Just like any other sport, you need to be mentally prepared for every ping-pong match that you intend to play. It is a big help if you start out early and watch your opponent play so that you know what their strengths and their weaknesses are. It is not entirely necessary to prepare like that though, as you can determine what their strength and weaknesses are simply by being the "Explorer".
Your main tactic as the Explorer, is to get a feel for your opponent by sending them at many different types of shots. By being an effective explorer, you must use all kinds of shots once the game starts, such as blocks, loops, drives, counter-drives, spins, pushes, and other shots.
If you do this and do this well, it won't take you long before you figure out exactly which shot is your opponents weak point. Try varying the different speeds at which you get the ball, and used many different types of serves as well.
As mentioned before, you will be able to find out what your opponent's strengths and weaknesses are with this method. This is going to allow you to be the aggressor and concentrate on sending your opponent balls and serves that they are weakest against.
For example, if you observed that your opponent is weak on his or her backhand, you should try and give him or her more backhands. Another strategy is by forcing your game to your opponent right at the start of the game and adjust your plays or tactics as you go. This is the traits of a "Dominator".
What a dominator does is that they will use their best shots at the beginning of the game. By doing this, you will force your opponent to adjust to your shots and not the other way around. Although this can be advantageous for you, you have to remember that you also need to adjust to your opponent's shots as you play. Not being able to adjust will mean losing the game and many errors.
Being a dominator means that you need to start the game with your best shots and adjust according to the response of your opponent to your shots.
You now need to make the decision on which type of player you are, either an explorer or a dominator. Really good ping-pong players are able to combine both methods and are able to make adjustments to their opponents shots very quickly.
So it really doesn't matter which type of player you are, in the end that you need to learn how to adjust your opponent so that you can come out the victor at the end.
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