What is the best way to beat a ‘pusher’ in a tennis match?
During my freshman year at Cleveland State University, our team traveled to Florida to play a series of games against teams there. During one particular match, I came across a player who literally defined the term ‘Pusher’.
This boy was fast and had stamina. From the beginning he had decided that he was in no hurry to get off the court, and that he would take all the shots he threw at him; And trust me, it was getting hot. After losing the first set, I decided that I wasn’t going to let this guy beat me. After all, I was the “best” player with the “best” shots, right?
Just as I was about to return to the court to begin the second set, a thought occurred to me: How was I losing points? I hadn’t spoken to my coach (I was coaching another player at the time of the switch), but that’s the first question I knew he would have asked me.
I asked myself this question and the answer was: “Unforced errors”. Well, now he had something he could grasp. Penalty fee. What was causing the unforced errors? Impatience and lack of a good plan. I finally decided that I had to come up with a plan on the fly. I did, and besides being a little more patient, I came back to win the match in three sets.
To understand what I did and how to apply it to your game, you must first understand the pusher mindset. This is really simple. The pusher is telling himself to return every ball to the net, whatever happens. When playing a baseline player, the pusher is not overly concerned with location and will usually end up placing the ball in the center of the court, right at the ‘T’. When facing a serve and volley player, the pusher will try to run down each ball and shoot constantly, hoping he will miss a volley or blow overhead. When facing a player from the entire court, the pusher will combine the two tactics mentioned above.
What is your job? Well now that you know how the pusher thinks and plays, it’s time to find out where his weakness lies and exploit it. The pusher has a LOT of weaknesses in his game, or he wouldn’t just ‘push’ the ball back each time! I want you to think about it a lot, and let that sink in. Okay, now let’s see where the pusher is weak.
First of all, pushers don’t have the mastery of “powerful” groundstrokes, if they have anything that looks like good groundstrokes to begin with. Just from this, we can get information about various weaknesses:
o The pushers have difficulty generating power and combining it accurately, which is a requirement for having “good” ground strokes.
o Pushers have difficulty making pass shots, for the same reasons we just listed.
o If a pusher has weak groundstrokes, he probably has weak serve as well.
o Pushers have difficulty with high balls, again for the reasons mentioned above.
o Pushers hate points ending 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 to do when playing a pusher is to make him do what he doesn’t want to do; And one of the things pushers HATE to do is generate their own ‘rhythm’, or power, when hitting the ball, because they can’t control it. One way to get the pusher to do this is to hit his ground shots deep, about 3/4 speed with a LOT of topspin. This forces the pusher away from the baseline and causes the pusher to generate its own power, rather than just using the power of a hard hit you hit.
Another way to get the pusher “out of his game” is with the serve and the volley, because they can’t throw pass shots very well. (Again, if they could, they wouldn’t be a ‘pusher’). If they try to throw you, save the ball; if they are throwing you right, hit the ceiling anyway and stay in the net. Constant pressure will cause the pusher to bend. If you’re getting hit by balloons over and over, and you can’t do anything about it, then you need to improve your serve before trying this tactic.
However, another way to beat the pusher is to “chip-and-load”; Take advantage of every short ball that the pusher hits you and reaches the net. Don’t hit the net just because you’re there, or the pusher will pitch you all day. Get there with a short ball, make a good approach, and be ready for the pusher’s response.
Since the pusher’s mindset is “I’m going to make every shot you make,” have him do just that, in YOUR terms. Take a well-placed velocidad-speed shot that veers to the side; then take a long, deep shot. This forces the pusher out of their ‘side to side’ game (which they love to do) to move up and back at awkward angles. When you finally get an opening to hit a winner, don’t force angle or speed; Just hit another well-placed velocity shot ¾ towards your desired target. Most of the time, even if the pusher receives the ball, the response will be weak or, at best, a balloon.
Use these techniques the next time you’re on the court, and watch the ‘pusher’ fade away!