Once you have reached a certain level, it’s easy to rest on your laurels. That doesn’t mean you don’t work hard to improve your game. It means that you work hard only to improve the parts of your game that you have already developed.

Instead, be a learning player. You should experiment and learn something new every time you play. If you don’t, then you are stuck in a rut and will find it difficult to improve as fast as you could if you kept learning. Experiment! Try out new things. In particular, try out different serve variations, different receives, deceptive moves on a shot, changes of pace, and different placements. I played a much stronger player recently and got a game off him for one reason only – I discovered that if I occasionally dead-blocked to the middle of the table, he got soft, while if I did it to his forehand or backhand side, he was all over it. Guess what I did? But I wouldn’t have learned that if I hadn’t experimented, and now I have a new weapon against him – and probably against other, similar players.

Experimenting doesn’t mean you spend most your practice time trying out all sorts of shots. There’s a time and place for everything. In most drills, you need to focus more on repetition so you can perfect the shots. But mastering a shot doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also be experimenting, especially in game situations.

So, what are you experimenting on and what have you learned?

When you practice your spin serves – and you do, right? – after a few minutes, your arm and wrist are tired and you’re sweating right? No? Then you aren’t putting in full effort and therefore not getting full spin.

When I say “tired” and “sweating,” there’s some literary license, but the point is that serving with great spin is rather physical. If you want to maximize your spin, you have to maximize your racket’s acceleration and velocity, and the grazing motion.

Many players practice their serves with a focus on just control. Control is good, but it’s only one aspect of a spinny serve. You have to put in enough energy to really make that ball spin, and with all that racket acceleration and speed, still graze the ball. It’s not as hard as it sounds, but it takes practice.

And if you are practicing your spin serves with less than maximum spin, then you are practicing serves that aren’t that spinny, which is a bad habit (unless you are faking spin and serving no-spin). It’s practice, so go for maximum spin, and learn to control it. With practice, you will do so, and then your spin serves will be a major weapon. Turn your practice room into the spin room!

As a player, I’m old-school – my backhand flip against a short ball is light topspin, basically a standard backhand drive against most spins. Against short, heavy underspin, I just open the racket and drive up and forward, and focus on medium speed and spin, depth, and placement.

But these days top players almost all have modern banana backhand flips, where their backhand flips are basically mini-loops from over the table, with both topspin and usually sidespin. As a coach, I learned to do this, but nobody did this in my serious playing days, and so it’s not that natural for me to do it in a match, though I sometimes throw one in.

So . . . what type of backhand flip should you develop? (Note that it’s also often called a “flick,” especially in Europe.)

If you are an attacker and striving for a high level, then you should develop a banana backhand flip. It’s the norm at higher levels. You can find all sorts of demos of them on YouTube, or watch most top players on video.

But they take a lot of practice to develop properly. Unless you are going to put a lot of time into it, you might consider just a regular backhand flip, without the extreme spin. It’s not that hard to do, and the more you use it, the more consistent it becomes. Older players may also find the banana flip awkward as it can put some stress on the arm.

So, which type of backhand flip should you develop? You decide. But notice the question wasn’t whether you should develop a backhand flip . . . it’s which type. You need one. It’s a valuable tool for your game, especially on receive. If you don’t have one, then you flipping better get one!

Why do so many players continue to pound the ball out at an opponent who is a step off the table, ready and waiting for that shot? They are not only ready for a hard-hit ball, but it lowers your own consistency as you continue to hit the ball hard against an opponent who is in position to best handle those hard-hit balls.

Instead, why not change the pace by just patting the ball back soft? By doing so, you:

• Throw off the opponent’s timing
• Catch the opponent out of position
• Set yourself to attack the next ball, which will often be a soft return that you can pound?

So, instead of pound-pound-pound, why not try pound-pat-POUND!!!

Bonus – do this with your stronger side. If you have a strong forehand and they see you playing a forehand, the last thing they’ll expect or be ready for is a soft forehand block – which will often set you up for an even easier forehand on the next shot.

Double Bonus – you can also do this soft block with a chop block or sidespin block, which is usually easier to do on the backhand side.

Most players serve from the backhand corner. It’s logical – it allows you to serve and stay in position. A normal ready stance would be with your middle (playing elbow) around the middle of the table, which means your body is mostly to your backhand side. Since many players have stronger forehand attacks or have more reach on that side, many players edge that way even more. And so it’s natural to serve from the backhand side.

But many or most players do it over and Over and OVER!!! Why allow an opponent to get used to where you are serving from? I’ve found that if an opponent gets used to my serve from the backhand side, often all I have to do is use the same serves from the forehand side and they suddenly get very uncomfortable and erratic. So, why not serve from the middle or forehand side, at least as a variation?

Serving from the forehand side also gives you an angle into the forehand, where a short serve can be especially effective against some players. In fact, since forehand short receive is awkward for many players, some will reach over and receive backhand – leaving themselves open if, at the last second, you serve deep to the backhand. When serving from the forehand side, learn to serve both short and long to the both sides, using the same motion.

Serving from the forehand side does mean your opponent can return deep to your backhand, and so you have to be ready for that. But it’s not hard to serve from the forehand side and follow through on the serve by moving back toward your backhand side. And if you are stronger on the backhand side than the forehand, then serving from the forehand side puts you in perfect position to dominate with that backhand.

So, why not experiment with where you serve from? Imagine that look of discomfort from your opponent the first time you do this!