How to beat a “Pusher”
How to beat a “Pusher.” What can you do to counter a player that just gets the ball back, hits a lot of no pace balls, and does not miss. This type of player can be mentally and physically strong.
If we are looking at the 4 Cards, which Card do we start with when playing a pusher? They can be difficult at first glance because they typically are fast, seem to have endless energy, and can be tough to break mentally and emotionally. So that means getting their physical, emotional, and mental cards is going to be challenging and even their technical card may be hard to see at first because everything keeps coming back. But fear not! There is a way to beat them, and once a player figures it out, pushers become players that will become less and less of a threat and can actually be fun to play.
1. Be patient! The first ingredient to beating a pusher is patience. They are going to get a lot of balls back, so you have to be patient, but the balls they get back are not going to hurt you because they don’t have much pace and they typically are not extremely well placed. The only way you are going to lose a point is if you miss before they do. Patience will help you keep your mental and emotional cards on your side of the net which will take away one of the pusher’s greatest assets which is to get you frustrated with them.
2. Use your spins to work the pusher around the court. One of the critical keys to beating a pusher is to use the whole court to work them out of position to create opportunities to win points. Spin helps us cut down on errors and gives us the ability to hit shots like angles, high heavy balls to back them up, or even drop-shots to bring them to the net. You have to be consistent to beat a pusher so just trying to hit them off the court with flat, powerful shots isn’t going to work well. In the end, you will make too many errors. You have to outthink your opponent by playing chess with them and outmaneuvering them on the court. Using a high heavy ball to back them up until they hit short, then using an angle to run them off the court will give you chances to hit winners and forced errors into the open court left after you angle them off.
3. Pushers like pace and they like to sit behind the baseline and run down your power shots. They DON’T like to be brought forward into uncomfortable territory inside the baseline and at the net. Again, using angles forces them to run forward and out of their comfort zone, and drop shots and short slices can bring them to the net where they are like a fish out of water. Bring them in and work your passing shots and lobs.
4. Gain advantage early in the point by hitting angles off of the return of serve. Pushers usually have weak serves, especially second serves, and you can open up the court right away by hitting angles.
5. Be ready to finish points with transfers, swing volleys and volleys. Many times, you will work a pusher into hitting a short, weaker ball that is attackable. You have to be ready to get in there and finish those points once you have worked them into trouble. This is the most difficult part for a younger player as they get overexcited at this stage of their games and tend to overplay or even under play these opportunities. To beat a pusher, you have to be ready to execute in these moments. Once you can calmly, but aggressively, hit finishing shots, a pusher no longer presents the threat that they used to when faced with them on the court.
6. Make your first serve! Pushers aren’t ripping returns on you so don’t overdo things here! Get a high percentage of first serves in the court so you are not wasting a lot of energy going for too much on a ball that is probably going to come back anyway. Make smart placements, mixing it up occasionally to throw them off when you can, but most importantly get it in and start working the chess game.
7. In summary, the technical card is the first one you are after. Work them around the court into positions they are uncomfortable with, like running them forward, and you will see that they will start to break down technically, Their strokes and footwork have weaknesses or they would be playing a more diverse, and professional gamestyle. By running them off the court and/or forward for drop shots, you will also start getting to their physical card which will greatly hamper their gamestyle. If you get them tired and frazzled, you may well get their mental and emotional cards too!!! Be patient, work your plan using spins and smarts, and a pusher will have nothing they can say to stop you from shaking their hand as the victor!
