0:00:00.009,0:00:02.789 Pushers use a strategy called trench warfare. 0:00:02.920,0:00:05.630 And here are five strategies that you can use to beat it. 0:00:05.719,0:00:07.239 We're gonna look at Carlos Alcaraz, 0:00:08.000,0:00:09.109 Stefano Tsitsipas, 0:00:09.239,0:00:12.350 and we're also going to hear from the top analytics expert in the world. 0:00:12.479,0:00:12.909 But first, 0:00:13.000,0:00:14.520 what is trench warfare? 0:00:14.720,0:00:14.840 Well, 0:00:15.000,0:00:19.040 pushers like to play from way behind the baseline in 0:00:19.040,0:00:21.649 an area of the court I call the trench, 0:00:21.840,0:00:25.319 and they also like to push you back into your own trench. 0:00:25.360,0:00:28.510 So, if I draw a box around the control bar here, 0:00:28.719,0:00:29.799 let's just say that's the 0:00:29.909,0:00:31.809 trench. And from here, 0:00:32.060,0:00:35.979 it is really difficult for you to play offense because the 0:00:35.979,0:00:39.709 pusher is just going to hit moonball after moonball, 0:00:40.020,0:00:41.049 and it's difficult 0:00:41.340,0:00:43.569 for you to move forward. 0:00:43.750,0:00:44.569 Trench warfare, 0:00:44.580,0:00:44.939 of course, 0:00:44.979,0:00:46.770 is a battle of attrition, 0:00:47.020,0:00:48.930 so the pusher is just going to wear you down. 0:00:49.060,0:00:51.860 You're going to make a ton of mistakes and lose the match. 0:00:52.470,0:00:53.299 We've all been there. 0:00:53.549,0:00:56.220 You've probably been told to serve and volley against a pusher, 0:00:56.430,0:00:59.389 but what if your volleys from no man's land aren't any good? 0:00:59.509,0:01:02.779 So, the first strategy is called serve plus one approach, 0:01:03.009,0:01:05.419 where you're going to serve out wide in the deuce court, 0:01:05.550,0:01:07.419 pull the pusher off the court, 0:01:07.669,0:01:11.059 and then the return's probably gonna come back crosscourt like this. 0:01:11.430,0:01:15.709 So, what you want to do is slide around and upgrade to a forehand. 0:01:15.989,0:01:20.239 And then you are going to hit that forehand into the open court, 0:01:20.489,0:01:22.660 and then you are just gonna follow 0:01:23.129,0:01:24.550 your forehand to net. 0:01:24.610,0:01:26.839 You're immediately gonna start approaching. 0:01:27.209,0:01:30.000 Now the pusher is gonna have to hustle across 0:01:30.000,0:01:34.000 the entire court and hit a backhand passing shot, 0:01:34.129,0:01:36.209 and a lot of the time they're gonna outright miss it. 0:01:37.559,0:01:37.569 (BALL HITTING SOUNDS) 0:01:41.779,0:01:44.819 Or you're gonna get a weak lob that'll be an easy overhead. 0:01:52.669,0:01:58.010 The second strategy is to return in valley like we're about to see Alcaraz do here. 0:01:58.190,0:02:01.690 Now the reason this works so well is because when the pusher is serving, 0:02:01.860,0:02:04.709 he's right up on the baseline where he doesn't want to be. 0:02:04.739,0:02:07.449 He wants to back up into his trench. 0:02:07.819,0:02:11.610 So, if you return directly at him and then come to net, 0:02:11.740,0:02:12.839 you're going to rush him, 0:02:12.940,0:02:13.059 right? 0:02:13.139,0:02:16.169 He is not playing from a depth where he is comfortable. 0:02:16.460,0:02:18.210 So, what you're probably going to get 0:02:18.460,0:02:21.699 is a weak lob that will be an easy overhead. 0:02:30.050,0:02:32.809 So, the third strategy is a rallying strategy 0:02:32.809,0:02:34.839 where you're in the worst case situation, 0:02:35.050,0:02:37.809 the pusher has retreated back into their trench. 0:02:38.009,0:02:40.160 You have been pushed back into your trench, 0:02:40.369,0:02:44.119 and now the pusher can just try and moonball you to death. 0:02:44.449,0:02:46.169 So, I'm not actually going to teach this segment. 0:02:46.330,0:02:47.250 Craig O'Shannessy, 0:02:47.300,0:02:49.320 the top analytics expert in the world, 0:02:49.369,0:02:52.130 he used to run Novak Djokovic's analytics. 0:02:52.322,0:02:57.233 He is going to teach this segment, and we're pulling it out of a program we created 0:02:57.233,0:02:59.873 together called the "New Rules of Singles," which you 0:02:59.873,0:03:01.593 can check out if you download our app. 0:03:01.632,0:03:04.373 It's the Fuzzy Yellow Balls app in the App Store. 0:03:04.632,0:03:07.792 So, inside that program, there's a section called "Crush 0:03:07.792,0:03:11.473 Pushers With Analytics" where Craig shares all the numbers, 0:03:11.572,0:03:14.192 all the data on how to beat a pusher. 0:03:14.233,0:03:14.632 So, we've got the 0:03:14.746,0:03:18.766 serving section, returning, the rallying, which we are about to watch, 0:03:18.975,0:03:20.115 and then approaching 0:03:20.285,0:03:20.845 the net. 0:03:20.936,0:03:24.166 So, let's see what the numbers say about rallying against the pusher. 0:03:24.416,0:03:24.656 Craig, 0:03:24.666,0:03:28.016 we've gotten to the rally situation against the pusher, 0:03:28.026,0:03:29.216 which is not where we want to be. 0:03:29.255,0:03:30.606 It's the five plus 0:03:31.416,0:03:32.246 part of the point, 0:03:32.266,0:03:32.686 you know, 0:03:32.856,0:03:33.686 and 0:03:33.936,0:03:36.085 we're now pushed back behind the baseline. 0:03:36.175,0:03:36.975 The pusher's 0:03:37.600,0:03:38.910 way behind the baseline that's 0:03:39.119,0:03:41.710 their happy place right. They're way back there. 0:03:42.070,0:03:44.240 So, not ideal for us. 0:03:44.440,0:03:46.000 What do we do to get out of it? 0:03:46.199,0:03:46.279 Well, 0:03:46.320,0:03:47.970 the first thing to understand is that 0:03:48.399,0:03:50.229 we still want to play 0:03:50.479,0:03:52.309 the game style that suits us, 0:03:52.520,0:03:53.789 but against the pusher, 0:03:54.000,0:03:58.270 we need to go just a little bit longer into the point to find the right ball. 0:03:58.520,0:03:59.830 So, on average, 0:04:00.039,0:04:03.600 rally length in tennis is typically around four shots. 0:04:03.839,0:04:05.070 Against a pusher, 0:04:06.059,0:04:09.899 you've gotta think the rally length gets goes up to around six shots. 0:04:09.979,0:04:13.210 Now that's just one more shot for the push and one more shot for you. 0:04:13.779,0:04:15.119 Sometimes rallies will get longer, 0:04:15.179,0:04:17.529 but in general, this is how you need to think, 0:04:17.779,0:04:19.690 so your brain doesn't explode 0:04:20.059,0:04:21.488 thinking that you've got to play 0:04:21.660,0:04:24.769 10 and 15 and 20 and 30 shot rallies all the time. 0:04:24.940,0:04:27.420 You do need to be a little bit more patient. 0:04:27.500,0:04:28.380 It is true. 0:04:28.554,0:04:31.135 The pusher demands that because they're getting more balls in play. 0:04:31.304,0:04:32.174 But in general, 0:04:32.345,0:04:35.494 going from four shots to six shots is your idea. 0:04:35.704,0:04:36.214 Now, 0:04:36.505,0:04:37.864 how do we go about this? 0:04:37.984,0:04:38.184 Well, 0:04:38.345,0:04:40.565 what I wanna see you do against a pusher, 0:04:40.825,0:04:44.095 generally they want to play a higher point, and they like to be back, 0:04:44.105,0:04:45.424 and they especially 0:04:45.704,0:04:48.804 want you to be far back behind the baseline because you can't hurt them. 0:04:49.065,0:04:50.984 They want you to overhit from back there. 0:04:51.440,0:04:54.149 So, one of the things as we look down on our side of the court, 0:04:54.359,0:04:56.670 is I want you to do everything you can 0:04:56.959,0:04:57.959 to climb the ladder, 0:04:58.119,0:05:00.850 which simply means with each successive shot, 0:05:01.000,0:05:02.869 if you can just move forward a little bit 0:05:03.079,0:05:05.390 and try and stay around the baseline. 0:05:05.679,0:05:07.880 When you're around the baseline or inside it, 0:05:08.279,0:05:11.429 you're naturally going to be hitting through the ball more, 0:05:11.600,0:05:15.029 hitting through the court more, and the rally is gonna get a little bit lower. 0:05:15.239,0:05:17.480 The pusher is gonna be back more. 0:05:17.657,0:05:19.037 And they're gonna be going higher. 0:05:19.287,0:05:19.808 So, 0:05:19.847,0:05:23.078 the worst thing for you is to just copy what they're doing, 0:05:23.368,0:05:24.558 stay back, and just have these 0:05:24.727,0:05:26.088 long high rallies. 0:05:26.167,0:05:26.958 That is not 0:05:27.167,0:05:28.317 to your benefit at all. 0:05:28.467,0:05:30.328 You're saying when you move forward your shots, 0:05:30.368,0:05:31.648 you're gonna be bringing the ball down. 0:05:31.738,0:05:32.488 Naturally you will, 0:05:32.687,0:05:32.988 yes. 0:05:33.167,0:05:33.208 Yeah, 0:05:33.338,0:05:34.437 hitting through the court. 0:05:34.687,0:05:35.048 So, 0:05:35.287,0:05:38.477 what I want you to do early on 0:05:38.798,0:05:40.048 is to try and go deep, 0:05:40.167,0:05:43.888 is to try and find the ball that you can attack on and attack. 0:05:43.985,0:05:45.645 Let's say your forehand is your strength, 0:05:45.816,0:05:47.566 your runaround forehand especially, 0:05:47.735,0:05:48.506 as you move forward, 0:05:48.575,0:05:50.286 you're slightly inside the baseline, 0:05:50.496,0:05:52.485 and you're looking for for hands over here. 0:05:52.735,0:05:53.406 We know 0:05:53.696,0:05:56.776 from the research that we've done for this course that 0:05:57.015,0:06:00.126 the errors are going to occur far more 0:06:00.496,0:06:01.526 out wide. 0:06:01.776,0:06:03.395 So, for the opponent's forehand, 0:06:03.536,0:06:05.385 the errors are gonna be occurring there 0:06:05.656,0:06:06.325 a lot, 0:06:06.536,0:06:07.696 and against the back end, 0:06:07.976,0:06:09.286 the errors are going to be here. 0:06:09.496,0:06:10.216 So, we want to get 0:06:10.664,0:06:11.864 a lower rally 0:06:12.063,0:06:13.944 and a rally where we're penetrating through the 0:06:13.944,0:06:15.973 court and playing kind of our normal tennis. 0:06:16.223,0:06:18.734 And our runaround forehand is a great way to do this. 0:06:18.944,0:06:21.104 The runaround full hand freezes the opponent. 0:06:21.283,0:06:23.813 They don't exactly know where it's going until the ball comes 0:06:24.104,0:06:24.783 off the string. 0:06:24.864,0:06:26.303 So, they're a little bit late on it, 0:06:26.463,0:06:27.644 and you can attack 0:06:27.944,0:06:28.903 with a run-around forehand. 0:06:28.944,0:06:30.764 You can attack out wide 0:06:31.343,0:06:32.063 to the forehand. 0:06:32.104,0:06:34.093 You can attack out wide to the backhand. 0:06:34.264,0:06:35.454 And now all of a sudden, 0:06:35.704,0:06:36.544 you're playing a regular. 0:06:36.641,0:06:37.191 You are playing 0:06:37.231,0:06:38.701 a point on your terms. 0:06:38.872,0:06:41.182 You may get the opportunity to go to the net and finish, 0:06:41.432,0:06:42.481 but certainly, 0:06:42.752,0:06:45.661 you're applying pressure to the pusher that is going 0:06:45.661,0:06:48.231 to extract the errors that you want from them. 0:06:48.252,0:06:52.302 And I would also want to point out that because the pusher is way back here, 0:06:52.471,0:06:52.842 like 0:06:53.071,0:06:56.182 if you're playing an opponent who stands right on the baseline, 0:06:56.312,0:06:58.101 to get them over there, 0:06:58.471,0:07:01.812 you need to hit a pretty good shot and hit a ball, 0:07:02.152,0:07:02.342 you know, 0:07:02.432,0:07:02.752 because 0:07:03.320,0:07:04.100 they're gonna, 0:07:04.179,0:07:04.649 you know, 0:07:04.660,0:07:06.059 if they move over there they can, 0:07:06.100,0:07:08.309 they can cover that. And they're not really that, 0:07:08.459,0:07:08.540 you know, 0:07:08.579,0:07:09.339 I'm hitting this shot. 0:07:09.380,0:07:11.290 I'm still in pretty good court position, 0:07:11.540,0:07:13.450 but if I'm way back here now 0:07:13.820,0:07:15.739 and I run over to get that. 0:07:16.640,0:07:18.899 Right now, I'm all the way over there. On the baseline, 0:07:18.950,0:07:19.570 I was here. 0:07:19.600,0:07:20.589 I got to the ball. 0:07:20.839,0:07:21.799 If I'm way back here, 0:07:21.869,0:07:22.519 I'm there. 0:07:22.600,0:07:25.989 So, what that means for you is you just don't have to go for a crazy angle. 0:07:26.040,0:07:28.670 You can have the ball bounce somewhere there, 0:07:29.119,0:07:30.890 and it's just gonna tail away 0:07:32.760,0:07:33.570 from the pusher. 0:07:33.579,0:07:33.790 So, 0:07:34.000,0:07:34.549 I 0:07:34.880,0:07:38.279 think the point I'm trying to make is use their position against them. 0:07:38.359,0:07:39.640 You don't need to 0:07:40.160,0:07:41.000 flirt with the 0:07:41.119,0:07:42.950 lines. You just need to 0:07:43.230,0:07:43.829 get it over there, 0:07:44.029,0:07:46.700 allow the angle to work because they're so far back. 0:07:47.029,0:07:47.450 Exactly right. 0:07:47.950,0:07:49.190 So, if you want to check out the new rules 0:07:49.190,0:07:52.230 of singles and the crush pushers with analytics section, 0:07:52.269,0:07:53.320 just download our app, 0:07:53.390,0:07:54.739 the Fuzzy Yellow Balls app. 0:07:54.980,0:07:55.070 All right, 0:07:55.109,0:07:57.709 so strategy number four is with Carlos Alcaraz. 0:07:57.720,0:07:59.899 It's the serve plus 1 drop shot. 0:08:00.070,0:08:03.220 So, you're gonna see him serve Medvedev off the court, 0:08:03.549,0:08:05.829 and then the return is gonna be 0:08:05.950,0:08:06.619 short 0:08:06.940,0:08:08.089 and through the middle. 0:08:08.339,0:08:12.130 So, Alcaraz is gonna wind up like he's ripping a forehand. 0:08:12.339,0:08:13.250 Medvedev 0:08:13.500,0:08:16.529 is going to be hustling to cover the open court, 0:08:16.859,0:08:21.450 and then Alcaraz is going to throw in the drop shot behind him. 0:08:21.779,0:08:23.140 So, for you guys out there, 0:08:23.220,0:08:24.869 this is a great one because 0:08:25.179,0:08:27.369 you're hitting your strongest shot, 0:08:27.579,0:08:30.660 one of your strongest shots typically the serve at the backhand. 0:08:30.970,0:08:34.789 You're getting them on the run and then the drop shot is also at the backhand. 0:08:34.830,0:08:35.919 So, assuming 0:08:36.270,0:08:37.150 that your opponent, 0:08:37.229,0:08:37.750 the pusher, 0:08:37.770,0:08:38.619 is able to stop, 0:08:38.750,0:08:39.270 turn around, 0:08:39.308,0:08:41.390 and close and get to this ball, 0:08:41.630,0:08:42.419 which by the way, 0:08:42.549,0:08:43.750 is not where they want to be. 0:08:43.789,0:08:45.539 They do not want to be at the net, 0:08:45.869,0:08:46.309 then 0:08:46.590,0:08:48.179 they track this thing down. 0:08:48.390,0:08:48.750 This is a low 0:08:49.054,0:08:52.085 backhand. They're probably gonna hit a ball into the middle of the court 0:08:52.515,0:08:53.044 and, 0:08:53.294,0:08:53.724 you know, 0:08:54.135,0:08:55.695 this is now on your forehand, 0:08:55.815,0:08:58.044 which I'm assuming is your best passing shot. 0:08:58.414,0:09:00.205 And it shouldn't be too much trouble 0:09:00.455,0:09:03.604 getting it by the pusher, and even if they do get a racket on the ball, 0:09:03.755,0:09:04.965 they're not good at the net. 0:09:05.215,0:09:06.534 Good chance they're gonna miss that ball. 0:09:11.590,0:09:13.929 So, strategy number five is a fun one to try. 0:09:14.010,0:09:16.640 We'll see Stefanos Tsitsipas using this in a second, 0:09:16.929,0:09:18.320 but you are going to hit 0:09:18.570,0:09:19.500 a drop shot. 0:09:19.650,0:09:20.890 Could be a forehand drop shot, 0:09:21.090,0:09:22.669 could be a backhand drop shot, 0:09:22.809,0:09:23.590 doesn't matter. 0:09:23.849,0:09:25.929 But you are gonna treat it as an approach shot. 0:09:26.010,0:09:28.179 So, you're gonna hit it and then close the net. 0:09:28.530,0:09:31.450 Obviously, the pusher is gonna have to track this thing 0:09:31.760,0:09:31.770 down. 0:09:32.750,0:09:36.909 And now, try and get the ball by you because you've treated it as an approach shot, 0:09:36.989,0:09:38.380 they can't just roll it back. 0:09:38.510,0:09:40.880 They have to hit a passing shot, 0:09:41.190,0:09:42.940 and if you get the ball low enough, 0:09:43.150,0:09:46.820 it is going to be difficult for them to hit a decent passing shot. 0:09:47.030,0:09:48.900 You're going to be able to cut those balls off.