Practice to win against pushers. Relax and look into your upper body so that you can stay relaxed during matches without thinking about it, as they will try to jam your internal rhythm with short slices or moon balls or slower balls right down the middle, short and easy to lay up for hitting, or weak serves that they then gloat over your misses.
Drill a lot with lots of cross court shots off both sides..
Do a lot of serving and returning: deciding where to hit each shot before it's ever hit.
Play inside the baseline which forces them to hit deeper and takes away time from them as they quickly realize you are putting your thumb on their forehead two feet inside the baseline, and now instead of being a weapon, all those short slices are easier for you to reach and hit well off of.
Realize what they are doing is designed to jam up your game: so practice against slower balls, slices, and lots of lobs when you come in to attack.
Come into the net dtl against their back hands and be ready for the ever present lobs.
Take a lot of overhead practice, as you will be facing lots of them.
Don't fall into their grinding consistency game plan, as they are better than most at just not making any mistakes while you beat yourself.
Take it to them with some harder hit shots.
Give them some of their own jamming medicine: lots of slices/moon balls, short and deep shots such as drops off drops (they will drop off their bh all day off a cc rally), and then mix in a flat shot (which they don't ever hit due to its risky nature).
Practice these with internal attention: look at your upper body and its energy flow and its speed of coil. Keep your energy high on slower shots, and move/coil fast no matter what the ht./depth of their weak crappy shots, as they are counting the most on your ues on those jamming shots.
Practice your own serve so it's very reliable at least to their bh, which they will slice predictably.
Be fit, as they are often insanely fit due to their defensive game plan demands a lot of running while you punch your self out.
Punch them out instead, but your practices have to structure around preparing the above.
If you come in with a weak shot, they will suddenly be the ones to be hitting winners and gloating. Come in only with a good shot dtl to their bh. Then watch the lob or the short slice to your ankles, or they will often pop up the pass and gloat as you miss an easy volley off the slow sitting pass because you jammed up, didn't move your feet, didn't eat the volley, didn't go after it with power and speed in your feet. Stomp on the volleys and put the first one back dtl, unless the cc is 30% more open. (15% less distance for them to pass dtl and 15% more distance for you to cover dtl adds up to 30% more chance a dtl pass off cc volley will beat you.) You also have to learn how to back up if a good slice is hit to your ankles, and not just keep going into it. Stop, back up, and hit a ground stroke off those good slices, as their only weapon now is a liability, a short ball you are attacking off ground. You have to attack the net to really beat them up. They will often start serving volleying just to keep you away from net and change a losing game. Show them what a great serve return looks like: a rifling topspin pass, as none of their serves will have any pace, only some spin, so keep your hands/ arms higher on returns and anticipate a higher strike zone and hit down on the easy spin serves.
Remember that they are counting on your body work slowing down on their slow shots off passes and shots that lay up dtm. Keep in mind that your body and feet have one speed alone to defend: a fast coil and a faster uncoil. This is the single biggest factor for your practice sessions. Pick pushers to practice against and work religiously on that one internal rhythm: speed kills pushers.
Use psych on them as you can be sure they will be using it on you. Stay even keeled after even the easiest misses, and show them you have no concern and will win anyway. Show them who is boss and feel it inside. You are going to jam them better due to your flat shot ability, slice, moon ball kickers than they can jam you with their two forked attack: short slow slices, and high slow moons.
See my thread on psyches as you are going to encounter lots of them. Pushers win at every level due to their abilities to jam you: with defensive shots, high percentage game, speed of foot, insane consistency, and be the better jammer.
Don't fall into the mental trap of thinking, "This guy sucks. He can't hit a good shot.", and then, when you go down in score, get mad at yourself for missing. Realize going in his whole one plan is to place you in that frame of mind: upset, frustrated, jammed up internally. That is why practice is so important for keeping your relaxed state internally so that you can attack with fast feet/coil/uncoil no matter what the slow shot demands. Mix in all those shots they use, with your own normal shot plan of going for it.
Practice jamming sequences: first a moon ball to their fh, then a slice to the bh, then a flat shot dtl. Short slice, deep moon kicker, and have that set in your mind before the point starts. Very often they don't have good volleys or overheads or approach shots at all, so they relie on answering drops with drops so be ready to kick it.
HI I'M Ray also saw the need to go to the sw grips. He made the change and improved. That is what the game is about, not the score card, and the pushers never improve. They only see the score card as the valid measure of how good they are. Be the one that improves his game, his frame, his string, and keep score this way: "Did I improve during that match?" "Was I relaxed in my upper body?" "Did I keep my feet moving fast and coil fast, uncoil fast?" And let that be the measure of self loathing. If you did not, then feel like a loser. The score is only relevant to improvement and the proof thereof. Sampras lost 19 times in a row when he changed to a one hander. I have never lost 19 times in a row, and if I did, I might have quit or felt bad about the game as worthlessly difficult. Yes the push game is difficult to face, as you are really only facing your own bodies tendecy to slow down on slow incoming threats. Slow threat+slow body=ue. REalize that ahead of time and decide to train for it, and you will learn to destroy them with their own strategies: jam their bodies and minds better than you jam your own.
See also thread on defending your contact point.
Drill a lot with lots of cross court shots off both sides..
Do a lot of serving and returning: deciding where to hit each shot before it's ever hit.
Play inside the baseline which forces them to hit deeper and takes away time from them as they quickly realize you are putting your thumb on their forehead two feet inside the baseline, and now instead of being a weapon, all those short slices are easier for you to reach and hit well off of.
Realize what they are doing is designed to jam up your game: so practice against slower balls, slices, and lots of lobs when you come in to attack.
Come into the net dtl against their back hands and be ready for the ever present lobs.
Take a lot of overhead practice, as you will be facing lots of them.
Don't fall into their grinding consistency game plan, as they are better than most at just not making any mistakes while you beat yourself.
Take it to them with some harder hit shots.
Give them some of their own jamming medicine: lots of slices/moon balls, short and deep shots such as drops off drops (they will drop off their bh all day off a cc rally), and then mix in a flat shot (which they don't ever hit due to its risky nature).
Practice these with internal attention: look at your upper body and its energy flow and its speed of coil. Keep your energy high on slower shots, and move/coil fast no matter what the ht./depth of their weak crappy shots, as they are counting the most on your ues on those jamming shots.
Practice your own serve so it's very reliable at least to their bh, which they will slice predictably.
Be fit, as they are often insanely fit due to their defensive game plan demands a lot of running while you punch your self out.
Punch them out instead, but your practices have to structure around preparing the above.
If you come in with a weak shot, they will suddenly be the ones to be hitting winners and gloating. Come in only with a good shot dtl to their bh. Then watch the lob or the short slice to your ankles, or they will often pop up the pass and gloat as you miss an easy volley off the slow sitting pass because you jammed up, didn't move your feet, didn't eat the volley, didn't go after it with power and speed in your feet. Stomp on the volleys and put the first one back dtl, unless the cc is 30% more open. (15% less distance for them to pass dtl and 15% more distance for you to cover dtl adds up to 30% more chance a dtl pass off cc volley will beat you.) You also have to learn how to back up if a good slice is hit to your ankles, and not just keep going into it. Stop, back up, and hit a ground stroke off those good slices, as their only weapon now is a liability, a short ball you are attacking off ground. You have to attack the net to really beat them up. They will often start serving volleying just to keep you away from net and change a losing game. Show them what a great serve return looks like: a rifling topspin pass, as none of their serves will have any pace, only some spin, so keep your hands/ arms higher on returns and anticipate a higher strike zone and hit down on the easy spin serves.
Remember that they are counting on your body work slowing down on their slow shots off passes and shots that lay up dtm. Keep in mind that your body and feet have one speed alone to defend: a fast coil and a faster uncoil. This is the single biggest factor for your practice sessions. Pick pushers to practice against and work religiously on that one internal rhythm: speed kills pushers.
Use psych on them as you can be sure they will be using it on you. Stay even keeled after even the easiest misses, and show them you have no concern and will win anyway. Show them who is boss and feel it inside. You are going to jam them better due to your flat shot ability, slice, moon ball kickers than they can jam you with their two forked attack: short slow slices, and high slow moons.
See my thread on psyches as you are going to encounter lots of them. Pushers win at every level due to their abilities to jam you: with defensive shots, high percentage game, speed of foot, insane consistency, and be the better jammer.
Don't fall into the mental trap of thinking, "This guy sucks. He can't hit a good shot.", and then, when you go down in score, get mad at yourself for missing. Realize going in his whole one plan is to place you in that frame of mind: upset, frustrated, jammed up internally. That is why practice is so important for keeping your relaxed state internally so that you can attack with fast feet/coil/uncoil no matter what the slow shot demands. Mix in all those shots they use, with your own normal shot plan of going for it.
Practice jamming sequences: first a moon ball to their fh, then a slice to the bh, then a flat shot dtl. Short slice, deep moon kicker, and have that set in your mind before the point starts. Very often they don't have good volleys or overheads or approach shots at all, so they relie on answering drops with drops so be ready to kick it.
HI I'M Ray also saw the need to go to the sw grips. He made the change and improved. That is what the game is about, not the score card, and the pushers never improve. They only see the score card as the valid measure of how good they are. Be the one that improves his game, his frame, his string, and keep score this way: "Did I improve during that match?" "Was I relaxed in my upper body?" "Did I keep my feet moving fast and coil fast, uncoil fast?" And let that be the measure of self loathing. If you did not, then feel like a loser. The score is only relevant to improvement and the proof thereof. Sampras lost 19 times in a row when he changed to a one hander. I have never lost 19 times in a row, and if I did, I might have quit or felt bad about the game as worthlessly difficult. Yes the push game is difficult to face, as you are really only facing your own bodies tendecy to slow down on slow incoming threats. Slow threat+slow body=ue. REalize that ahead of time and decide to train for it, and you will learn to destroy them with their own strategies: jam their bodies and minds better than you jam your own.
See also thread on defending your contact point.
Last edited:
