Chapter 11 -Tactics

When you have learned your preliminary strokes well and have had the opportunity for a great deal of practice, you will find that your table-tennis game is quite good. By this time you should have a fair comprehension of the theory behind your strokes and should be able to analyze your varied strong and weak points.

Since table tennis is strictly a game of competition, and since most orthodox players perform their strokes in a manner similar to yours, you will increasingly be faced with the problem of defeating the player who is armed with a similar repertoire of strokes and similar knowledge of their use. In other words, you will meet many players whose mechanical games are on a par with your own. And yet some of these players will lose to you in com­petition and some of them will defeat you with ease.

The reason for this lies in your, and their, choice and execution of tactics.
Tactics is a hard term to define. It is quite easy to see the result of tactics, the result of one player playing to his opponent's weaknesses, forcing his opponent to use his weaker shots instead of his stronger ones. Tactics means brainwork, playing with your head, so to speak.

It is impossible to set down hard and fast rules for the use of tactics in a table-tennis match. To do so in itself would be to make a tactical blunder, because our analysis of the situation beforehand might not fit the conditions during the match. Anything could happen in the course of the play—from a broken arm or a bad case of nerves to a complete breakdown of offensive or defensive strokes, forehand or backhand. And everything, no matter how trivial, that did happen would influence our preconceived tactics if properly weighed and taken into consideration.

So, unlike our rules for stroking, we can give you no set rules for tactics. What we can do is to give you some gentle hints as to the best methods of playing various types of table-tennis opponents. First, let us consider singles.

AGAINST THE BLOCK-SHOT HITTER

The most difficult opponent for the inexperienced player to defeat is the man who plays nothing but short block shots. In playing this type of game, the block-shot hitter has many advantages; and if you are not careful to exploit all his disadvantages, you may find yourself losing to him consistently and wondering, in a puzzled sort of way, whether there is any real advantage in learning a stroking game.

To be able to cope with him, let us list the advantages of the block-stroke player. They are:

1. He is never worried about which stroke to employ, because he knows only one, and consequently is never caught halfway between.
   
   
2. He is playing the simplest stroke of all and has had as much practice with his one stroke as you with all of yours, so he is probably quite steady and makes few errors.
   
   
3. He can stand in one position at the table and, simply by turning his wrist, can force you to run from one side to the other.
   

Even with these advantages the block-shot player cannot win if you keep your head, play your strokes properly and utilize spin. He plays under several very great disadvantages:

1. He is forced to take the entire speed of a topspin shot at the table. He cannot retreat, like the chopper, and permit the fric­ tion to slow down your drive. An instant after your stroke, he must play his block return.
   
   
2. He is forced instantaneously to decide whether you are employing topspin or chop against him, and how much. He must counteract this topspin or chop correctly by angling the racket backward or forward, and the penalty for miscalculation may be loss of the point.
   
   
3. He must await your forcing shots while you are at leisure to play his own negative game until you get a good opportunity for a kill.

Because of the frequency with which he appears, we are going into great detail concerning the block-shot player. He is extremely vulnerable to a hard-hit drive, and your prime purpose should be to force a high return enabling you to win the point outright with a smash.

This may require considerable practice on your part. Your best bet is to vary your spin, sending him over a hard chop or two, then a topspin. Remem­ber that each variation forces him to adjust the angle of his racket differently.

If your backhand drive or flick is good, you can usually push two or three balls and then win the point outright. The backhand shot requires little preparation, is difficult to anticipate, and, particularly if made with wrist, will deceive him. If you have trouble in driving consistently against the block return, shorten your swing a trifle and you will be able to regain your balance and perform your strokes more rapidly.

Another tactic to use against the block shot is a sudden shift in direction. Each time he makes a return, whether from a forehand or backhand corner, the blocker must bring his racket back to the middle of the table. Two or three pushes to one side and a fast drive down the other will catch him in between. The most costly error you can make is to try to outplay a block-shot player by pushing with him. This is quite a difficult thing to do because he is usually more adept at this style of play than you. Carried to excess, it will cause you to lose confidence in your hitting game. Push a few balls, but when the right one comes along hit it.

AGAINST THE HARD HITTER

In playing against the hard hitter, you will be forced to go on the defense or take unreasonable chances. You cannot block, nor can you battle him for the attack unless you force him, first of all, to ease up on the severity of his drives.

The first requisite in playing against a hard attack is coolness. Do not become alarmed if the attacker hits a hot spell and gains a lead. His margin of error is small and the percentage is in your favor.

If he seems to be driving your shots very well, first look for the reason in your returns. Are they going deep enough on the table? Are you playing continually to his strong side, permitting him to anticipate, failing to put a reasonable amount of backspin on your chops?

Satisfied that you are making no obvious error, determine upon making him play for each point. Try to return each ball to a position which will be awkward for him to handle.

Very seldom will you find an opponent who can continue a series of hard drives without making many errors. You can increase those errors by varying the amount of chop on the ball (a slight use of the wrist will accom­plish this, as demonstrated before). You can increase his errors by giving him short balls, balls difficult to drive because they are difficult to reach, pro­vided you are very careful to keep these short balls low. If you are bothered by his use of angles, you may make it difficult for him to gain a great angle by playing your return down the center of the table rather than to one side.

This offers him a choice of two angles rather than one but, of course, cuts the size of the angle in two.

AGAINST THE STEADY HITTER

With all these tactics at your disposal, it is usually not difficult to defeat the hard hitter or else to force him to soften his shots and become a steady hitter, which is something else again. The steady hitter is a very dangerous proposition provided he possesses a good kill shot to go with his topspin drives.

In playing against this type of opponent you have two choices open. You may fight him for the attack with some hope of success because the severity of his drives is not overpowering. Or you may wait for the breaks. To get onto the attack straightway, you may try to block one of his drives at the table or topspin one from behind the table. You must be extremely careful, in either event, in your initial attempt to turn the attack. Your first block return, which must be made with your racket face tilted over to counteract the topspin, will probably not throw your opponent off balance enough to cause him to surrender the drive. You must follow this with another and possibly another, each sharply angled to keep him off balance, before gaining an opening to begin your own drive.

Just as risky, unless you are accustomed to it, is top spinning your oppo­nent's original topspin drive. In the chapter on spin we advised you to avoid the clashing of strokes and subsequent loss of control which top spinning a drive will cause. We might modify this statement a trifle to read: "Don't reverse spin unless you have a good reason, know the result, and can coun­teract it." The way to control topspin with more topspin is to exaggerate your stroke: tilt back the face of your racket, get more lift than usual, and follow-through more "up" and less forward.

Already committed to vigorous action, in case one topspin drive does not force your opponent back, try another. This may result in a battle of topspin drives, which can be quite dangerous if indulged in recklessly. If not quite sure of your stroke each time, fall back on the defense and wait for another opportunity to attack.

Thus we have explored two methods of seizing the attack initially from a steady, not severe, driving game. Both methods are risky—fortunately, risky for the attacker as well as for you.

Another way of gaining the initiative, not quite so risky provided your defense is sound, is to wait for the breaks. All but the best attackers, in play­ing you about, will miscalculate many times and give you opportunities for a counterthrust. In making a drop shot your adversary is quite likely to err, or in attempting to counteract a heavy chop he may lift his drive very high in the air. If you have the attacking mentality and are on the watch for oppor­tunities, many will present themselves.

If you have confidence in your defense or your counter drives are not good, you may desire—or you may be forced—to play a strictly defensive game against the steady hitter. By doing this you limit your own choice of tactics considerably because you give your opponent more or less control of affairs.

The first thing you must make sure of is that the steady hitter will not out steady you. No matter how long the rallies, see to it that he finally is forced to take the chance of "making" the point rather than winning it on your error. As stated previously, in a long rally the chopper is less likely to tire because his motion is shorter and downward, thus less exhausting.

As a rule, get the maximum amount of chop possible on your returns without sacrificing steadiness. Place your shots, in general, as deep as pos­sible and toward the center of the table. As pointed out before, the center shot reduces the angle.

But a word of caution. If your opponent favors either forehand or back­hand almost exclusively, be very careful of the center shot. He probably has had to run over and protect his unguarded side so many times he has devel­oped a strong shot hit down the center. The best way to play a predominantly forehand or backhand player is to pound his weakness or, if he anticipates this and moves to cover it, to place an angled shot to his strength. This last maneuver will usually surprise him so that he will lose his hitting balance and often the point.

The best way to upset the steady hitter, if you cannot seize the initiative from him with a block shot or a counter drive, is to vary the spin on your chop stroke. This may be done by correct use of the wrist. We have empha­sized a firm wrist in chopping. This rule should never be broken in the beginning stages; but when you have become fairly efficient in stroking, you can begin to bring your wrist into your chops. However, a very delicate touch is necessary in using the wrist properly. You must not bring your wrist into play too soon or the direction of your shot will suffer. You must bring your wrist into play only at the initial moment of contact, and you must bring it straight forward in the intended line of flight of the ball. The effect of heavy chop on the hard driver's game is astounding. The hitter is forced to use an excessive amount of topspin to counteract the chop and usually ends up by losing all speed and pace. If he insists upon hitting hard drives he will find himself making many errors and will probably lose all confidence in his offensive game.

DEFENSE AGAINST THE DEFENDER

The usual answer to defensive tactics is the topspin drive and the begin­ning of a full-scale attack. But in certain cases your attacking strokes may be erratic, or you may be tired and desire to rest before beginning an attack.

One way to answer your opponent's chops is the block shot. Another, and this latter makes it more difficult for him, is to chop or push his return. You must be very careful in chopping a chop (something which we suggested previously was inadvisable to do) to allow for the original backspin on the ball. To offset this you must exaggerate your stroke, chop under the ball more than usual, making a kind of scoop shot and finishing with a slight upward motion. The clashing of spins is not too difficult to control here because both initial shot and return are quite slow, and very little chop can be put on a slow shot.

Indeed, it is such an easy habit to fall into a prolonged pushing contest, if neither you nor your opponent will take chances, that there are now rules covering this point. A similar situation would arise in a boxing match if neither contestant would throw a punch. And a situation in table tennis did arise in Prague, in the 1936 World Championship Tournament, in which one match lasted more than seven hours, and in America where one point lasted one hour and forty-three minutes.

The rules committee of the International Table Tennis Federation handled the situation, first, by lowering the net from six and three-quarter inches to six inches; second, by setting a time limit of twenty minutes for the completion of a single game. In America, the United States Table Tennis Association went even further and now forces the server to take the initiative, in a pushing match, on every point. If he fails to win the point on the thir­teenth try (which means the ball has passed over the net twenty-five times), he automatically loses it. The referee has authority to call a pushing match at any time, and thereafter service alternates on every single point rather than every five points.

Since these new rules were passed, principally the lowering of the net, the offensive game has picked up immensely and seems to be gaining the ascendancy. Consequently, we should advocate "pushing" tactics only on cer­tain occasions such as:

1. To regain your poise, balance, or wind after a particularly exhausting series of rallies.
   
   
2. To bait your opponent, tempting him to hit because you think he will be more unsuccessful hitting than defending.
   
   
3. To break up the rhythm of his game with the intention of catching him off guard with a sudden hit after a series of pushes.
   

Ininstance 3, pushing proves very successful when played in conjunction with a sudden flick shot. Three or four pushes and then a sudden flick (which appears to be a push until the last moment) will always place the defender in difficulties. He must be close to the table to return your pushes and yet behind the table to return your sudden drive or flick. Oftentimes, he will not be able to leap from one position to the other quickly enough.

ATTACK AGAINST THE DEFENDER

Your prime objective, in attacking against a defender, is to maneuver him into a position where he will be forced to return the ball high enough to permit you to play a smash. You may attempt to make this smash shot when you have him a trifle off balance, or you may wait until you have hopelessly outmaneuvered him. In the first case, you will be taking more risks in your smashing but less risks in making an error while building up to the final kill. In the second case, by delaying until certain of your final shot, you increase the opportunities for an intermediate error or for a counterblow from your opponent. Through experience you will learn which policy suits you better. We recommend neither extreme caution nor extreme haste in trying for the kill. Have the type of ball you smash best catalogued in your mind, and when that type of ball comes up during the rally, whether soon or late, play the smash without hesitation.

A general study of your opponent's defense will repay you. If you play in club or league competition, you will find yourself up against the same players many times during a season. Learn how they handle soft drives, hard drives, drop shots. If you are opposing a player for the first time, you would do well to experiment during the first part of the initial game and search for weaknesses. The best tournament players have weaknesses, so it is quite likely that your opponent will be less able to handle certain shots than others. Try to find out early in the game what they are. Any number of experiments come to mind. Ask yourself the following questions, plus any others that you may think of, and if you do not know the answers from previous experience against your opponent, find them out:

1. Can he handle a short service?
   
   
2. How does he return a fast topspin service to the deep backhand ?
   
   
3. Is his backhand chop better or worse than his forehand chop?
   
   
4. Can he return a drive hit down the center of the table?
   
   
5. Does he return to the center of the table after each chop return or remain where he hit the ball (in which latter case he would be extremely vulnerable to a drive to the opposite corner) ?
   
   
6. Does he handle short shots well? Angle shots? Sidespin shots ?
   
   
7. If caught at the table by your drop shot, will he block the next return or attempt to retreat behind the table?
   
   
8. Do you have to worry about his attacking your drop shots or counter driving from in back of the table?

There are many more questions, the answers to which will suggest obvious tactics. You should give your defensively minded opponent an oppor­tunity to display every department of his game and thus to disclose his weak and strong points.

However, you must not overlook the fact that from day to day, that is, from match to match, his strong and weak points may vary. Do not take it for granted that a weakness (or a strength) disclosed in one match will be the same in another match at a later date.

Furthermore, upon finding a weakness, don't be too eager to exploit it in the early stages of the game, or else it may turn into a strength through prac­tice. In the crucial points of the game play the weakness; otherwise keep away from it if you feel there is the slightest chance your opponent will be able, through practice, to play the faulty shot into form.

Besides specific weaknesses which will vary from opponent to opponent, there are many general disadvantages that the defensive player falls heir to merely by retreating behind the table and starting to chop. Let us not mis­interpret this statement. There are also many general advantages to be gained by playing defensively: employing a safer and less tiring stroke (chop), gaining additional time to make returns, etc. Victory goes to the individual attacker or defender who can best exploit general weaknesses inherent in both offensive and defensive games.

General advantages which you, as an attacker, may try to exploit are:

1. You have the initiative, can change the style of play at will, and can choose your own time for final attack.
   
   
2. The defender is vulnerable to a last-minute change in direction of your drives. He cannot gain defensive position until he knows where you are going to direct your stroke, and any deception you use keeps him off balance just so much longer.
   
   
3. The defender is subject to change in pace, speed of shot, and height of shot. A different style of defense—different in depth behind the table and different in type of chop—will best return the hard drive and the soft, looping topspin.
   
   
4. The defender is vulnerable to a short drop shot. The more deceptive and the harder your drives become and the farther back of the table he is forced, the more difficult does it become to return your drop shots.

Keeping these four points in mind, let us examine them one by one. With the initiative in your hands, you have an opportunity to vary your direction of shot, speed of shot, and length of shot. The extent of your oppor­tunities depends upon the type of defense your opponent is playing. If he plays an aggressive game, looking for opportunities to regain the attack, you must be very careful to use sufficient speed on your drives and sufficient deception on your drop shots to keep him off balance. Do not permit your attack to become stereotyped because in this way he may anticipate it. If your opponent does not challenge your taking of the initiative, if he merely keeps the ball in play and waits, your only anxiety will be cutting down on your simple errors, and you will have all the time you need to develop a safe, steady, and finally an overwhelming attack.

The fact that you have the initiative permits any number of maneuvers, all or any of which may be anticipated and correctly answered by your opponent without causing you any disadvantage. This is a point which the driver should never overlook in planning his matches. Provided he uses steady and safe tactics, he may play to backhand and forehand; he may play short and long, fast and slow. He may try any conceivable number of tricks in any conceivable pattern, and if they are all answered correctly he has lost nothing, and matters merely revert to the status quo. On the other hand, if the defender fails to answer one move correctly, he has little opportunity for a second chance and usually is outmaneuvered so effectively that the loss of the point is inevitable.

Therefore, let us put down as the first aim of the attacker the trying out of varying offensive tactics.

Every defender is vulnerable to a last-minute change in direction of your drive. To deceive him, you must practice shot deception. Experiment with your racket position, foot position, shoulder position. Try to make your shots "down the line" and "cross court" look as nearly alike as possible. Watch your preparation and execution of each shot in front of a mirror and see where the similarities may be pointed up, and where the differences may, as much as possible, be eliminated. Then try to arrange for a practice partner (perhaps a better player) to watch your two strokes and comment upon them.

Some people naturally develop deceptive styles of attack. Some people do not. Don't try to overdo your deception so that you fail to bring off the stroke properly and thus make simple errors. The important thing is to exe­cute the individual shot. The more deception you can use and still make a proper shot, the more effective your attacking strokes will be.

You will discover that the easiest way to shift direction suddenly is by use of the wrist. By employing wrist you can take up perfect position for a forehand drive down the side line and, at the last moment, send it cross court. By employing wrist you can pull the backhand drive to either side of the table without betraying your intentions. On short balls the wrist turnover and flourish of the backhand flick will conceal direction. Use of the wrist for sur­prise is excellent provided that you are one of those players whose sense of timing permits it. A dangerous tactic, indeed, but well worth investigation and experimentation.

Tactically speaking, if your opponent returns to the center of the table after each chop shot, you will probably surprise him more by playing two, three, or four returns to the same corner rather than by switching from side to side. If he does not return to the center but stays to the side from which your former return was taken, you can quickly get him on the run by alter­nating drives to his forehand and backhand corners.

Variation in speed and height of shot will cause your adversary a great deal of trouble. Against a player who makes astounding recoveries and returns hard-hit drives consistently, try a series of soft, looping topspins. If he tries to return these with the same amount of speed or chop as he uses to return hard drives, he will find himself making many errors.

Your own margin of safety will be greatly increased by using a looping topspin stroke, and you may tempt your opponent into chopping these high shots of yours too viciously (thus becoming unsteady and inaccurate) or into counter driving them (difficult unless done expertly because of clashing spins).

If you are able to vary a soft topspin with an occasional hard-hit drive, you will force your opponent to vary his chops accordingly; and he will prob­ably find himself chopping too hard against your soft topspin (thus allowing you to out steady him) and not chopping hard enough against your hard drives (thus permitting many opportunities for smash shots).

Most potent weapon of all against the defensive player is a deceptive drop shot. You know how to execute one. Be sure you make it as deceptive as possible by making it as much like your drive as possible. Study both motions in front of the mirror and then have a friend make suggestions. A poor drop shot played with deception is often more effective than a good drop shot which can be anticipated.

Do not develop a stereotyped use of your drop shot, such as driving two balls and then drop-shotting the third. Such tactics will keep you from de­ceiving your opponent and also, if done automatically, will prevent your making a wise choice of the best balls to drop-shot (that is, balls landing close to the net).

There are four things you may accomplish by proper use of the drop shot:

1. You may win the point outright by catching your oppo­ nent completely off guard.
   
   
2. You may put yourself in a winning position by drawing your opponent close in through a drop shot and then hitting his return past him before he can retreat behind the table again.
   
   
3. You may tire him out and thus affect his strokes during the later stages of a match by forcing him to run in and out to retrieve alternately long and short shots.
   
4. You may increase the potency of your drives by forcing him to play closer to the table than he likes, through fear of your use of the drop shot.

From the above you can see that it is not necessary to win the point out­right to be successful. What is necessary is not to lose the point outright by putting your drop shot in the net or by permitting your opponent to anticipate it and leap in in time to smash it.

Be careful, in using the drop shot, to take no more chances than abso­lutely necessary. The following ideas, listed in order of their importance, should be kept in mind:

1. Get the ball over the net.
   
   
2. Deceive   your   opponent   as  to   when   the   drop   shot   is coming.
   
   
3. Place the shot so as to make him stretch, thus leaving him exposed to a possible swift return.
   
4. Play to the side from which he is less likely to make a counterthrust.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TACTICS

Certain of your preconceived stroking tactics are doomed to failure because you are unable to carry them out successfully during match play. You are unable to carry them out because of your physical and mental reaction to the stress of competition.

We suggest that you examine your mental attitude toward match play and, generally speaking, adopt tactics which suit your personality. If you become quite tense when the score gets close and are afraid every drive will miss, it is quite useless to try to win important points with brilliant drives. If you are bored with defensive play and rapidly lose concentration, you should not stay on the defensive any more than necessary.

General tactics must fit the psychological make-up of the one who uses them. Here are some things to remember.

The best cure for a case of the "jitters" is usually experience. Both win­ning and losing close matches will steady your nerves in future close matches. A brief pep-talk to yourself, in an undertone, may help. Above all, if you feel nervous, slow down the pace of the game. Play each point slowly, deliber­ately, for what that one point is worth. Don't be stampeded into a series of errors by one or two bad shots. Your opponent quite likely is as nervous as you are.

Another cure for nerves is concentration. Ability to concentrate can be cultivated by paying strict attention to the business of playing table tennis while engaged in playing table tennis, even during a practice session of no real importance.

If you do not feel like a serious game of table tennis, do not play. Con­centration must be built up over a period of weeks and months and should not be weakened by any lackadaisical practice sessions. Play only when keen and only so long as you are interested in the game. At the first signs of weari­ness or slipping concentration, stop (that is, unless engaged in match play).

The importance of confidence varies with individuals. Some people play best in a match when up against a player they consider superior to themselves. Some people play better against players they are confident of defeating. We suggest that, on the one hand, you never go into a match overconfident that you will win; we suggest that, on the other hand, you never start playing with the feeling that you have already been defeated.

HOW TO PRACTICE

If you intend to become a tournament player or a competitor in league play, you will probably wonder about the amount of practice you should get in preparation for your matches.

Experience will give you the correct answer as regards yourself. We can merely suggest that you practice half an hour to an hour every day for at least a week before your matches. Do not practice so long that the sessions become tedious to you. As mentioned previously, if you feel your interest and concentration slipping, call it a day and resume your session later on. Do not practice the same shot, nor with the same opponent, continually. After a few minutes of concentration on one stroke try another, and finish up with several regulation games in which you play as hard as possible against the best opposition available. Make sure, before your match begins, that you have an opportunity to warm up properly on another table, so that your strokes are in good working order.

Of necessity we have been quite vague in our discussion of tactics. It is up to you as an individual equipped with fairly orthodox strokes (we hope) to try out our various suggestions in specific cases, against specific opponents, with the objective of bettering your table-tennis game.

POINTERS O1S DOUBLES PLAY

The game of doubles will give you an opportunity to try out your tactics even more than will singles, because in the former you must work with a partner. Moreover, unlike lawn tennis, table tennis requires each partner to hit the ball alternately. (See Appendix for doubles rules.)

This rule is not necessary in lawn tennis due to the larger area of the doubles court and the inability of a singles player to cover such an area. But in table tennis, with a small area to cover, the stronger player of one team would be able to play all returns with ease, and an opposing duo which did not adopt the same tactics and permit one player to make all returns would inevitably get in each other's way and lose the match.

Since teamwork is essential in doubles, choice of a suitable partner be­comes very important. You should choose a partner whose style is similar to your own. If you are an attacker and team up with a defensive player, it is quite obvious that you will have difficulty scoring points unless you make them with an outright smash, something quite difficult to do in doubles when so many shots must be taken on the run because of unavoidable interference from your partner. Time and again you might hit a drive fast enough to cause a setup and an easy smash if you yourself were playing the next return —only to have a defensively minded partner play safe and nullify your original opening.

Therefore, be sure to choose a partner whose game is similar to yours, either offensively or defensively. And have an understanding with him as to the type of game you are going to play.

It goes without saying that you should choose a partner with whom you can get along and in whom you have confidence. Nothing is more exasper­ating, during a hard match, than open criticism when you make a bad shot and nothing so upsetting as lack of confidence in your partner during a crucial rally. This latter attitude often leads you to take desperate and foolish chances because you are afraid he will lose the point anyway if he gets an­other opportunity.

It is also wise, if possible, to choose a partner who is available fre­quently for practice. No matter how smoothly your games may complement each other—potentially—many points come up during matches which are handled properly only through experience.

Winning doubles is, as in lawn tennis, largely a game of attack. In this it is unlike singles, where the balance is quite often on the side of the defense.

The reason that attack pays off in doubles is that when playing on the defense there is an inevitable conflict between two partners, one of whom is constantly trying to get out of the way of the other. It is quite simple for the team con­trolling the drive to alternate, but the defense team, not knowing where the shots are going until the last moment, has trouble clearing the ground behind the table. Many times you will find your partner is in the way of a hard drive which, otherwise, you might return successfully.

Since offensive tactics are successful in doubles, it pays to practice coun-terdriving and topspinning of service. The counterdrive is effective in doubles because it can be placed directly back in the same corner it came from, thus giving the hitter's partner very little chance to make a return. Hitting the serve is easy to do in doubles because service must be directed into the right-hand portion of the table only (see rules in Appendix), and thus there is very little opportunity for deception.

When serving, try to keep your opponents on the defensive. You may do this by using a short drop serve bounding just over the net, which is quite hard to drive, or by using sidespin serves, which, if unfamiliar to the receiver, are dangerous to drive.

When returning service, as noted before, seize every opportunity to get on the attack. If fairly certain of the types of serves your opponent uses, you can usually afford to stand up to the table and topspin them back or use your block shot. If you direct the service back to the original server (who, of course, must not hit it), your partner may be able to seize the attack on the next stroke.

The order of serving and receiving service is very important in doubles because it remains constant throughout an entire game. If you are able to return one opponent's shots easier than the other's, it is much better if you are receiving from that opponent.

In mixed-doubles matches (one man and one woman on each side), the order of returning will almost inevitably decide the outcome of the game, since the man on one team will usually be able to hit the ball past the oppos­ing woman player. Of course, in a best-of-three-game or best-of-five-game match, matters will usually even up, as the order of return may be changed at the end of each game.

At the beginning of a doubles match with an unknown team, it is often impossible to decide which formation is better. One way to make sure that you do not choose the wrong formation, if you have first choice, is to take the service. At the end of the first game, if you and your partner desire to change the order of service and return, you may do so, and again in alternate games and in the final game when one side has scored ten points (see Appendix). If the original order, chosen by your opponents, is satisfactory, you may retain it when it is your choice and thus have the advantageous order throughout the match.

To improve your general tactics, your ability to drive services and to attack, your footwork and sense of anticipation, we suggest that you indulge in frequent doubles matches. Doubles is a very fascinating game in itself and is an ideal solution for those clubs where the number of tables is limited.

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