Table Tennis Base Positioning - Face the Ball, Not the Endline

Beginning players often make the mistake of always standing square to the endline of the table. The only time that this is correct is when the ball is coming from the direction of the center of the opponents table. The rest of the time, you should face in the direction that the ball is coming from.

If you drew an imaginary line between the ball and yourself, this would represent the line of play. You should always strive to be square-on (or almost square-on, depending on your preferred stance) to this line.