Pushers can be beaten!

[Tennis_Slapper23]

The keys to beat a pusher at any level is. One, stop making excuses and complaining in your head there a pusher. It only makes you get angry if it’s close or your losing. There are most likely holisticaly speaking near your level, sure you have nicer weapons and better form but they have a better mental game and consistency. .

Two, make them think and play one point at a time. You have to stick to a good game plan and Mix it up to look for weakness. A lot of pushers don’t like to approach or volley. Mix in a drop shot one and awhile try and to serve and volley once a game or more if you can. Push balls back some times unless it’s a easy ball. On easy balls go for a big ball to a big target.

Beating a pusher is 90% tactics if your are good enough to make balls in play consistently you can beat a pusher. But if you try to go for lines or get mad when you miss a easy ball. You will lose regardless of your level.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

The question is not, "can pushers be beaten?" The question is, "should pushers be beaten?". The answer is a resounding "YES, with a big stick!".

 

[zaph]

Pushing is just tennis defence, that is it. It is a perfectly legitimate way to play and frankly even if you want to play an aggressive style, you need defensive skills. To get outraged at pushing is just as absurd as getting outraged at someone who beats you using volleys.

I mean do you really want to spend your life playing matches that you win because your opponent has made more unforced errors than you? At least with a pusher you know you won because you actually outplayed them because they are not giving you free points.

I am not just saying this because I generally beat pushers, I just lost to a junkballer. I am saying it because if you want to play rec tennis, you're going to have to learn to accept pushing. For example, every player I have met in my local tennis league has either been a pusher or junkballer. If you let that style get to you, you will struggle with low level competitive tennis because that is how the majority play.

 

[Dragy]

Beating pushers, apart from your actual real tennis competence, goes down to confidence. How can you most reliably hang in points? How can you end points in your favor most easily? How can you combine these two, transitioning from first to second? Then execute with confidence again and again.

Ending points easily may depend on the surface, on your shape and readiness to move, on your volley and OH skills.

Two most reliable options seem to be getting to net or pulling pusher in to pass/lob.

 

[user92626]

The question is not, "can pushers be beaten?" The question is, "should pushers be beaten?". The answer is a resounding "YES, with a big stick!".

I like humor but
I don't get it! Sir SA.

Is it just a mild play on words? OK. haha.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I like humor but
I don't get it! Sir SA.

Is it just a mild play on words? OK. haha.

A play on words it is.

 

[AnyPUG]

A play on words it is.

I thought you meant pushers were mollycoddles as opposed to real tennis players

Something like this would make sense - SA thinks rec tennis turns out mollycoddles instead of vigorous players. The weaklings are out of place on courts with technically correct shots.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I thought you meant pushers were mollycoddles as opposed to real tennis players

Something like this would make sense - SA thinks rec tennis turns out mollycoddles instead of vigorous players. The weaklings are out of place on courts with technically correct shots.

Nope that wasn't it. It was to be a play on the word "beaten".

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

The question is not, "can pushers be beaten?" The question is, "should pushers be beaten?". The answer is a resounding "YES, with a big stick!".

You can't write "YES" in all caps then because that's shouting and TR spoke softly whilst wielding the Big Stick.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Hating pushers boils down to:

- Losing and therefore the pusher must be diminished [ie "That wasn't even real tennis!"]
- Making the [inconsistent] winner work a lot harder than he wanted to
- Purists defending some mythical archetype of stroke technique
- Frustration over spending a lot of time, money, and effort to achieve something that can be destroyed by a hack

 

[zaph]

Hating pushers boils down to:

- Losing and therefore the pusher must be diminished [ie "That wasn't even real tennis!"]
- Making the [inconsistent] winner work a lot harder than he wanted to
- Purists defending some mythical archetype of stroke technique
- Frustration over spending a lot of time, money, and effort to achieve something that can be destroyed by a hack

To be fair I do think there is a problem with how newbies are coached, which sets them up to fail against pushers. I have played people who had 6 months, to a years coaching and have made their game collapse by feeding them absolute rubbish.

I think the problem is coaches are almost too good, in coaching sessions they can hit the same feed over and over again. Their students get use to these consistent feeds and then they meet someone like me who hacks them off the court. They are suddenly playing against stuff that inconsistent, short junkballs, gravity moonballs and slow rubbish. They haven't played against that sort of stuff before, they have been grooved against more conventional strokes and it isn't really a surprise their game falls apart and they get frustrated.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

To be fair I do think there is a problem with how newbies are coached, which sets them up to fail against pushers. I have played people who had 6 months, to a years coaching and have made their game collapse by feeding them absolute rubbish.

I think the problem is coaches are almost too good, in coaching sessions they can hit the same feed over and over again. Their students get use to these consistent feeds and then they meet someone like me who hacks them off the court. They are suddenly playing against stuff that inconsistent, short junkballs, gravity moonballs and slow rubbish. They haven't played against that sort of stuff before, they have been grooved against more conventional strokes and it isn't really a surprise their game falls apart and they get frustrated.

A good coach will give more challenging feeds as the student improves.

But it comes down to short-term outcomes vs long-term improvement: the coach could emphasize how to deal with pushers and junkers but that might contradict the principles he's trying to teach that he believes are foundational to long-term success.

I've played several times against an athletic guy who took up tennis late: he already has better strokes than I - deeper, heavier, wider, etc. But I don't hit a very consistent ball so one might be flattish and the next loopy. Since I imagine he doesn't practice like this during lessons, it gives him a hard time. Once he gets more match experience, he'll be a formidable competitor.

 

[user92626]

Hating pushers boils down to:

- Losing and therefore the pusher must be diminished [ie "That wasn't even real tennis!"]
- Making the [inconsistent] winner work a lot harder than he wanted to
- Purists defending some mythical archetype of stroke technique
- Frustration over spending a lot of time, money, and effort to achieve something that can be destroyed by a hack

Hating pushers boils down to:

-being a sore loser