5 Strategies To Beat A Pusher

Pushers use a strategy called trench warfare.

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

We're gonna look at Carlos Alcaraz,

Stefano Tsitsipas,

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

But first,

what is trench warfare?

Well,

pushers like to play from way behind the baseline in

an area of the court I call the trench,

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

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

let's just say that's the

trench. And from here,

it is really difficult for you to play offense because the

pusher is just going to hit moonball after moonball,

and it's difficult

for you to move forward.

Trench warfare,

of course,

is a battle of attrition,

so the pusher is just going to wear you down.

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

We've all been there.

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

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

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

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

pull the pusher off the court,

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

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

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

and then you are just gonna follow

your forehand to net.

You're immediately gonna start approaching.

Now the pusher is gonna have to hustle across

the entire court and hit a backhand passing shot,

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

(BALL HITTING SOUNDS)

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

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

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

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

He wants to back up into his trench.

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

you're going to rush him,

right?

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

So, what you're probably going to get

is a weak lob that will be an easy overhead.

So, the third strategy is a rallying strategy

where you're in the worst case situation,

the pusher has retreated back into their trench.

You have been pushed back into your trench,

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

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

Craig O'Shannessy,

the top analytics expert in the world,

he used to run Novak Djokovic's analytics.

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

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

can check out if you download our app.

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

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

Pushers With Analytics" where Craig shares all the numbers,

all the data on how to beat a pusher.

So, we've got the

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

and then approaching

the net.

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

Craig,

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

which is not where we want to be.

It's the five plus

part of the point,

you know,

and

we're now pushed back behind the baseline.

The pusher's

way behind the baseline that's

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

So, not ideal for us.

What do we do to get out of it?

Well,

the first thing to understand is that

we still want to play

the game style that suits us,

but against the pusher,

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

So, on average,

rally length in tennis is typically around four shots.

Against a pusher,

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

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

Sometimes rallies will get longer,

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

so your brain doesn't explode

thinking that you've got to play

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

You do need to be a little bit more patient.

It is true.

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

But in general,

going from four shots to six shots is your idea.

Now,

how do we go about this?

Well,

what I wanna see you do against a pusher,

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

and they especially

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

They want you to overhit from back there.

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

is I want you to do everything you can

to climb the ladder,

which simply means with each successive shot,

if you can just move forward a little bit

and try and stay around the baseline.

When you're around the baseline or inside it,

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

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

The pusher is gonna be back more.

And they're gonna be going higher.

So,

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

stay back, and just have these

long high rallies.

That is not

to your benefit at all.

You're saying when you move forward your shots,

you're gonna be bringing the ball down.

Naturally you will,

yes.

Yeah,

hitting through the court.

So,

what I want you to do early on

is to try and go deep,

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

Let's say your forehand is your strength,

your runaround forehand especially,

as you move forward,

you're slightly inside the baseline,

and you're looking for for hands over here.

We know

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

the errors are going to occur far more

out wide.

So, for the opponent's forehand,

the errors are gonna be occurring there

a lot,

and against the back end,

the errors are going to be here.

So, we want to get

a lower rally

and a rally where we're penetrating through the

court and playing kind of our normal tennis.

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

The runaround full hand freezes the opponent.

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

off the string.

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

and you can attack

with a run-around forehand.

You can attack out wide

to the forehand.

You can attack out wide to the backhand.

And now all of a sudden,

you're playing a regular.

You are playing

a point on your terms.

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

but certainly,

you're applying pressure to the pusher that is going

to extract the errors that you want from them.

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

like

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

to get them over there,

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

you know,

because

they're gonna,

you know,

if they move over there they can,

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

you know,

I'm hitting this shot.

I'm still in pretty good court position,

but if I'm way back here now

and I run over to get that.

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

I was here.

I got to the ball.

If I'm way back here,

I'm there.

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

You can have the ball bounce somewhere there,

and it's just gonna tail away

from the pusher.

So,

I

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

You don't need to

flirt with the

lines. You just need to

get it over there,

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

Exactly right.

So, if you want to check out the new rules

of singles and the crush pushers with analytics section,

just download our app,

the Fuzzy Yellow Balls app.

All right,

so strategy number four is with Carlos Alcaraz.

It's the serve plus 1 drop shot.

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

and then the return is gonna be

short

and through the middle.

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

Medvedev

is going to be hustling to cover the open court,

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

So, for you guys out there,

this is a great one because

you're hitting your strongest shot,

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

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

So, assuming

that your opponent,

the pusher,

is able to stop,

turn around,

and close and get to this ball,

which by the way,

is not where they want to be.

They do not want to be at the net,

then

they track this thing down.

This is a low

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

and,

you know,

this is now on your forehand,

which I'm assuming is your best passing shot.

And it shouldn't be too much trouble

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

they're not good at the net.

Good chance they're gonna miss that ball.

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

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

but you are going to hit

a drop shot.

Could be a forehand drop shot,

could be a backhand drop shot,

doesn't matter.

But you are gonna treat it as an approach shot.

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

Obviously, the pusher is gonna have to track this thing

down.

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

they can't just roll it back.

They have to hit a passing shot,

and if you get the ball low enough,

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

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