How to beat a “pusher”
Every singles player knows this opponent. They don’t hit with much pace or much directional intent, but no matter where you hit the ball they’ll sprint over to it and loft it back up over to your side of the net. This goes on an on until you make an error and lose the point. This is the dreaded pusher.
Many players say, and I would tend to agree with them, that these pushers are often one of the hardest type of players to beat; this is because they usually make very few errors and can extend the point to excruciating lengths. However if you make a two educated observations you can see that most archetypal pushers are very beatable.
1.) Pushers love groundstrokes. This first observation is often lost on many players however it is the key to beating a pusher. Almost all of these pushers are content running side to side hitting groundstrokes until either you a.) Make an error or b.) Collapse of exhaustion. The best way to beat a pusher is to force them out of their comfort zone by taking them off the baseline and up to the net. Many pushers aren’t confident in their net game, or simply don’t want to hit volleys, by bringing them forward you make them have to hit one of their weaker shots.
2.) Pushers often don’t have much offense. As I stated earlier the main objective of a pusher is to not make errors and extend the point until you do. That being said, many of these pushers don’t like taking offensive cuts at the ball for fear of making an error. The best way to expose this is to move forward to the net yourself and make them try to pass you or lob you. One caveat to this however is that while many pushers do lack this offense, at higher levels some of these pushers will have developed good passing shots and/or lobs to counter this strategy.
By noting these two observations and your skills as a player you can make an educated game plan for playing a pusher. For instance take a look at a match I played last year. My opponent was most definitely a pusher, and a good one at that. However I knew that my volleys were better than his and that he didn’t like moving forward. My game play was to drop shot him to bring him into the net and then follow that drop shot into the net myself; by doing so we would get into a volley-volley exchange, an exchange that I knew I would win far more than he would.
So next time you are playing the classic “pusher” remember to make those two key observations and take a long hard look at your own arsenal of skills and you too can make a winning game plan.