Osteo UK said:
I think a lot of pushers can play a controlled volley and a deep lob.
For me, I have played pushers that just thrive on my power (I don't tickle it back to them anyway!) I have found that against them I just end up getting tired and frustrated if I keep whacking the ball, unless it is a winner (and statistically, even the top players can only hit them 1 in 5?)
I try now to back off thumping it repetitively and wait for a "genuine" chance that I can do something with.
I know that pushers get a real slagging off here, but I have recently started to develop a respect for them as they don't let any ego get in the way of winning the match. I find that I am laughing more at myself and others that can't beat them, as if we were better tennis players we wouldn't be having these discussions.
"Pushers" beating "better" players? I think there is a clue in there somewhere...
If a guy keeps beating you, you have to begin to respect it, and take a look in the mirror.
I spent a good portion of my summer getting pounded by a player I would describe as the ultimate pusher. He simply doesn't miss. We're talking 2-3 unforced errors a set. He runs down everything, he gets my 1st serve (a strength) back (weakly, but it still comes back). He hits great lobs, and does an incredible job of running down overheads.
If an unknowing observer watched us warm-up, I don't think I'm being arrogant in thinking the observer would pick me to win the match. Yet, I rarely got more than 3 games off this guy. I would get so frustrated during some of those sets (like, say, when he hit a lunging chop lob off my serve that gently floated over me as I attempted to serve/volley, landing right on the baseline. For the 4th time in the set) that I would start to yell at him to swing at the damn ball. Other times, I'd get in moonball wars- just stand there with the racquet dangling while he hit a floater, then bloop it right back to him. Nothing worked.
Finally, I just had to give the guy his props, and see that, as infuriating as the style is, he's a really, really good match player. Especially because its not just me he does this too. Watching him hit, its 3.0 pace, but I've seen him beat players who are easily 4.0. He could probably compete with 4.5's, unless they just annihilated his serve to an extent that made it impossible for him to hold.
The one thing I did to him, and have done to other pushers, that seems to work, is to start to purposely hit short, soft, angled shots. A good pusher wants to play deep. He loves to run around in back of the baseline, to just sit back there, catch powerful shots, and toss them back. If you can slow your swing down enough to make him come in, it catches him off guard, and takes him out of his comfort zone. You might even force some errors- and an error sticks in a pusher's head to a far greater extent than if you hit a winner on him, because the pusher style is to avoid UE's at all cost.
Give the devil his due- winning is the goal of any tennis match. If someone can do it in a way that's like unanesthisized dental surgery, it still counts the same.
