If you have been playing for more than a couple of years but have stopped improving, you have probably fallen victim to the mistake that catches most players once they leave behind the beginner ranks - the belief that more time on the table must automatically result in an improvement in their game.
Ever wonder why juniors manage to improve for year after year while older players who are just starting to learn the game level off after just a year or two? The obvious reason that it is better to learn the game when you are young and your ability to learn new motor skills is at a peak, but even so I don't believe that this is the only reason involved. Another important factor is the willingness of young players to keep learning new techniques, instead of resting on their laurels after learning a few basics.
Think about the last five years of your table tennis play. Have you had five years of building up your game and making improvements, or one year of doing the same things just repeated five times? If it's the latter, why would you be surprised that you haven't improved?
In my 25 plus years of playing table tennis, I've seen people of all ages take up the game. And almost without exception, they all improve until they get to the point where they stop trying to learn anything new. Everybody has different excuses/reasons for this (age, physical limitations, work and family commitments, etc) but in the end it always seems to come down to the same thing - the player reaches a point where he is no longer able or willing to work on learning anything new, and his game plateaus.
So if your game is in a rut and you want to improve your level, why not take a chance and try to learn something new and incorporate it into your game over the next 3-6 months. Learn a new serve, practice a new service return, or get a coach to help you work on your loop technique. Brush up your footwork, or get in the gym and improve your fitness. Whatever you do, be prepared for your game to suffer a little in the short term as you adjust to using the new skills you have learned, but don't give up - after a few months it's almost guaranteed that your game will go up a notch. In my whole table tennis career, I've hardly ever seen anybody spend three months working on a new skill and end up playing worse.
So if you have fallen victim to the "one year repeated five times" trap, take a chance, climb out of the rut and try to learn something new. As a over 40 year old player who is still trying to make improvements every year, I can vouch for the fact that you can teach an old dog new tricks!
