You can try this against pushers, it worked for me...

[mdhubert]

Yesterday I played my dear friend The Pusher, the one who repetedly beat me in recent months and always smiled at the net after the match saying "well done" when he just slapped me 6-0 (the last set we played-we usually play one set)... I tried everything against him : serve and volley, but he's a superb lober, pushing, but I get lazy and make UE's, attacking from the baseline but I psychollogically desintegrate on my own as I pile up UE's and get really tentative...

Yesterday I didn't really have a game plan but I wanted to try the "percentages" and use partially Wardlaw directionnals. The result is awesome: the idea is to start by sending back the ball exactly in the same direction where it comes from: on the retrun, I didn't struggle on his crappy sliced serves and sent back every ball. That was a good start to build my game and groove my strokes. Nothing fancy but steady. In the rally, initially I sent the ball back to him with a good pace and depth (very important against a pusher) and started to slightly change the angle shot after shot. The result was great because I stole him a lot of the time he needs to prepare and adjust his beloved moonballs. He got impatient and started to mishit and put the ball into the net when he wanted to change directions.

Then I got more confidence and made him come to the net. He missed quite a lot but I didn't pass him properly, so the result was just OK. He still made me run with his drop shots on my BH.

But overall I saw a tremendous improvement. My game was not very aggressive but I didn't play a pusher game myself, I was very stable and precise. We didn't have time to finish unfortunately but it was looking good for me, 5-4, 30-all on my serve...

Think Nalbandian, and above all Agassi, when you play a pusher. Play a smart and consistent game. At the end of the set he was so pissed off he whined on "OUR errors" and "the lack of pace (!)", and his "bad positioning on court (big internal smile)", the fact that he was "not in good shape", etc., etc. He didn't say "Well done" this time, and didn't have the class to reckon I had played a role in his bad performance. Too bad for him.

Try this against your favorite pusher and post your results, I'd be interested.

 

[shindemac]

I think the style you described is more akin to a counterpuncher a la Leyton Hewitt, and not Agassi the aggressive baseliner. Agassi does a lot of change of direction which is not what the Wardlaw directionals are about. But you do want to be aggressive so the pusher doesn't play you like a fiddle.

 

[mdhubert]

I think the style you described is more akin to a counterpuncher a la Leyton Hewitt, and not Agassi the aggressive baseliner. Agassi does a lot of change of direction which is not what the Wardlaw directionals are about. But you do want to be aggressive so the pusher doesn't play you like a fiddle.

Yep I agree the spirit is quite counter puncher oriented. However, the Wardlow directionnals don't say that you don't have to change directions, just do it in certain circumstances, and Agassi is a master at defining the moment to change directions, that's why I took him as a reference. I like this kind of game against the pusher because you don't get bored as you keep a certain rythm, and you have a control feeling, which you often lose, together with you composure, against these guys...
May I ask what do you do against a pusher yourself ?

 

[shindemac]

Well, a counterpuncher does attack and change the ball direction, but usually on short, high balls to the middle. Don't quote me on this, but I think Agassi does change directionals a lot that go against the Wardlaw's. Wardlaw's increase the number of options a counterpuncher has without turning him into a baseliner.

I have a lot of experience against pushers because my hitting partner is one. It took me a long, long time to figure out a winning strategy, and last year I finally made the breakthrough. But it's tempered by the fact that his skills are on the decline. I already posted my strategy in another thread, but I'll recap here. Be more aggressive and put him on the defensive. When the oppurtunity arises, use angles and placement to force an error. As you can see, it's almost a counterpuncher style except I go for more angles sometimes, and I trade that for power to keep my consistency up.

I used to play the power/aggressive baseliner. My strategy was either hit to his weak side, hit to the open court, or overwhelm him with power. I never picked my points, and I never hit toward the sidelines. I never went for the percentage and hence crosscourt style of play. I got so frustrated and realized my errors killed me, and power games don't work against pushers.

 

[Rickson]

I also change direction quite often against pushers because it's so much easier to do off of no pace balls than hard hit ones. I played this one guy who loved to slice serves and when he sent the ball wide on the deuce court to my forehand, I'd be stretched off the court and sent the ball back to his forehand where he sent the ball to the open court. We never finished that first match due to rain where I was up 2-1 so I asked for tips here on this forum so I'd have better results on his slice serve next time we played and I was told to definitely change direction on his wide serve. I listened and sent his deuce serves dtl and to his backhand, instead of keeping the same angle and back to his fh where he'd have an open court. I proceeded to beat him, 6-1 and 6-1. If it worked for you then great, but many times you need to change direction on a pusher, especially the ones with slice serves, because they're looking for the open court on you just as much as you are on them...well, maybe not as much.

 

[mdhubert]

If it worked for you then great, but many times you need to change direction on a pusher, especially the ones with slice serves, because they're looking for the open court on you just as much as you are on them...well, maybe not as much.

In any case you've got to vary, with every kind of player, that's why there is no magic recipe, like "you do that and you beat him".

For me changing direction on sitters or moonballs was somehow risky because I did not bend enough my knees or my timing was wrong or I couldn't accelerate the ball enough. Sending it back straight or slightly angled gives me some tempo and makes me feel in control.

I think coming back to some common sense contained in the Wardlaw's directionnal helped me to start the set with confidence and to groove a bit my strokes, which is key against pushers, because they play a mental game and every little sand grain in your game is transformed by them into UE's streaks due to their consistency. The message is "I can play with consistency as well, I will not be the kamikaze today". Then you can start to mix it up, to go down the line on the return, etc. and when you feel you lose it a bit, you go back to Wardlaw and you build again some consistency and confidence.

This is a mental frame I didn't experiment and it seems to work. Now some others might have different solutions, and let's not forget we have our own forces, preferences, etc., as well as the pushers. I just wanted to share my little experience, maybe it can beneficiate to someone else.

 

[mdhubert]

double post

 

[anshul]

yea...he is...

 

[Eman]

what...

what the heck is "Wardlaw's directionnal "?

Not heard that term before.

 

[Pomeranian]

Search for it or it probably is on the sticky Eman.

To beat a pusher, all you need is a style you can play well. Power usually doesn't win unless it is consistant and powerful enough to end points or draw errors. Placement is great for making them tried and hitting winners from out of positioned players, also of course you can create offensive opportunies. Consistancy is another way to win but my least favorite. Don't get me wrong, you need consistancy if you play with power or placement, but winning by mostly consistancy against a pusher is boring long points. No winners and all unforced errors are horrible to me.

 

[shindemac]

If you read tennis books, they usually talk about Wardlaw's directionals. Sometimes they talk about it without even mentioning the name.

Yes, I agree. Angles and placement is good against pushers. They leave a lot of easy balls that you can control. I think this makes them easier in some ways. But most people look at these easy balls and try to smash the fuzz out of them. So everyone out there, beat those pushers and show them that their game doesn't work. Once you figure it out, it sounds so easy and you wonder what took you so long it was staring you right in your face.

 

[mdhubert]

If you read tennis books, they usually talk about Wardlaw's directionals. Sometimes they talk about it without even mentioning the name.

Yes, I agree. Angles and placement is good against pushers. They leave a lot of easy balls that you can control. I think this makes them easier in some ways. But most people look at these easy balls and try to smash the fuzz out of them. So everyone out there, beat those pushers and show them that their game doesn't work. Once you figure it out, it sounds so easy and you wonder what took you so long it was staring you right in your face.

Yep exactly what I think.
And I get the double-satisfaction: grooving my strokes (no more boirng match with gazillions unforced errors and sitters you don't know what to do with) and watching their face in disbelieve...

 

[kevhen]

Play safe (use the directionals hitting back where it came from) and wait for the short ball to attack against the classic pusher....

The guys doesn't sounds like a good pusher if he was not in shape and was complaining about lack of pace. Pusher do tend to like pace but they also like just being able to get to and retrieve every ball.

 

[ramseszerg]

This may be a good mindset against a pusher. The more you change direction, the faster you have to swing. Think about a racquet at zero velocity, and a ball coming in at an angle. It will bounce off at an angle equal to the incident angle. Keep repeating the process in your mind, except move the racquet faster and faster. You can see the ball bounces closer to the normal of the racquet every time.

So, when you are very tentative playing against a pusher you will be wide if you try and change direction with a tentative swing. BTW i've been there before.. a 4.5 pusher (retriever for those of you who are picky and dont term michael chang as a pusher) against me when i was 3.5.. you can guess what the score was.

 

[Bora]

Another thing about pushers is that they like to hit a lot of balls on the move. So, every once in a while you can hit a very safe but hard, lots of pace, shot smack down the middle of the court and catch them of guard.

I get a lot of free points of those against pushers. They have to move their feet and get out of the way of the ball and set up to hit, they are not used to that.