Deceiving Opponents
From TableTennisTraining
There are a number of useful and legal ways in which you can "trick" your opponent into an improper response during games. Deception techniques make your actions during game more difficult for your opponent to anticipate.
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Service deception
Deceptive strokes
With enough training and experience, players can focus on "faking" shots to pull their opponents off balance. Like head fakes and pump fakes in basketball, deceptive strokes in table tennis rely on misdirection. Looking one way and hitting the shot the other way is common. Pretending to prepare to smash the ball and suddenly hitting a drop shot is another common deception. When lobbing or fishing, players may add several extra movements after hitting the ball to hide the kind of spin on the ball. A very effective and deceptive stroke is the inside-out forehand. Looking cross-court, a player prepares to hit the ball cross court, the opponent moves to cover the wide forehand when suddenly, the attacking player flares out his wrist, opening the paddle and driving the ball down-the-line to the opponent's backhand. This technique often yields points outright as the defending player has already committed to covering the forehand side. All deceptive strokes involve being able to "sell" a shot and then take another one and also requires the ability to watch your opponent to see what he is expecting.
Another way to deceive an opponent is to use the wrist to add sidespin to a loop. Because the motion of the wrist is small, it's difficult for your opponent to detect that you've added sidespin to the ball. This technique is particular effective against over-the-table blockers. Blockers are usually very good at estimating the amount of topspin or bottomspin on a ball by observing the motion of your elbow snap and then angling their bat and softening their grip appropriately to return the ball, but it's very difficult for them to estimate the sidespin you've added and compensate for that. By mixing sidespin and non-sidespin loops against these players, you can often force them to block too far to the right or left and miss the table.
Leading an opponent into an expected return
Players must constantly create variation in their style of play during a match so as not to become predictable. However, if a player senses that his opponent is anticipating his shots, he may use this against him by preparing to hit the expected shot and then suddenly changing to a different shot. For example, if a looper expects a chopper to defensively chop his attack, the chopper may lead the looper into believing an expected return and perhaps counterloop or counter smash the attack instead of chopping.
Deceptive serves
Serving is very well served by misdirection and deception, partly because you have full control over the serve, and partly because you can prepare for it more than you can for a shot. Flexibility of the wrist is very useful, with enough flexibility, one could prepare as if they are serving virtually any serve, and at the last moment change the serve to virtually any other serve (with any variation of spin, speed or direction).
