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Pushers use a strategy called trench warfare.

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And here are five strategies that you can use to beat it.

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We're gonna look at Carlos Alcaraz,

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Stefano Tsitsipas,

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and we're also going to hear from the top analytics expert in the world.

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But first,

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what is trench warfare?

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Well,

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pushers like to play from way behind the baseline in

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an area of the court I call the trench,

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and they also like to push you back into your own trench.

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So, if I draw a box around the control bar here,

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let's just say that's the

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trench. And from here,

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it is really difficult for you to play offense because the

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pusher is just going to hit moonball after moonball,

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and it's difficult

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for you to move forward.

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Trench warfare,

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of course,

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is a battle of attrition,

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so the pusher is just going to wear you down.

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You're going to make a ton of mistakes and lose the match.

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We've all been there.

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You've probably been told to serve and volley against a pusher,

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but what if your volleys from no man's land aren't any good?

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So, the first strategy is called serve plus one approach,

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where you're going to serve out wide in the deuce court,

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pull the pusher off the court,

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and then the return's probably gonna come back crosscourt like this.

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So, what you want to do is slide around and upgrade to a forehand.

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And then you are going to hit that forehand into the open court,

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and then you are just gonna follow

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your forehand to net.

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You're immediately gonna start approaching.

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Now the pusher is gonna have to hustle across

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the entire court and hit a backhand passing shot,

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and a lot of the time they're gonna outright miss it.

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(BALL HITTING SOUNDS)

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Or you're gonna get a weak lob that'll be an easy overhead.

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The second strategy is to return in valley like we're about to see Alcaraz do here.

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Now the reason this works so well is because when the pusher is serving,

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he's right up on the baseline where he doesn't want to be.

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He wants to back up into his trench.

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So, if you return directly at him and then come to net,

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you're going to rush him,

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right?

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He is not playing from a depth where he is comfortable.

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So, what you're probably going to get

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is a weak lob that will be an easy overhead.

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So, the third strategy is a rallying strategy

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where you're in the worst case situation,

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the pusher has retreated back into their trench.

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You have been pushed back into your trench,

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and now the pusher can just try and moonball you to death.

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So, I'm not actually going to teach this segment.

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Craig O'Shannessy,

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the top analytics expert in the world,

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he used to run Novak Djokovic's analytics.

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He is going to teach this segment, and we're pulling it out of a program we created

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together called the "New Rules of Singles," which you

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can check out if you download our app.

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It's the Fuzzy Yellow Balls app in the App Store.

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So, inside that program, there's a section called "Crush

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Pushers With Analytics" where Craig shares all the numbers,

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all the data on how to beat a pusher.

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So, we've got the

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serving section, returning, the rallying, which we are about to watch,

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and then approaching

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the net.

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So, let's see what the numbers say about rallying against the pusher.

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Craig,

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we've gotten to the rally situation against the pusher,

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which is not where we want to be.

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It's the five plus

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part of the point,

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you know,

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and 

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we're now pushed back behind the baseline.

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The pusher's

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way behind the baseline that's 

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their happy place right. They're way back there.

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So, not ideal for us.

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What do we do to get out of it?

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Well,

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the first thing to understand is that

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we still want to play

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the game style that suits us,

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but against the pusher,

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we need to go just a little bit longer into the point to find the right ball.

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So, on average,

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rally length in tennis is typically around four shots.

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Against a pusher,

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you've gotta think the rally length gets goes up to around six shots.

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Now that's just one more shot for the push and one more shot for you.

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Sometimes rallies will get longer,

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but in general, this is how you need to think,

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so your brain doesn't explode

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thinking that you've got to play

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10 and 15 and 20 and 30 shot rallies all the time.

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You do need to be a little bit more patient.

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It is true.

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The pusher demands that because they're getting more balls in play.

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But in general,

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going from four shots to six shots is your idea.

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Now,

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how do we go about this?

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Well,

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what I wanna see you do against a pusher,

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generally they want to play a higher point, and they like to be back,

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and they especially

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want you to be far back behind the baseline because you can't hurt them.

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They want you to overhit from back there.

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So, one of the things as we look down on our side of the court,

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is I want you to do everything you can

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to climb the ladder,

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which simply means with each successive shot,

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if you can just move forward a little bit

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and try and stay around the baseline.

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When you're around the baseline or inside it,

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you're naturally going to be hitting through the ball more,

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hitting through the court more, and the rally is gonna get a little bit lower.

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The pusher is gonna be back more.

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And they're gonna be going higher.

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So,

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the worst thing for you is to just copy what they're doing,

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stay back, and just have these

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long high rallies.

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That is not

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to your benefit at all.

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You're saying when you move forward your shots,

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you're gonna be bringing the ball down.

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Naturally you will,

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yes.

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Yeah,

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hitting through the court.

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So,

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what I want you to do early on

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is to try and go deep,

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is to try and find the ball that you can attack on and attack.

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Let's say your forehand is your strength,

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your runaround forehand especially,

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as you move forward,

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you're slightly inside the baseline,

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and you're looking for for hands over here.

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We know

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from the research that we've done for this course that

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the errors are going to occur far more

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out wide.

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So, for the opponent's forehand,

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the errors are gonna be occurring there

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a lot,

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and against the back end,

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the errors are going to be here.

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So, we want to get

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a lower rally

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and a rally where we're penetrating through the

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court and playing kind of our normal tennis.

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And our runaround forehand is a great way to do this.

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The runaround full hand freezes the opponent.

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They don't exactly know where it's going until the ball comes

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off the string.

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So, they're a little bit late on it,

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and you can attack

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with a run-around forehand.

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You can attack out wide

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to the forehand.

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You can attack out wide to the backhand.

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And now all of a sudden,

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you're playing a regular.

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You are playing

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a point on your terms.

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You may get the opportunity to go to the net and finish,

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but certainly,

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you're applying pressure to the pusher that is going

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to extract the errors that you want from them.

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And I would also want to point out that because the pusher is way back here,

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like

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if you're playing an opponent who stands right on the baseline,

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to get them over there,

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you need to hit a pretty good shot and hit a ball,

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you know,

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because

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they're gonna,

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you know,

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if they move over there they can,

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they can cover that. And they're not really that,

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you know,

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I'm hitting this shot.

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I'm still in pretty good court position,

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but if I'm way back here now

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and I run over to get that.

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Right now, I'm all the way over there. On the baseline,

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I was here.

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I got to the ball.

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If I'm way back here,

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I'm there.

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So, what that means for you is you just don't have to go for a crazy angle.

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You can have the ball bounce somewhere there,

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and it's just gonna tail away

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from the pusher.

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So,

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I 

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think the point I'm trying to make is use their position against them.

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You don't need to

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flirt with the

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lines. You just need to

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get it over there,

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allow the angle to work because they're so far back.

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Exactly right.

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So, if you want to check out the new rules

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of singles and the crush pushers with analytics section,

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just download our app,

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the Fuzzy Yellow Balls app.

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All right,

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so strategy number four is with Carlos Alcaraz.

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It's the serve plus 1 drop shot.

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So, you're gonna see him serve Medvedev off the court,

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and then the return is gonna be

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short

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and through the middle.

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So, Alcaraz is gonna wind up like he's ripping a forehand.

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Medvedev

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is going to be hustling to cover the open court,

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and then Alcaraz is going to throw in the drop shot behind him.

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So, for you guys out there,

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this is a great one because

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you're hitting your strongest shot,

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one of your strongest shots typically the serve at the backhand.

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You're getting them on the run and then the drop shot is also at the backhand.

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So, assuming

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that your opponent,

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the pusher,

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is able to stop,

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turn around,

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and close and get to this ball,

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which by the way,

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is not where they want to be.

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They do not want to be at the net,

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then

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they track this thing down.

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This is a low

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backhand. They're probably gonna hit a ball into the middle of the court

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and,

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you know,

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this is now on your forehand,

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which I'm assuming is your best passing shot.

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And it shouldn't be too much trouble

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getting it by the pusher, and even if they do get a racket on the ball,

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they're not good at the net.

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Good chance they're gonna miss that ball.

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So, strategy number five is a fun one to try.

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We'll see Stefanos Tsitsipas using this in a second,

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but you are going to hit

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a drop shot.

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Could be a forehand drop shot,

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could be a backhand drop shot,

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doesn't matter.

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But you are gonna treat it as an approach shot.

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So, you're gonna hit it and then close the net.

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Obviously, the pusher is gonna have to track this thing 

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down.

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And now, try and get the ball by you because you've treated it as an approach shot,

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they can't just roll it back.

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They have to hit a passing shot,

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and if you get the ball low enough,

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it is going to be difficult for them to hit a decent passing shot.

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You're going to be able to cut those balls off.