A Couple of Observations

 I was playing this morning and saw a couple of useful things to pass along.

First, I'm convinced that the majority of errors are due to paddle ball mishits.  If you want to get the ball over the net, you've got to hit the ball fairly close to the center of the paddle.  I've mentioned it before, the sweet spot of the paddle is a bit north of the geometric center of the paddle, i.e., towards the top edge.  The energy restitution drops off quite quickly as the impact position moves from this sweet spot.  The errors will show up more in dinks than any full stroke.  So, concentrating on good paddle contact will help your dink percentages.

Secondly, I tried not hitting the ball very hard.  I was willing to hit it deep as needed, but I deliberately didn't put a lot of power behind the shots.  This worked for a couple of reasons.  I wasn't hitting many balls out, and shots that are low in velocity, but well placed are difficult to return.  A softer shot requires the returner to provide more power and swing harder than normally.  They didn't always do that, and if the ball seems faster than it is, it affects the timing of the shot and the returner has to move up to the ball more and or wait more to hit the return.  A softer shot does not bounce as high, making the opponents provide more lift to clear the net.  Finally, a softer shot doesn't carry as far into the court, and that requires more foot work from the opponents.  All in all, this worked effectively.

It also led quickly to dinking rallies when we were serving.  Which is the style of play I enjoy.  Points that start with hard shots can easily stay in the bang the ball style, which I find boring.

Finally, let's return to an old topic.  And that is middle coverage. The rule is, if one player has to guard a line, the other player has to cover the middle.  If there is no line to protect, someone should be close to straddling the T in the court center as both players sag towards the middle of the court.  The middle coverage person changes as the ball moves from side to side.  This is true when defending ground strokes or dinks.