One of the common problems I see are players who stand too far from the table when looping against backspin. They'll stand well off the table, with their contact point in front of them. This means that to put their weight forward, they have to fall slightly backwards to compensate. It's either that or resorting to a rather soft loop, with mostly upward motion, and little speed.

Instead, learn to almost jam the table with your left leg (for righties) when looping backspin. This allows you to rotate properly into the shot, even with the same contact point as the players who back up, since you'll be contacting the ball to the side of your body instead of in front. But now, with body torque, you'll have tremendous power, and so able to loop at all speeds. 

Having tremendous power does not mean you loop every ball with great speed. It means you effortlessly create power, and that power goes into both speed and spin. Go for about 50-50 on most shots, going for more speed against a weaker push or when you've really read it well. (Here's a Tip of the Week on creating "Easy Power.")

Standing closer to the table also allows you loop backspin a bit quicker. Some players even take them on the rise, but for speed loops, it's best to take them at the top of the bounce; for more consistent loops with a higher spin to speed ratio, take them perhaps slightly on the drop.

While this article was written about looping backspin, it all applies to looping against topspin as well, except the positioning is a bit more complex, depending more on the incoming ball. But against a softer topspin ball, you'd also want to stay close to the table and generally loop it around the top of the bounce, or even on the rise.

Here are three examples from the final of the recent Men's World Cup. These players don't push long a lot, so in the first game there were only three long pushes where the other player forehand looped, twice by Ma Long, once by Fan Zhedong. Watch how close they are to the table in all three cases.

• Ma Long 1 (7 sec in)
• Ma Long 2 (93 sec in)
• Fan Zhedong (59 sec in)

So remember - when you want to jam a loop down your opponent's throat, jam the table!

It's the lament of developing players everywhere: How do I get a good practice partner? You might get lucky and find someone at your local club who happens to be about the same level, has the same burning desire to improve, and is both willing and available to train at the same times and number of hours that you want to do so. If so, you've hit the jackpot, and your game will be going places.

But more often finding someone who meets all this criteria is difficult. So you may have to go to option two – develop a practice partner by practicing with a weaker player.

This enhances your chances in multiple ways. First, the number of players below your level is almost for certain far greater than the number of players right around your level, and so the chances are greater of finding a compatible partner. Second, because it gives a weaker player the opportunity to train with someone stronger, the incentive is greater, so you are more likely to find a willing partner. And third, it will likely force you to focus on your basics, i.e. re-enforce the foundation of your game, which is so often overlooked.

Let's elaborate on that last point. Many players look for practice partners at their level or higher, who can push them to a higher level. This often means playing faster and faster, which should make you better – and there's some truth to that. But what's often missing is the consistency part. If you ask a beginner and most intermediate players what the biggest difference between an average player and a top player, they would most likely say the pace they play at. If you ask a top player the same question, he'd likely say consistency. By hitting with a weaker player, you are forced to slow down a bit and focus on consistency – and that should be the foundation of your game.

How do you develop such a practice partner out of a weaker player? At the start you have to be patient as the player won't be able to play at either your pace or consistency. So you use your powers as the stronger player and focus on consistency as well as accuracy – keep the ball right to their forehand and backhand pockets, so they can fine-tune their strokes and develop their consistency. And a magical thing will happen –not only will they improve, but they will get more and more used to your shots, and soon they will be practicing with you on an almost even basis. (I've not only done this in the past with several practice partners, I've seen others do it many times.)

And note that they will be improving not because you are pushing them to play faster and faster, but because both of you are focused on consistency. Only increase the pace when both players are consistent at a given pace. (This is also a hint about practicing with any player – focus on consistency. Stronger players play faster because they are consistent at that speed.)

So if you are having trouble finding a good practice partner, change your mind-set and develop one, and together you can take the table tennis world by storm. 

At the beginning level, players serve without spin. However, these serves are usually pop-ups that any intermediate (or advanced beginner) can easily attack. As players move up the ranks they learn to serve with spin. But eventually players come full circle and begin serving no-spin again. Yes, this is a shocker to many players, but sometimes nearly half of world-class serves are no spin serves. Why is this?

These no-spin serves aren't beginner-type no-spin serves. At the higher levels, there are two key differences: the serves are very low (whether no-spin or spin), and there's the threat of spin. Since the receiver isn't sure at first whether the serve has spin or not, he can't just assume no-spin, nor can he get into a rhythm against the no-spin since he's getting a variety of serves with spin.

But the key question is why no-spin serves are effective at the higher levels. It would seem that serving with spin is key, and that a no-spin serve wouldn't be much of a threat. But it doesn't work out that way. Here's why. (We're talking about short serves where, given the chance, the second bounce would be over the table. If the serve goes long, then spin or not, the receiver will likely loop it.)

If you serve short backspin, then it is rather easy for a top player to drop it short – the backspin makes this easy as it deadens the ball for you. With the incoming backspin reversing on contact with your racket, it's also easier for the receiver to put backspin on the ball, wither pushing short or long. On the other hand, if you serve no-spin, while it's easier to read the degree of spin (since no-spin always has the same degree of no-spin!), it's not as easy to drop it short. Nor is it as easy to put extra backspin on the ball, since there's no backspin on the incoming ball to reverse – you have to create all the backspin yourself.

If you serve short sidespin or topspin, it's easy to flip. The ball just jumps off the receiver's paddle, and comes out as a topspin, which makes it easy to control the flip. If you serve no-spin, the receiver doesn't have this jump, and has to create all the force of the shot himself, as well as any topspin to control the shot.

So the overall result is that it's harder to drop short or put extra backspin on a push against a no-spin serve short than against a backspin serve, and it's harder to flip aggressively against a no-spin serve than against a sidespin or topspin serve. (A key thing here is serving low – a no-spin serve that's slightly high gets attacked much more easily than a spin serve that's slightly high.)

There's still another advantage of a no-spin serve. While it's tricky trying to serve one spin while convincing the receiver it's another spin, it's probably easier to fake spin and serve no-spin. You simply contact the ball closer to the handle and put it over with a vigorous follow-through, faking spin. This is especially effective if you fake heavy backspin but serve no-spin – watch the opponent push this back and pop it up over and over! And then when you serve heavy backspin again, the opponent is often unsure of the spin, and so puts it right into the net. 

So the lesson here is to learn to serve short with spin, and then mix in no-spin serves. You would be surprised how many top players consider the no-spin serve their "go to" serve when it's close.

One of the technique changes in the sport over the past few decades has been the gradual evolution of the back foot placement on the forehand from the standard position, with the right foot back (for a righty), to the feet often being parallel. This is not advisable for beginners, not until they have made the proper forehand rotation a habit. But as you learn to play faster and faster, and closer to the table, there's less time to move the foot back. This means some loss of power, but an increase in quickness – and that payoff is enough for most world-class players.

This only applies to shots taken near the table in a fast rally, where top players often take the ball at the top of the bounce or even on the rise. By keeping the feet parallel, they can execute these shots more quickly. (This is true for both hitting and looping, but these days loopers with tensor-like sponges dominate.) It's a riskier shot, taking good timing, but is often unreturnable, with the opponent often still recovering from the previous shot as yours whizzes past him.

There's an additional benefit. By keeping the feet parallel, you are forced to rotate backwards more at the hips and waist, which mostly makes up for loss of power from not having a foot back to push off from.

The question then is whether you should attempt this type of foot positioning on forehands. It depends on your level, quickness, fitness (in particular a supple waist), style of play, as well as your willingness to play riskier shots. Do you like living a little on the wild side, or playing it safe with the foot back?

Once you have reached an intermediate level, and can play forehands effectively, you can look to develop this shot. But it does take a supple waist to make up for that lack of the foot being back. If you train regularly and practice this shot properly, you'll develop that supple waist as well as the timing needed for the shot. It'll always be a somewhat risky shot, but the reward is both an often unreturnable shot, and the realization that you've just pulled off a genuine world-class shot. 

One of the best ways to dramatically improve your game is to develop serves that lead to developing other aspects of your game. The stronger serves and developing other aspects of your game lead to a higher level of play, meaning you get to play stronger opponents, which leads to further improvement. The stronger opponents force you to continue to develop the serves and other aspects of your game, leading to a snowballing effect that can, over time, dramatically improve your level of play.

I'm going to use my experience with this as an example. During my first few years I focused a lot on developing my serves. The result was I would get lots of relatively weak returns to attack. This developed both my attack and my footwork, which made me better both on my serve as well as in rallies. Because I became dominant on my serve and my attacks and footwork improved because of my serve, my overall level improved, and I began playing stronger players. Going up against better players pushed me to even higher levels. I was forced to improve my serve even more to keep them effective against stronger players. Since I had developed a strong serve and attack, as I played better players who received my serves better, I was forced to continue to improve my attack and footwork. The result? By developing my serves early on it snowballed my development. I was able to go from beginner to 1900 in about two and a half years, and 2100 in five. (With rating inflation, that's more like 2000 and 2200.)

So what does this mean for you? Develop strong serves that allow you to consistently serve and attack. Such serves don't have to give you easy pop-ups; it's sufficient that they consistently give you balls you can attack, while forcing a number of "free" points as opponents make mistakes (often from trying to receive so you can't attack). Develop both third-ball serves (that allow you to consistently serve and attack) and a few "trick" serves (that give you free points if not overused - most such serves become ineffective after a few usages). Learn to serve with great spin and deception (including no-spin serves that look spinny), both short and long, to all parts of the table, with different serving motions. If you aren't sure how to do these serves, talk to a coach or top player.