Training doesn’t take place only at the table. There’s also shadow-practice, which you can do anywhere. (There’s also physical training, but that’s another issue.) It’s very difficult to change or develop a new stroke, and learn the timing at the same time (i.e. while hitting at a table). It’s much easier to change or develop a stroke separately with shadow practice, and then learn the timing. For example, when I decided earlier this year that I needed to learn to change my grip for my backhands, I spent way too much time shadow-practicing it until it became automatic to change the grip when I moved to hit a backhand. When I finally tried it at at the table in random drills, the change was automatic and reflexive.

While away from the table is also when you should be thinking about how you can improve. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your game? How can you turn the strengths into overpowering ones (both the shot itself and ways to get it into play) and remove weaknesses? How do you see your game in the future? What drills should you be doing to reach that? Perhaps discuss it with a coach, top player, or your playing partners - they very likely know your game and may have a good perspective on what you should be working on.

Here are two tips:

• Shadow Practice for Strokes and Footwork.
• Shadow Practice for Fitness and Improvement

It's a two-step process. Focus on both steps, and it'll happen.

First, think about the game a lot. There are really three realms here – technique, tactics, and sports psychology. The more you think about them the better your understanding will be. Think about every aspect. If you have questions, ask someone experienced and knowledgeable. (Or buy a good table tennis book that will make you think about the sport!) A true student of the game learns all he can, and this makes him both a better player and a better coach. Note that this thinking should take place primarily away from the table. Once you are at the table, you have to let your training take over, where you limit your thinking to between points, focusing on simple tactics. Too much thinking there just freezes you up, whether it's in a match or training.

Second, talk to smart table tennis people. You will be amazed at how much you can learn by listening. There are weak players who are smart players - and you can learn from them. There are also strong players who really aren't smart table tennis people, but they know their game, and you can learn from that. (Long ago I learned that you can divide top players into those two categories – table tennis experts, and experts only on their game.) You can also learn a lot by talking to average players who are not necessarily smart table tennis players. Unless you literally think you know more about every aspect of table tennis than they do, you can learn something from them. Plus, you learn how other players think, which helps in developing your own tactics. (For example, I’ve sometimes fallen into the trap of thinking opponents think too much, where I’ll think, “This is what I should do, but he’s expecting that, so I better do something else.” I’ve learned that the large majority of the time, opponents aren’t expecting the obvious, or at least aren’t ready for it.)

Tactics can be complicated because there are so many possibilities and so many styles to take into account. They are simple because it usually comes down to finding one or two simple tactics that work. Remember my mantra, "Tactics isn't about finding complex strategies to defeat an opponent. Tactics is about sifting through all the zillions of possible tactics and finding a few simple ones that work."

But with all those zillions of possibilities, how can you simplify things so as to find a few simple ones that work? I've written a number of tips on how to do so, but here's a simple one anyone can follow, and you only have to think about two things.

First, what do you do that threatens your opponent? Once you decide that, what can you do to get that into play?

Second, what does your opponent do that threatens you? Once you decide that, what can you do to keep that from coming into play?

See how simple that was?

Stop what you are doing. Go to 7-11 or some other store that sells chewing gum. (Bubble gum is fine.) Buy some and enjoy its sweet flavor and perhaps even a burst of energy from the sugar. (Or get sugarless.)

Now comes the part that every club owner is going to yell at me for. Put the gum on the heel of your shoe. Now go play and never let it touch the ground.

This sounds silly, and it is - and yet, I think you get the idea here. When playing, you need to keep your weight toward the front inside part of your feet, around the balls of your feet. There should be no weight on the heels. In reality, the heels should brush the floor, but no more. But guess the best way to develop the habit of not putting weight on your heels? By keeping them off the ground - and that's where the chewing gum comes in.

In training sessions, you might even try walking between points without putting your weight on your heels. It'll help you develop the proper leg muscles. (1967 World Champion Nobuhiko Hasegawa made a habit of doing this to develop those muscles – and his leg muscles positively bulged.)

Now a reality check. I've never actually put chewing gum on the heels of my shoe, nor have I ever seen anyone else do so. You don't actually need to do it. The point is that the chewing gum idea gives you an idea of what your feet should be doing when you play. Imagine that gum on your feet, and keep the club owner happy by not getting it on his floor.

Many coaches, including myself for many years, encouraged up-and-coming players to return serves aggressively, even against short serves. So, they learned to flip short serves aggressively, allowing them to control the point. This often worked. But then I noticed that these types of players, in the long run 1) rarely develop good touch with pushing (short or long), and 2) rarely develop a good defense when the other player attacks.

What does this mean? Players who are willing to push long against short serves are developing two things.

First, they develop the backspin ball control that will allow them to push effectively, both long and (later on) short. At higher levels especially, if all you can do is return long (whether pushing or flipping), then opponents just step back slightly and loop everything back at you. That's why top players all need to learn to push short as well - and you can't do that by waiting until you are relatively advanced and then starting from scratch. You are years behind in developing the backspin touch that others learned by pushing serves back, first developing the long push, and then, when you have good backspin control, pushing short as well.  

Second, they don't learn how to play effectively when the opponent attacks first. We can all live in a dreamworld where whenever the opponent attacks, we effortlessly counterloop as if we were Ma Long. But realistically, you need to be able to handle many or most of these attacks by blocking, especially on the backhand.

Conclusion? Even if you can flip short serves, if you do it all the time, you are limiting your development. Instead, learn to both flip and push (both long and short), and learn to deal with opponent's attacks. (Learn to push long effectively before learning to push short.) And here's the part that you may most need to hear. If you generally have trouble with the opponent's loop when you push long, then guess what you need to do? Push long in practice games as a regular thing until you both have an effective deep push, and are comfortable with the opponent’s loops. When that happens, you'll be a better player.