Have you ever been in a close match, began to think about winning and losing, and fell apart and lost? Or perhaps you were winning, began to think about it, and again fell apart and lost. It’s almost certain that you have been in both scenarios. So how do you avoid this?

A key thing is to have something else to think about. The mind can only think about one thing at a time. As an experiment, try thinking about what serve you might use in a match against a specific player you play regularly, and see if you can think about winning and losing at the same time. You can’t – in fact, the very thinking about what serve to do will likely wipe away most nervousness as nervousness comes from thinking (i.e. worrying) about winning and losing.

So give your mind something else to focus on. And that should be basic tactics. In theory you could think about anything else, but then you might not be paying attention to what’s going on at the table, and you probably wouldn’t play so well or as smart. But if you focus on basic tactics you get a double whammy – you play smarter table tennis, and you stop worrying about winning or losing. The key is to keep it simple; don’t overthink. Focus on why you are winning – which serves, receives, and rally shots are winning points for you. Ask yourself:

• Which serves are working for you? This is the one time where you have complete control of the start of a rally, so take advantage of it. Focus on what to do with expected receives, but keep the mind clear and ready for anything.
• What receives are working for you? Focus on what to do with expected serves, but keep the mind clear and ready for anything.
• What types of rallies are working for you? Focus on the one or two most important things. It could be specific placements, a type of shot you want to use, or something as simple as “keep attacking.” But again, keep the mind clear and ready for anything.

If you keep your mind on these basic tactics, then you’ll keep your mind occupied so you won’t think about winning or losing, which is a quick way to blow a match.

Here are a few additional tips:

• If you are winning and start thinking about it, perhaps convince yourself that you are losing. Reverse the score in your mind if necessary. Then think about what basic tactics are winning points for you, and focus on those.
• If you are in the “zone,” and playing extremely well, the worst thing you can do is think about it. If you do, just smile inwardly, and think of yourself as an observer watching while your body and subconscious perform. (But you’ll get the credit!)
• If you do lose your focus in a contested game, that’s when to take a time-out. Any time you lose focus you need to clear you mind, and then get it back on track, thinking about basic tactics and nothing else. 

Free Points – who wants ‘em?!!! Oh, you, the reader? Well then, here’s the easiest way to get a free point in table tennis – a fast no-spin serve to the middle. (That’s usually the opponent’s elbow, the transition point between forehand and backhand, though it varies for some players.) Here is what often happens when you do this:

• Because it comes to the middle, the receiver has to make a snap decision on whether to use forehand or backhand.
• The receiver then has to move quickly against a fast incoming ball, often after a slow start as he decided between forehand and backhand.
• Because it comes fast, the receiver is rushed and has little time to make these decisions and movements.
• Because the receiver has little time to make these decisions and movements, he tends to shorten his stroke and lose some control.
• Because it has no spin, the ball tends to “dies” when it contacts the opponent’s racket.  
• Because the receiver tends to shorten his stroke and lose some control, he isn’t able to generate the extra force needed to lift the no-spin ball, nor does he have the control to get the proper racket angle, and so the ball dies and goes into the net.
• Because the ball is coming fast, and most fast serves have topspin, the receiver tends to receive it like a topspin, and so goes into the net.

Even when this serve is read properly, most players are forced to take the serve late and lift it, often setting the server up for an easy attack. But unless overused, many receivers will struggle with this over and over. If used two or three times a game, this is a free point about half the time against players rated under 2000, and it can be pretty effective against stronger players as well. It is especially effective against your normal two-winged player, who is ready to receive forehand or backhand. It is a bit less effective against a one-winged looper with fast footwork, who will usually loop the serve, but against that type of player you change and serve fast no-spin to the wide corners.

How do you do the serve? First, learn a basic fast topspin serve. Contact the ball perhaps a foot behind the end-line, as low to the table as possible (below net height), with some topspin. Hit it so it hits as close to your own end-line as possible; this maximizes how much table you’ll have for the ball to drop on the far side. By serving crosscourt you’ll be able to serve faster, but you should also learn to serve it down the line and of course to the middle. If the ball hits near your end-line, crosses the net low, but doesn’t bounce within about six inches of the opponent’s end-line, then you haven’t maximized your speed.

Put bottles or other targets on the far end of the table, right at the edge - one on each corner, and two where the opponents’ playing elbows would be. (One for a righty, one for a lefty.) Then practice serving fast and knocking them off. Until you can do this pretty consistently, you aren’t really controlling your serve. Use targets that won’t fall over or you’ll have to constantly pick them up. (But it’s fun to sometimes use paper cups and see how easily you can knock them off the table.)

Now you’re ready for the real point-winner – a fast no-spin to the elbow. There’s only one difference between this and a regular fast topspin serve: at contact, instead of putting topspin on the ball, you hit the ball with a very slight downward motion. Don’t think heavy backspin; it’s more of a glancing downward blow to put a little backspin on the ball. If you serve no-spin, after two bounces on the table the ball has topspin. To truly deaden it, you need a little backspin at the start.

Now work on speed. Because you won’t have topspin to pull the ball down, you won’t be able to serve a no-spin (or slight backspin) quite as fast as with topspin, but you can still serve it very fast. It just takes practice. Put the target where the opponent’s elbow would be, and practice hitting it as fast as you can. If you have trouble generating speed, stop trying to serve on the table and just serve as fast as you can. Then gradually work on getting the ball to hit the table, slowing down the serve only as much as necessary.  

The fast no-spin serve to the middle is not nearly as hard to learn as it might sound. You just have to put in a few hours of practice. And once learned, you’ll have it for the rest of your table tennis life – and the number of free points you’ll get from the serve over a lifetime will dwarf the time you spent on learning it. 

Far too many players judge themselves by their results rather than their performance. While it’s importance to use results as goals, all you can really control is your performance. What’s the difference?

Performance is what you do. Results are what happens based on the performances of both you and your opponent, as well as perhaps some luck. (Bad luck comes in many ways, such as nets and edges; bad draws, such as drawing a playing style you don’t play well against; or ill-timed injuries or illnesses.)

It’s normal to be unhappy with a poor result. But there’s a huge difference between a high-performance loss and low-performance win. You need to judge them separately. There really are four possibilities:

1. Happy with result/happy with performance
2. Happy with result/unhappy with performance
3. Unhappy with result/happy with performance
4. Unhappy with result/unhappy with performance

The first case is win-win - go celebrate! Have a hot fudge banana split. That doesn’t mean you can relax and rest on your laurels. You might be able to coast and keep your current performance level, but guess what? The players you beat are all gunning for you, and will likely raise their performance, especially against you. So if you want to keep the same result, you need to continue to improve your performance.

The second case is cause for celebration, but should leave you determined to play better. No hot fudge on your ice cream. You won, and should be happy with this result, but know you should have performed better. Perhaps you won because the other guy didn’t perform well enough or perhaps you got lucky. You should celebrate the win, but be dying to get to the playing hall to practice and get your performance to where it should be.

The third case is bittersweet. You played well, and yet you lost. Have some plain vanilla ice cream. Now you have to make a calculation: Do you want to put in the effort needed to improve your performance to the point where you might change the result? There are no guarantees; you may practice and train with the best coaches and still lose, even to the same player who might also improve his performance. But guess what? If you put in the time, your changes of changing the result to a win go up dramatically. And even if you don’t change the result in question, you’ll be a better player, and you will have better results overall.

The fourth case is the toughest. You played poorly and of course have nothing to celebrate. No ice cream for you. You know you could have played better. You should be dying to get to the playing hall so you can practice and eventually put in the performance you know you can do. You may or may not change the result, but you’ll at least be satisfied that you did your best – and your chances of the changing the result to a win go up dramatically.

In all four cases, you need to examine the match, see where you won and lost, and practice to improve your performance in both of those areas for next time. Bottom line: Judge your performance by your actual performance, and use results as goals to reach by improving your performance. 

Nearly all top athletes are creatures of ritual. This isn’t superstition; it’s a way for them to systematically be at their best. This includes finding little ways to always be at their best physically, mentally, tactically, and equipmentally. (Yes, I just coined that term.)

• Physically, this means preparing for play the same way each time. This includes getting enough sleep at regular hours; eating properly (and a lot if you train a lot); hydration; and proper warm-up. Warming up isn’t just at the table; it means doing, for example, some easy jogging and stretching before play to get the body ready. Once at the table, it means going through a systematic practice routine that allows you to warm up and tune up all of your major techniques. It also means having snacks and drinks ready during a session.
• Mentally, this means preparing yourself so your mind is at its best for play. This is probably the most overlooked area. Nearly all top athletes have a routine for this. For example, many listen to music, often a specific song or musician, which gets them mentally ready. Others meditate to clear their minds. Most top players develop little rituals at the table as well, perhaps tapping the table with their hands or bouncing the ball a certain number of times before serving. Everyone needs to find their own way of doing this.
• Tactically, this means going over the tactics of the upcoming match (assuming you are about to play games). If you know the opponent (either from playing, watching, or scouting him), then you should decide what the most important things to remember should be, and usually get it down to a few simple items, such as 2-3 serves, 1-2 receives, and 1-2 rallying tactics. (This is slightly more than what a coach should tell you, but you should be able to deal with a few more things on your own, since you are choosing them.) Above all, remind yourself to stop and think about these things periodically during the match to make sure you are actually executing the needed tactics. The tactics should be flexible, and change as needed, but you should make a habit of always having a rough plan. If you don’t know the opponent, then your tactics should focus on what you want to do, and adjust as you learn how your opponent plays – which shouldn’t take long.
• Equipmentally, this means having the proper equipment on hand. There’s the obvious: your racket, covering, and shoes. Make sure they are in good condition. Then there’s the less obvious: backup rackets, towels (especially if it’s humid), and a wet cloth or paper towel to step on between points if the floors are slippery. Make a habit of making sure you have everything present and ready. 

Playing backhands at the start of a rally is easy, since you are in position. But what do you do when you've been moved to your wide forehand, and have to move quickly to cover the wide backhand? You have three movement options - diagonally in, diagonally sideways, and diagonally back.

1. Diagonally In. For this, you would move in to cut the ball off quickly, before it has a chance to get past you. If you are a close to the table player, then this is what you'd want to do. You also might want to do this if you were moved off the table when covering the forehand; moving in gets you back to the table. By moving in and taking the ball more quickly, you rush the opponent, or at least don't give him time to wind up for his next shot. When moving in like this, most players block or drive the ball. At the advanced levels players can move in and backhand loop the ball, often on the rise. The downside of moving in, of course, is that you have little time, and so either simply don't have time to do so, or are rushed and so make mistakes. You don't want to rush your shots, so only move in if you have time, or if you are doing a relatively simple block.
2. Diagonally Sideways. This is the most common way, and what I'd recommend for most players. This gives you time to do your best backhand shot, whether driving or looping, without backing up so much that your opponent has too much time. If you want to improve, you should endlessly practice moving side-to-side where you move mostly sideways. Many players may have a small diagonally in movement when covering the backhand because most players tend to take the ball quicker on the backhand side than the forehand, but if it's only a little, then it's essentially sideways.
3. Diagonally Back. This is a defensive method, and should normally be done only when absolutely forced to. Players who strongly favor the forehand often find themselves rushing about playing the forehand, and when moved to the wide forehand, often have to back up to cover the wide backhand. If you are forced back in this way, you will most likely be spinning soft with the backhand or fishing, or (if really in trouble) chopping or lobbing. (If your style of play is chopping, then there's nothing wrong with this. But if you are an attacker who is forced to chop because of this, then you are probably at a disadvantage if forced to chop.) If you find yourself forced back in this way on the wide backhand, there are two things to consider. First, try and make your shot as effective as possible, given the circumstances - and that mostly means keeping your ball deep, ideally with good topspin. Second, consider what got you into this situation in the first place, and find ways to avoid this situation.