shoes. For practice, I’d wear shoes with plenty of support. But at tournaments (and just before tournaments), I’d switch to ones with thinner soles and less support, as I felt I was slightly more mobile in those shoes.

One of the strangest things I often see is table tennis players wearing running shoes when they play, which are designed for running forward. They are literally designed for moving in ways you rarely do in table tennis, while hampering the very side-to-side movement you need. I wear running shoes as my normal shoes as they are great for walking and running, but I’d never consider wearing them in table tennis. Neither should you.

One last thing about shoes – consider the grippiness of the floors you are playing on. Newer shoes often grip the floor better, so if you are playing a tournament where the floors are slightly slippery, you might consider using new shoes. Or, as I did during my playing days, I used to use new shoes at tournament, then put them aside and go back to older ones in practice.

Ultimately, you have to decide what’s best for you in terms of shoes – but you are not alone. With a few questions, all the major distributors can recommend which shoes are best for you. That’s their job, so ask them. Your job is to do your best at the table – and that means getting the best possible shoes for you. That, along with practice and good technique, will make you a shoe-in for medals!

If you want to be good at table tennis, then you must have an excellent defense. And there are really only four types. You should be able to do all four when needed, if for no other reason than by learning to do it, it not only is there when you occasionally need it, but you learn the strengths and limitations of that type of defense and so are better at playing it. Here are the four – which are yours?

• Blocking, the most important. Essentially all styles should have good blocking games. Some players pretty much loop everything on the forehand, but if caught at the table, you need to be able to block, especially on the backhand where the body is in the way and so you are forced to take the ball quicker. But it’s not enough to just be able to block; if you want to be a good player, your blocking should be rock solid, as in you rarely miss unless the opponent does something to force you to miss, i.e. great speed, spin, placement, variation, etc. It’s all a matter or practice and mindset. Don’t get disgusted when you miss a block; get surprised, and know you’ll never miss that one again. Then go practice. Perhaps even play games where you try to win by pushing and blocking. Loopers like to loop, but the quickest way to beat a looper is to make him block – and the quickest way to lose to a looper is make him block and discover he can do that, too. (Even choppers need to block – imagine what an advantage it is if you suddenly catch the opponent off guard when you step in and block at a wide angle!)
• Chopping, a style in itself. If you are a chopper, then make yourself the best possible chopper, and that’s your primary defense. But chopping has value, both in certain situations, and against certain players. (Example – I was better against choppers than any other style in the world – but I always struggled when a non-chopper suddenly chopped a ball. Completely unexpected!) Especially learn to occasionally chop on the wide backhand when caught out of position, especially against an angled block.
• Fishing and lobbing, the most fun and spectacular shots in table tennis. Seriously . . . how can one play table tennis and not want to learn to fish and lob? Plus, they are valuable shots if used at the right time. The only weakness with fishing and lobbing isn’t the shots themselves – it’s fishing and lobbing when you don’t have to. They are so fun to do they can be addictive.
• Defensive counterlooping, a high-level and aggressive defense. This is the defensive shot that many leave off their list of defensive shots. But if your style is all-out looping on the forehand, often it’s best knowing that, no matter what, you are going to counterloop against any attack to your forehand side, perhaps from a few steps off the table. It takes the indecision away. (One exception – if caught at the table, even an all-out counterlooper ought to be able to do a reflex block against a powerful loop, when needed.) As long as you aren’t trying to counter-blast everything, or take everything off the bounce, there’s no reason – if you are athletic enough – why you can’t essentially counterloop everything on your forehand side (where the body isn’t in the way), and make that your primary forehand defense. (You can also do this on the backhand, but it’s harder, with a smaller hitting zone and the body in the way. Some great players can do this. That’s why they’re great players.)

Some say that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. But isn’t it just as insane to keep doing things differently and expect the same result?

Each of these have implications for table tennis.

First, if you aren’t improving at the rate you think you should, then perhaps you should consider changing how you train. Otherwise, you are doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Insane, right? But make sure you understand how improvement works. Improvement doesn’t necessarily mean you start winning more, not right away. It means parts of your game get better – and once those improvements are incorporated into your game, then you will see improvement in actually winning. But if you are working on a part of your game and it’s not improving, then consider how better to develop that part of your game.

Second, if you look back at the times you’ve played your best, you’ll likely find similarities in how you prepared before playing, both physically and mentally. Learn what they were, and keep repeating them. It may include what you eat, how you physically prepared and warmed up, and how you mentally prepared, such as finding ways to mentally clear your mind – some listen to music, for example, often the same song every time. Once you find a routine that prepares you to play your best, why would you prepare differently and expect the same result, i.e. playing your best? Insane, right? This is why so many top athletes are addicted to routine to the point of seeming superstitious. They aren’t really superstitious, but they’ve found out what routines prepare them to be at their best. Some of the things they do might not have any direct effect on their play, but the very act of doing it mentally prepares them – almost a Pavlovian response.

So . . . are you ready to reject insanity?

Many players enter tournaments with the primary goal of beating stronger (i.e. higher-rated) players. And that’s an admirable goal. But thinking that way is also a way of making sure you don’t improve as quickly and beat more and more of these stronger players. Why?

Central to beating anyone is having a game that allows you to dominate. There are many ways to dominate – serve and receive, strong attacks (often set up with serve or receive), great defense or consistency, and so on. But to learn to dominate against stronger players you first need to learn how to totally dominate and mow down weaker (i.e. lower-rated) players with all the aspects of your game that you’ll need against stronger players. That means playing lots and lots of matches against such players where your goal isn’t just to win – it’s to win easily while using different aspects of your game. Be a lawnmower. If you can’t consistently easily beat these weaker players in multiple ways, then your game isn’t yet solid enough to consistently battle against stronger players.

Here's an example of how you can learn to dominate by playing weaker players first. When I play a weaker player, I can dominate with my serves. Then I play a stronger player and they handle the serve better – and since I’ve relied so much on the serve against weaker players (and likely players my level), I’m not as good as I should be when they get past that. So, instead of using your best serves when playing weaker players (in practice), instead perhaps serve simple short backspin or no-spin serves, they push back long, and you start each rally off by looping. Obviously, you vary this if the “weaker” player keeps attacking your short serve or even drops them short. But the key is you learn to dominate with all aspects of your game by first developing them against weaker players – and then, when you can do that, you learn to do it against your peers and stronger players. And note that when you play a “serious” match against these weaker players, that’s when you bring out your best serves (or the other parts of your game you might not have been fully using), and really dominate.

It's not just serves, of course. If you dominate against weaker players with your forehand, try dominating against them with your backhand. If you your attack overwhelms weaker players, try blocking them down. And so on. The key is to learn to dominate with many aspects of your game – and you first learn to do that by using them to mow down weaker players, then your peers, and then stronger players.

The side benefit of doing this? You rarely lose to weaker players because you've learned how to dominate against them in so many ways. So, are you ready to be a lawnmower, and mow down those weaker players . . . then your peers . . . and finally those stronger players?