During my freshman year at Cleveland State University, our team traveled to Florida to play a series of matches against teams down there. During one particular match, I encountered a player who literally defined the term \’Pusher\’.
This guy was quick and had endurance. He had decided early on that he was in no hurry to get off the court, and would run down every shot I threw at him; and believe me, I was throwing heat. After losing the first set, I made up my mind that I was not going to let this guy beat me. After all, I was the \’better\’ player with \’better\’ strokes, right?
Just as I was about to walk back onto the court to start the second set, a thought occurred to me: How was I losing points? I hadn\’t spoken to my coach (he was coaching another player at the time of the changeover), but that\’s the first question I knew that he would\’ve asked me.
I asked myself this question and the answer came back: “Unforced errors.” Okay, so now I had something I could grasp. Fine. What was causing the unforced errors? Impatience, and a lack of a good plan.I eventually decided that I had to come up with a plan on the fly. I did, and coupled with being just a little more patient, I came back to win the match in three sets.
In order to understand what I did and how to apply it to your game, you need to first understand the pusher\’s mind set. This is really easy. The pusher is telling himself to just get every ball back over the net, no matter what. When playing a baseliner, the pusher is not too concerned about placement, and will usually end up putting the ball into the smack dab center of the court, right on the \’T\’. When faced with a serve-and-volley player, the pusher will try to run down every ball and lob constantly, hoping you either miss a volley or blow the overhead. When faced with an all-court player, the pusher will combine the two above mentioned tactics.
What do you do? Well, now that you know how the pusher thinks and plays, it\’s time to figure out where his weakness is, and exploit it. The pusher has A LOT of weaknesses in their game - or they wouldn\’t just \’push\’ the ball back every time! I want you to think long and hard about that, and really let that sink in. Okay, now let\’s see where the pusher is weak.
First of all, pushers do not have a command of \’power\’ ground strokes, if they have anything resembling good ground strokes to start with. From this alone, we can gain insight into several weaknesses:
• Pushers have a hard time generating power and combining it with accuracy, which is a requirement of having \’good\’ ground strokes.
• Pushers have a hard time hitting passing shots, for the same reasons just listed.
• If a pusher has weak ground strokes, they probably have a weak serve as well.
• Pushers have a hard time with high balls, again for the reasons listed above.
• Pushers hate for points to end quickly, because those are points they probably lost!
Now that we know the pusher\’s weaknesses, we can come up with a plan to exploit them. The first thing you need to do when playing a pusher is to make them do what they don\’t want to do; and one of the things that pushers HATE to do is generate their own \’pace\’, or power when hitting the ball, because they can\’t control it. One way to make the pusher do this is by hitting your ground strokes deep, about ¾ speed with A LOT of topspin. This forces the pusher back off the baseline and makes the pusher generate their own power, rather than just using the power from a hard shot you hit to them.
Another way to get the pusher \’out of their game\’ is to serve and volley, because they can\’t hit passing shots very well. (Again, if they could, they wouldn\’t be a \’pusher\’). If they try to lob you, put the ball away; if they are lobbing you well, hit the overhead anyway and stay at the net. Constant pressure will make the pusher buckle. If they are hitting you lobs over and over, and you can\’t do anything about it, than you need to improve you serve before you attempt this tactic.
Yet another way to beat the pusher is to \’chip-and-charge\’; take advantage of every short ball the pusher hits you, and get to the net. Don\’t just get to the net for the sake of being there, or the pusher will just lob you all day long. Get there on a short ball, make a good approach and be ready for the pusher\’s response.
Since the pusher\’s mentality is one of “I\’m gonna run down every shot you hit”, make him do just that - on YOUR terms. Hit a ¾ speed, well placed shot that angles off to the side; then hit a long, deep shot. This forces the pusher out of their \’moving-side-to-side\’ game (which they love to do) into moving up and back at awkward angles. When you finally get an opening to hit a winner, don\’t force the angle or the speed; just hit another well placed, ¾ speed shot toward your intended target. More often than not, even if the pusher gets the ball, the reply will be weak or a lob at best.
Use these techniques the next time you are on the court - and watch the \’pusher\’ fade away!
Kyril Popoff is a former NCAA Div1 All-Conference Tennis Player, Instructor, Coach and Author.
His books include THE TEN LAWS OF TENNIS SUCCESS and FOCUS & WIN: WHY YOUR TENNIS GAME ISN\’T WHERE YOU WANT IT TO BE, & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!
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