Whether you want to make the US Olympic Team, win the senior games, or beat your Uncle Bob; it is always a great idea to scout out your competition.  In this article, I’m going to describe two separate methods of scouting your table tennis opponent.  The first is the long-term method.  This is best accomplished by video analysis.  The second is short term; this is a more common situation.  You enter a tournament and are watching your opponent play the round robin group ten minutes before your match against him.  You have never seen him before, and you need to quickly make a game plan.

Most table tennis players label topspin shots into several categories such as: loop, block or smash. However, modern attacking players have developed an offensive block called an active block. Active blocking is a combination between a block, loop and counter loop. It is best used off-the-bounce against a slow to medium speed loop.
Watch in this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwbcgOPxx8w&feature=fvsr as Kenta effectively uses active blocking to stop his opponents’ attack and take control of the table.

Professional players clearly understand their potential and limitations.  They know how hard they should loop, where to loop, when to loop, and when not to loop.  Ma Long loops most of his balls with 60-95% power.  His selection on how hard to loop depends on his positioning, his distance from the table, his opponent’s return, and his opponent’s positioning.   Timo Ball loops most of his balls with 40-80% power; this is the zone that he feels most comfortable playing.
 
Now, let’s move the scenario to YOU…

When you serve, return serve, or hit any shot throughout a table tennis match, your opponent will have a variety of choices on how to return the ball.  You need to prepare yourself for the worst-case-scenario then adjust if he does something easier.