Table Tennis is life for me, all you people reading the piece out there, I am very sure ten on ten(10/10) that you people are unaware of me. My experience is since ages around the world and various locations in all zones across India, experience is on the table as a player and as a coach training the national teams, representing the country and  have produced ample of coaches trained to serve the purpose in the vertical, Table Tennis as I served as Chief Coach in Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala..

We generally speak of fitness of a player competing. We lay our stress on physical fitness of our teams. We work very hard on the Physical fitness of our players, which is a important factor of our sport and to achieve it to the scale of perfection, requires committed efforts. This being the prominent factor which spoils the paddler’s mental fitness.

Now I would discuss the kind of tactics to be kept in mental frame against the following,connoted kind of paddlers:

Hard attacking players:

When playing a skillful counter-driver, avoid topspin rallies since this is their strength. Use heavy spin on both flanks and topspin shots. Counter-drivers are most comfortable with light spin. If the opponent lacks good footwork, work the middle of the table. By forcing them to quickly decide between a forehand or backhand return, you can succeed in jamming them. Try using chops and block to slow down the game and rally for position. Provide variation and same thought process should not be repeated again and again.See (Fig 1.1)

Choppers/Defenders :

Always remember to playing against defenders, one should plan and anticipate well in time because a defender will always try to make you tied up in making the rallies through fore-hand drives and loop drives. Use down the line shot, parallel shots, body line shots and in between all of a sudden give a drop shot on the forehand flank of the defender.                                                                                         Always switch one tactic to another and make the defender to be busy in returning the ball.See (Fig 1.2) & (Fig 1.3)

Blockers :

Blockers, just like choppers, are often defensive players. Break their rhythm by varying the shots. Hit one deep and hard and then alternate with a short shot. Favor a high, spin loop because blockers often like to use the power of their opponents to win points. Be patient, use just one power shot at a time, and sometimes trick the blocker into initiating an attack, in which they are usually weak

Generally, a blocker uses a parasite rubber and against them one should not be in a hurry to score a point. Playing against the blockers one should attack on the bodyline and one should try and send them away from the table by hitting hard flat shots. Against the blockers one should not tend to get into rallying. See (Fig 1.4)

Loopers/ Heavy Topspin players : 

 When playing a looper, especially a consistent one, patience is out the door. Beat an aggressive looper with aggressiveness. Do all you can to initiate the attack. Your goal is to put the looper on the backfoot, where they usually roll the ball. The best way to tackle loopers is the block, back-spin-chop variation and return the floating ball at the base line to prevent him from imparting heavy loop drive and kill.

The loopers have their contact point late while attacking, hence the perfect strategy would be to roll the ball at the extremes then.See (Fig 1.5)

Penholders :

Play all zones randomly. Move them out wide and then play at their backhand. Penholders tend to heavily favour their forehand. The obvious strategy would seem to be to exploit their weaker backhand, but since many penholders display superb footwork, this is not as easy as it might seem. To work their backhand, you need to move the ball around, especially out wide. Do this in random fashion so they can't predict where you will direct the ball next

Always bear in the mind, penholders are strong forehand hitters from their backhand. They avoid playing their backhand stroke and cover both the flanks . So one should bear in the mind that their weakest point is extreme forehand, but at the same time the opponent against a pen-holder should be very monumentally evasive in exploiting the mentioned fact.

These stated facts on Pen holders, I had a detailed discussion with the Worlds best(World Champions), both using Pen hold grip ie. Ichiro Ogimura and Shigo Itoh of Japan in The Table Tennis World Championships.See (Fig 1.6)

Feel free to rebuttal on my write-up. Your statements would surely be acknowledged.

Hard attacking players(Fig 1.1)

Choppers(Fig 1.2)

Defender (Fig 1.3)

Blocker (Fig 1.4)

Loopers/ Heavy Topspin players(Fig 1.5)

Penholders(Fig 1.5)