(By Larry Hodges) It’s wise to approach a match with the idea of using your strengths, but don’t forget to test your opponent as well. You don’t want to lose a match because you didn’t know about a glaring weakness in his game! This is why it’s often good to scout out an opponent in […]

(By Larry Hodges) When playing close to the table, you have very little time to make a transition from forehand to backhand shots, and vice versa. If you are playing a relatively quick backhand or in a fast rally, there’s no need to go into a backhand stance for this shot. Therefore, learn to play […]

(By Larry Hodges) There have been numerous discussions over the years over what is the most important part of table tennis. Many say the serve, or receive, or the forehand, or footwork, or consistency, or tactics, or mental strength, and so on. Of course, many of these discussions are like arguing which link in a […]

(By Larry Hodges) It’s often difficult to judge how much spin you are putting on the ball when you practice serves. Without this feedback, it’s not easy to improve your serves. So try this – find a large, carpeted room, and practice serving there. Spin the ball as if you were serving and try to […]

(By Larry Hodges) If you don’t have something that threatens your opponent, then you can’t threaten the opponent.  So, how do you develop something that threatens an opponent? You can’t do it by just training everything equally each session. You need to spend a huge amount of time developing the things you can do that […]

(By Larry Hodges) A major weakness of many players is an inability to change the pace, and thereby throw their opponent’s timing off. Not doing so is a quick way of helping your opponent’s timing. Many players try to change the pace, but do so unsuccessfully – either because they don’t know how to do […]

(By Larry Hodges) If you are primarily a forehand attacker, many of your opponents will get used to your relentless forehand attacks, often from the backhand corner, especially after your serve. Why not throw them off with a backhand loop? This is especially effective against an opponent who routinely pushes your serve to your backhand […]

(By Larry Hodges) Some players have reputation as being “winners” because they seem to be able to pull out close matches. There are two aspects to this. One is mental – nervous players don’t do well in close matches. The other aspect is tactical – you need to learn what to do tactically in a […]

(By Larry Hodges)  One of the more difficult styles to figure out is what to do against a player who attacks and blocks with a “dead” surface – either a slow inverted surface or short pips. The inverted may be slow because it’s designed that way (often for beginners) or because it’s old and used. […]