How can I fight back against a "pusher"?

Question

My friend does it a lot and he seems like a master at it. It's very annoying. But, he wins a lot of his matches doing it.

How can I fight back against him?

For people who don't know what a pusher is, it is a person who always hits the ball deep to the base line.

Answer 1

This annoys me as well. What many people do, and pros do this too, is slice the ball deep to them to disrupt their rhythm and timing.

The best thing you can do is force them to his the ball short by countering them and giving them a taste of their own medicine and YOU hit it deep with some topspin.

Best of luck to you.

Answer 2

pushers are sometimes hard to play against, but i normally put some drop shots in there to make the opponent move some. also mixing slices in there can help change the pace and make the opponent less consistent. lastly, keeping the opponent on the run can make it harder for them to hit all the way back to the baseline.

Answer 3

Haha, this is probably one of the most debated subjects. Also a pusher is generally someone who uses tactics to keep you out of position, i.e. lobs over your head, goofy side spin shots, deep topspin.

In your incarnation of *the pusher* he is using top spin and court penetration to keep you off balance. Here comes the opinion section because everyone will deal with them differently. Their win comes from consistency. Waiting for you to make a mistake. That's equally why it's so annoying and effective.

In order for him to be successful he needs a consistent condition to hit his strokes. Keeping you out of position means you are defensive and he'll have an easy return. This type of pusher loves slower baseline rallys. You need to keep him moving. The more he is out of his comfortable position and pace the less likely he'll be consistent with his pusher shots.

The number one killer I've found for these guys is net play. Make sure you can give him a very hard to get cross court or down the line and cut off his return angle at net. If you go to net off an easy return he'll just lob it over you so make sure he's on the run.

The most important thing is to be an opportunist. Be patient. Keep moving the ball around the court with occasional drop shots and when the right opportunity comes end the point. So you aren't trying to win at *his* game you are keeping him from playing it consistently.

Good luck!

Answer 4

You can either out rally him gradually hitting harder and creating more angles as the rally goes on because that gets you into a rhythm. If you are not however that patient and your net game is decent, come in on good approach shots and finish the point, usually pushers arent that great at passing shots and dont like their rhythm to be disrupted.