Many coaches and players try to fix problems by fixing the symptoms. In many ways, this is what separates a good, experienced coach from, say, a top player who knows proper technique but isn't that experienced in coaching it.

Here's an example. Suppose a player tends to fall back as they loop forehands. The "simple" solution, of course, is to tell them to focus on rotating around and forward into the ball, i.e. "don't fall back." And many coaches try this many times, and it doesn't work – because they are treating a symptom of a problem rather than the root of the problem. The real question is why is the player falling backwards – and the answer almost every time is that he's too far from the ball, with his left leg too far from the table. And so he's forced to reach a bit forward. The falling back is to keep his balance. Solution: Have the player stand closer to the ball, with the left leg closer to the table. Then he'll have a natural rotation into and through the ball, with no falling backwards and off balance afterwards.

Here's another. Some players struggle to rotate their body backwards (to the right for righties) on the forehand. The more they try, the more awkward they look. I've seen coaches struggle with this, not being able to figure out why the player has so much trouble with something that's so easy for others. And so they'll keep telling the player to rotate more on the forehand. But the player simply can't do the rotation comfortably – the symptom of a problem – because they haven't fixed the root of the problem – which usually is their knees are facing forward. If you watch top players, the knees point somewhat outward in their ready stance, which allows easy rotation in either direction. Here's an example – see how the knees point somewhat sideways, not forward?

And here's another. Often players struggle to get great spin on their serves. Rather than converting most of their energy into spin, and getting slow but super-spinny serves, their serves go long, with only moderate spin. Often they are told to graze the ball more, but when they try, they are unable to do so – because the inability to graze the ball is a symptom of a problem, not the root of the problem. The root of the problem usually is they are contacting the back of the ball, often toward the top. If they want to graze the ball more, they need to contact more under the ball and more on the side. If the player doesn't change his contact point, he'll continue to struggle to graze the ball as his racket will be approaching the ball too directly to graze the ball, resulting in a flatter contact. You can still get moderate spin this way, and many players (and coaches) settle for that, never realizing how they are limiting themselves.

Here are ten tricky things you can do to win a few points here and there – as well as make the game more interesting!

1. Muscle-Tensing Ball Clench. When hiding the ball under the table at the start of a match to see who serves first, subtly clench the muscles in the hand not holding the ball, and you're opponent will likely choose that hand, giving you the choice of serve, receiver, or side.
2. The Left-Right Shuffle. This is for when you are playing someone who will almost for certain push your serve back, and who will push to your wide forehand if you leave it open. (We'll assume both players are righties for this.) You serve backspin to their backhand, and then, before the opponent hits the ball, you step to your left as if you are looking for a forehand from the backhand corner. Then, just as the receiver is predictably pushing to your open forehand, you step that way and have an easy forehand loop.
3. The Server Stare. As you are serving look intently at one spot, but serve to another spot.
4. Ready Position Switch. As the opponent serves, change your ready position. You can vary from a neutral position, a backhand position, or a forehand position.
5. Funky Serves. There's nothing like a weird serve to throw an opponent off. For example, did you know it's legal to serve off the back of your hand? The racket is considered to include your playing hand below the wrist. Or any weird or "funky" move as you serve. Some Japanese players are infamous for rather weird arm contortions as they serve. Or just develop some sort of rare serve that might not be so effective on its own, but because they don't see it often, if you use it sparingly it becomes effective.
6. Varying Bounce Serve. Before serving, bounce the ball on the table a number of times, as many top players do. Most of the time do the same number of bounces – say, five – and then quickly serve. Then, at a key moment, only bounce it once, and then quickly serve. It may throw off your opponent's timing.
7. Fake Loop. When an opponent pushes, wind up as if you are going for a big loop, but at the last second push. Your opponent will likely be getting set to block, and so will be caught off guard by this.
8. Dummy Loop. Loop the ball, but keep your wrist up so there's little snap into the shot. Exaggerate your follow-through. The ball will look spinny but will be relatively dead, and your opponent will likely struggle to adjust or he'll go into the net.
9. Dummy Push. Push, but use no wrist at contact, and just pat the ball back rather than spin it. Right after contact do a big wrist snap. The push will look spinny but will be nearly spinless, and the opponent will likely pop it up or go off the end.
10. Last-Second Changes. With any shot, aim one way, and change directions at the last second. This is especially effective with short, quick shots, such as pushes and blocks, but also works for other shots, including loops. 

Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In some contexts, this might not seem to make sense. If you are learning something new in table tennis and can't get it right, you keep doing it over and over until you do get it right. However, the key point is this – if you are learning something new and keep missing, that means you are doing something wrong, and until you change that, you'll keep missing.

Change is the key when learning. And yet, over and over, players do the same old things and expect different results. I'll watch players lose because they keep blocking an opponent's loop off the end, and then, instead of doing some saturation training to fix their blocking, they'll go practice what they've always practiced – looping, hitting, whatever – and of course that's why they are strong on the things they practice a lot, and not strong on the things they don't practice as much. Or they'll be unable to return a certain serve, and yet, when it's over, rather than find someone who can do that serve so they can practice against it, they'll practice the same things they've always practiced. They won't even try to learn the serve that gave them trouble, when of course it might be a weapon they could use against others.

So go take a good, hard look at your game. What problems do you see? What can you change to fix that? Perhaps ask a coach or knowledgeable player the same question. Then address the problem. 

When learning new techniques, many players make the mistake of trying to remember the specifics of each shot. While this is important to know later as a checklist to go over when the shot is off, this is not the way to learn a new technique. Instead, your goal is to get the shot right one time, and then remember the feel of that shot – the stroke and contact – and then repeat. If you get the feel right, all the specifics will fall into place.

When your shots aren’t working and it doesn’t feel right, that’s when you might need to go through a short checklist for the new technique to find out what’s wrong. But again, the goal is to get the feel right, and then put the checklist aside.

So learn both the feel and the specifics of each new technique you learn, and write the latter down – that’s an assignment – and then forget about them and focus on the feel. When the feel is right, so will the technique. When the feel is wrong, and you can’t figure out why, that’s when you pull out your checklist to get back to the right feel. 

Many players are much stronger on one side than the other. Often this is the forehand, but not always. They generally find tactical ways through serve, receive, and placement to cover for their weaker side while trying to dominate with their stronger side. This often works, to a point. However, it means accepting an inherent weakness in one’s game, which often becomes a barrier to improvement.

Slightly stronger players – the ones you are trying to learn to compete with – will usually have the tools and tactical skills to play into this weakness. For example, if you have a strong forehand but weaker backhand, a smart opponent will simply serve fast and deep to the backhand, and hit fast, quick rally shots there, with the threat of a fast serve or shot to the forehand if you try to cover the backhand with the forehand. Or he might serve short to the forehand, drawing you in over the table, and then go deep to the backhand. Or he might just serve deep to the forehand and quick-block your return to the backhand. There are many ways of finding the weak side. 

Supposed you are stronger on one side. Much of this might be because of your grip, playing stance, or just your mental mode, where you focus on the strong side (for example, are stuck in “forehand mode”), and so get caught on the weak side. But these are relatively easy things to fix, if you know what you are doing. (If you don’t, get a coach or consult with a knowledgeable player.) Spend some time developing that “weaker” side so that when you are forced to use it, it’s pretty strong, even if not as good as your stronger side. It might be as simple as learning to mentally change from “forehand mode” to “two-winged mode,” or even “backhand mode.” Or it might mean small changes in your grip or stance.

What you want to do is to dominate many points with your strong side when you can, but also force your opponent to sacrifice his own normal tactics, forcing him to instead use his tactics to find your “weaker” side. To do so he’ll have to adjust his tactics and game, which puts him at a disadvantage until he actually gets to the weaker side, which essentially means he’s willing to give up points in return for doing so. And then, when he finds it, you want him to find that weak side isn’t so weak, and that even after giving up points to get to it, he still has a difficult struggle to score.  

And so he’ll be stuck trying to decide whether it’s worth giving up points to find your “weak” side, which isn’t so weak, or give up on the tactics that avoided your “strong” side – and so you’ll be able to play your strong side more often. It gives him a no-win tactical choice. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?