Dang it! How'd I miss that?!!! I can't play! These (or perhaps harsher words) are the words of a player who is trying too hard, i.e. pressing too much. This is also true if you feel like saying these things during a match but hold back. They are symptoms of a player wants to win so badly they can't play well, and so don't win nearly as often as they could.

Instead, learn to play with a more relaxed attitude. This doesn't mean no emotion, but only positive emotion. The more negative emotion you have, the less confident you'll be, and the harder it will be for your subconscious to do the things it's been trained to do, i.e. play table tennis at your "normal" level.

When you do feel these negative thoughts, there are sports psychology methods to overcome them. However, it's far, Far, FAR better to play with an attitude where you rarely face such thoughts during the match.

You do want to try hard, but in a different way. You should be fighting physically and mentally. But you should be battling an opponent, not yourself. Instead, focus on individual points, think simple tactics, and let your training take over. Have fun, stay cool, and you'll maximize your chances of playing your best - and yelling, "Yes!" at the end.

If you are the type of player who has trouble generating power when forehand looping, try out these five tips -  call it the "Fearsome Fivesome" - and you'll be surprised at the improvement. (If you have natural power, then here’s the most important tip – don’t worry about power, just let the shots happen naturally – don’t try to muscle the ball - and instead focus on consistency and placement. See #4 and #5 below.)

1. Use a wider stance, with your legs farther apart. This leads to a greater weight transfer and thereby more power.
2. As you backswing, bring your wrist back as well, so that it can naturally snap through the ball during contact. You should especially use wrist against a slower incoming ball, such as a push.
3. Contact the ball more from your side as your body is rotating. Many players contact the ball too much in front, with their arm going forward after the body has already rotated, and so end up swinging mostly with their arm, with contact in front.
4. Focus on "easy power," where you let the muscles smoothly contract in rough order from bottom to top (from legs to forearm & wrist), rather than try to spastically "muscle" the ball.
5. Almost remember that consistency and placement is more important than raw power. Instead of trying to rip it through their waiting forehands or backhands, try a relatively fast but consistent loop that goes to a wide corner, to the opponent's middle (midpoint between their forehand and backhand), or done deceptively where you aim for one corner, and as your opponent to reacts to that, change directions to the other corner.

Rarely have I heard more (and often weird) opinions on what to do at the end of a close game. Some say, "Play safe!" Others, "Go for it!" And a zillion other types of advice. The reality is that the end of a game is only different in two ways.

First, there should be no holding back on your best serves or best shots. If you have a serve that gives the opponent trouble, earlier you might not have wanted to overuse it and let him get used to it. But now is the time to use what worked before. He may know it's coming - and yet, you should probably serve it anyway. If you don't, and you lose with a weaker serve, you'll be kicking yourself afterwards, and your opponent will likely also be glad you didn't use it and wonder why you didn't. But this comes with experience - if you think the opponent is looking for that serve and so will be able to make a good return off it, then perhaps set up as if you are doing that serve and cross him up with another. While serves are the obvious example of something to use at the end, you should also bring your other winning shots into play. If the opponent had trouble earlier against your heavy push, now's the time to make him face it! (But assume he handles it this time and be ready.)

Second is the psychological aspect. Ideally, you should be calm and ready to play your best. But the reality is some players get nervous in a close game. But guess what - so does your opponent! So mentally prepare yourself for these situations, and remember the opponent faces the same thing. When serving, have confidence knowing you have control over your serve, while your opponent is under much more pressure trying to return a serve since he doesn't know what's coming. When receiving, just clear your mind and do what you do best when receiving - but don't overthink it. (If you really need help on the sports psychology side, Google it, or even "Table Tennis Sports Psychology," and lots of helpful resources will come up.)

Ultimately, regardless of the score, you want to play the highest percentage table tennis you can. If that means attacking, you should mostly be attacking whether the score is 0-0, 5-5, 8-10, 10-8, or 10-10. Play your game as that's the best way to maximize your chances of winning, no matter the score. And one last simple tip - ignore the score in a close game, and just focus on the one point. Isn't that all that matters at the time you play it?

There's a famous song, "Dumb Ways to Die," that one of our top juniors use to play endlessly as a fun way to relax, often before a big match. (Years later and I still can’t get it out of my head.) Maybe someone should do a song, "Dumb Ways to Lose"? Over the years I have seen so many players find dumb ways to lose that I've concluded that losing was, in fact, their goal. If your goal is to lose, I am here to help! And so, here it is . . . "Dumb Ways to Lose," i.e. Larry's Guide to Losing. 

1. Spend the week before the tournament on your sofa watching TV, eating potato chips, and drinking soda or beer. Do the same the week afterwards to console yourself.
2. Use old, worn-out sponge and playing shoes.
3. Show up at the last minute so there's no time to warm up. Warming up is for sissies.
4. Eat a big meal just before your big match.
5. Always figure out the right tactics to beat your opponent after it's too late.
6. Actually, why worry about tactics at all? Who needs to think? It's not like you're playing chess or something. Just play and if you play better, you'll win, right?
7. Try to be highly emotional, with a full panorama of negative emotions: Anger, Disgust, Sadness, and for the emotionally talented, Complete Hopelessness. Practice these emotions on your friends while you still have them.
8. Just before your most important match of the tournament, discuss politics or religion with someone, or just watch the news.
9. When you miss an easy shot, that's all you should think about for the rest of the match. I mean, seriously, you should have made that shot, right? It was so easy! Keep telling yourself that.
10. Constantly think about your opponent's rating, how many rating points you are risking, and the score. These things are important!!!

Before a drill, players often ask, "Who's doing the drill?" The answer is, of course, both players. And that includes a player who is blocking. But it's more than that - some would say one player is doing a footwork drill while the other is blocking, but that's totally wrong. They are both doing a footwork drill. Good blocking takes good footwork. If you don't move, then your blocking can fall apart like a crumbling wall.

Like all strokes, you block better when you have one basic technique, instead of having to reach to the left or right and alter your blocking stroke to adjust. The problem is that, when faced with a hard-hit ball, that's often what a player reflexively does. But that's the point of practice, so you can develop proper reflexes. Just as with other strokes, the proper reflex is to move to the ball, so you can block each ball with essentially the same stroke, with minimal reaching.

This doesn't mean you never reach for a ball, only that you should train your reflexes so you start by moving to the ball, as well as reaching if necessary. For a righty backhand blocker, this means moving right to cover the middle, and moving left to cover the wide backhand. A key to this is not waiting to see if you have to move - assume you have to move, whether it’s an inch or a foot or more, thereby getting a quicker start once you see the direction to move. This should involve a slight "hop" between shots as you prepare to move - watch videos of top players to see this.

You also have to be able to move in to block. You should normally be positioned so as to block deep attacks, but if a loop lands short on the table, you should move in and block it aggressively.

How do you develop these reflexive habits? Practice! In this case, perhaps have someone loop over and over to one side, backhand or forehand, but intentionally moving the ball around so it sometimes goes wide, sometimes toward the middle. (Below the elite levels, this will likely happen regardless of where they are aiming as they might not have the control to hit these spots - meaning you get good practice moving!) Focus on stepping to each shot and catching them just right, over and over.

Once you do this, you'll find blocking easier and more consistent. And then your blocking will become a wall!