hey guys in today's video i want to teach you how to beat a pusher milan can you uh play like
a pusher yes like a recreational level pusher because i want to demonstrate like how to play
against someone like that okay so just like just you know how to do it like just dink the ball
around and throw it kind of slow it out yeah throw throw in a couple of moon balls here and there
and let's see what i can do it doesn't help that it's like super windy today so it never helps
let's see what happens okay okay guys before i demonstrate how to beat a pusher i want to
tell you one story that's going to relate to the problems that a lot of tennis players experience
at all levels by the way a few years ago i was reading the stats for the average forehand speed
at the australian open australian open used to keep track of the serve speed uh forehand speed
backhand speed there was an interesting stat that i read about the slowest forehand on the wta tour
on average it was around 50 miles an hour and that was monica nicolescu now you're probably thinking
how is that possible how can someone at that elite level have a forehand so slow well monica
would slice all her forehands and now this goes to show you that that's basic basically
a push shot a very slow shot and even these elite level wta players struggle with shots like that
now even on the atp tour even those guys have trouble with push shots now here's the scenario
just picture any of these youngsters like a nick kyrgios or a bublik doing an underhand
serve it's becoming quite a trend to do underhand serves and you know what's the interesting
thing is that they win a lot of points with the underhand serve that service traveling what i
don't know 30 40 miles an hour and yet these elite level atp players will still mess up those shots
and they will give the underhand server a lot of free points so that goes to show you that
pushing at any level of the game is an excellent tactic it just simply works because players will
self-destruct for three reasons reason number one is technical deficiencies reason number
two is shot selection and reason number three is the overall mental state of the player now we're
talking about the high level players really don't have technical deficiencies so basically what they
struggle with when they play pushers is basically shot selection and the mental state they're in and
these two things can be connected to each other now at the rec level players will struggle all
three of these problem areas when facing pushers and when it comes to technical deficiencies
the problem is that when your opponent hits the ball very slowly and is pushing the ball around
you don't have the pace of the incoming ball to work with and you're going to generate your
own pace and generally the faster you swing the more you will miss if you happen to have
technical deficiencies on your shots now of course shot selection and the overall mental state of
a player is something that a lot of rec players struggle with so the way you are going to improve
your chances of beating a pusher is to improve in those three categories you have to make sure
that you have sound fundamentals on all your strokes you have to make sure that you execute
the right shot selection and most importantly you have to be in the right state of mind
a lot of you guys do wrong at the rec level is avoid the pusher every club around the world has
pushers that everyone hates to play against i will say that even back in the day when i
used to play high level tennis in germany there were some pushers that everyone hated to play
as well now one of these pushers happened to be one of my best friends and i practiced
with this guy three times a week and here's what happened not only did i get used to that
type of game style but i started understanding on how to beat someone like that what it takes
especially from the mental level to beat someone like that so what you should do is the exact
opposite of what everybody else does everybody avoids these type of players and you should
seek them out play with pushers as much as you can yes it's not going to be fun but what will happen
is you will start to understand what it takes to beat someone like that by avoiding to play pushers
you're always going to continue to struggle against them give me a few lobs a couple lobs
okay
so guys step number one is playing more pushers getting used to that type of game
style step number two is understanding shot selection see the problem is that
pushers will give you balls go ahead pushers will give you balls that you shouldn't try to
hit winners on that's the tricky thing for example balls in a half court that are low
you shouldn't try to hit those type of balls for a winner because you're gonna miss
and you're gonna ultimately self destruct so shot selection is something that's absolutely
crucial to be able to beat pushers at the rec level what you want to wait for is what
high level players wait for and that is a high ball that sits in the middle of the court now
these type of balls get absolutely destroyed at the high level however at the recreational level
players don't like hitting those type of balls because they're not used to hitting balls higher
people love to take the ball around the waist at the rec level so what ends up happening is
that when they get the ball higher sitting right there for them to put it away they end up doing
one of the two things they to let the ball drop down and now it's going to be very difficult to
put the ball away because you're close to the net you're closer to the other baseline you're going
to sail the ball long ball doesn't have enough enough space to fall into the court and players
will attempt to hit a high ball but they simply don't have the correct fundamentals on hitting
high balls and they mess up their half court game in that way as well so what you got to do
is practice the situation that the pusher is going to put you in you have to understand that
this is going to be different from your regular practice you're going to have to play balls
that you are uncomfortable with especially when we're talking about high balls whether
it be from the service line or whether it be from the baseline you're going to have to
learn how to put the ball away when it's higher because that is what's required
to be able to beat a pusher eventually even if they're giving you tons of low balls there will
be one eventually where it's a little bit higher and you can put it away that's what happens at the
high level players wait for the ball for the ball to be a little bit higher and then they crush it
unfortunately at the rec level high balls are a big problem so the solution to you beating pushers
is you have to improve your ability to handle the ball when it's up higher. Milan are you ready?
I'm going to serve first
and guys that right there it's a perfect example of the ball being lower
what happens a lot of times is because you're hitting the ball hard from that part of the court
you're applying top spin the ball does not have enough space to fall into the baseline so from
those positions in the court when the ball is lower you cannot go for the winner outright
because you're going to be making a lot of mistakes instead we should what you should
be doing is placing the ball and wait for the chance for the ball to be a little bit higher up
and guys what i did there was hit a winner from behind the baseline
now this is an okay thing to do if you have good fundamentals
you have good confidence over your strokes but generally at the rec level i would avoid
trying to go for winners when you're behind the baseline wait when the ball is a little
bit shorter you're inside the court it's going to be a lot easier to hit a winner from there
and that right there is a perfect example of how to construct a point as a pusher that first
forehand that i hit was a little bit lower i didn't go for the winner i applied a lot
of top spin the second one was a little bit higher and i was able to hit the ball
with a different trajectory go a little bit more from a high position to a low position
and i was able to hit an easy winner for that reason
now guys remember when you're further back
in the court what i said about the service line doesn't apply because
from back here you can rip even when the ball is lower because you have more court to play into
that's not a pusher that's too good
okay great example of what happens a lot of people including myself by the way
when the ball comes slow and a little bit higher to the backhand side
that is going to be a problem area for most players so you got two options
you have to try to hit your backhand the best that you can possibly hit it put a lot of effort into
hitting the shot because it's going to require more body action the ball has absolutely no pace
or if you're a little better shape you can try to run around your backhand and hit a forehand
how about coming to the net against pushers well here you have to be careful
you have to be very selective because a lot of players the recreational level will come to the
net too much and they're exposed therefore so you have to be very selective when to come to the net
i just picture what happens to a lot of atp players when they receive an underhand serve
underhand serve is very low now they don't go for a winner on that ball because they know
chances of missing are very high so they kind of scoop the ball up come to the net or apply heavy
topspin out of the forearm come to the net and now they're not in such a good position at the net so
when it comes to coming to the net against pushers avoid positions like that where you're being
drawn in rather than coming in on your own terms you always want to come to the net
as an aggressor on your own terms dictating play with your opponent being in defensive positions
okay here what i'm going to try is serve and volley again this is not something you want
to overdo but every now and then it's good to come in against the pusher off your serve
windy day now you can do the same thing off your kick serve towards the backhand some of these
pushers might have problems with their backhand or maybe they're slicing everything so having a
good kick and serve and volleying off the kick is a good tactic against pushers but remember only
every now and then you don't want your opponent to get used to it use this as a surprise tactic
wow that's not a pusher that was too good to return
ah get out of here pusher guys patience is key against the moon baller or you saw
those balls popping up high i took my time i didn't go for the outright winner i waited
and i slowly snuck my way in by placing the ball in the corners continuing to be aggressive and
not go for the winner outright eventually i got a super easy put away shot closer net
and i was able to hit the winner a lot of people want to be able to blow pushers away
with a couple of shots no you're gonna have to do a lot of work those balls are very
unpredictable that the pusher is sending you you're gonna have to move your feet a lot
and you're gonna have to exert a lot of energy so beating a pusher is gonna be really hard work
okay thank you it's always nice to play a pusher who is also fair
who's not cheating you so the ball looked pretty close to being out but he called it in
now balls around the net can be a little bit tricky and the best thing that you
can do with those other balls instead of looking for depth look for angles because
just like i explained on half court shots you have the same problem when you're closer to the
net it's easier to spray the ball long so instead of doing that you're going to look for angles and
get the easy put away and guys part of hard work that is required to be the pusher is you running
around your backhand because the vast majority of players has a better forehand than backhand
what you'll have to do is hit your forehead instead of your backhand which requires you
to move your feet and get around the backhand as often as possible
and guys another mistake that a lot of recreational players commit when they
play pushers who like to send the ball a little bit higher is that they try to take the ball
on the rise and this is one of the biggest causes of errors at the rec level what you
have to understand that a ball like that will not penetrate through the court so it's highly
unnecessary to take it early you wait for that ball to come down from the apex it's gonna
decelerate a lot more and it's gonna be a lot easier for you to put pressure on your opponents
guys let's face it your physical conditioning is going to have to be excellent in order to
have success against pushers because rallies are going to be long you're going to have to exert a
lot of effort because you don't have the pace working for you you have to use your own body
weight so you're going to have to be in good shape to have a chance against a good defensive player
now guys the dink serve is also something that a lot of recreational players struggle
with the first thing you do is adjust your positioning if you know your opponent dinks
a lot of serves no point to staying around the baseline you're going to slide inside the baseline
and now here's what you got to do you're going to have to have super high intensity
number one mistake i see at the rec level is that players get nonchalant on the return to serve
they don't have a lot of intensity and now they're scrambling scrambling up to return
and have to do improvisations because of it
high intensity readiness is going to be the key to handle a really weak dink serve you're going
to have to move your feet a lot and get yourself in a perfect position every time
guys running around the back end is good but that's not something you can do all the time
because you expose the middle so you should hit backhand returns as well
milan thank you so much man you did a really good job as a pusher thank you next time we
play you're gonna be allowed to hit winners on me okay as usual okay okay thank you so much
so guys there you have it that is how you play against pusher there's a lot of variables
but one thing that stands out is the three pillars that you have to possess in order to be able to
beat pushers that is you have to get rid of your technical deficiencies you have to
have proper shot selection and your mental state has to be right on top of all that i'm gonna add
that the effort that is required to play against the pusher is enormous you're gonna have to
spend a lot of energy and there lies the problem that people
don't want to spend so much energy they want to end the point in one or two shots
and that is not how you defeat a pusher that's how a pusher exploits you
and makes you beat yourself so what needs to happen is the following you need to get yourself
in the optimal physical condition and once you're on the court you have to prepare for the fight
you have to tell yourself i'm ready to stand on this court for three hours and
every point is going to go 20 balls or more that is the type of mentality
that you need if you want to have a chance to beat the pusher anything less than that
if you come to the court with the mindset that you're going to be able to come to the net on
everything and put volleys away or that you're going to be blasting winners left and right
that is most likely not going to happen what you're going to do in those circumstances
you're going to be selecting the wrong shots your mental state is obviously wrong on top of
that if you have technical deficiency this is going to lead to something that happens
to everyone across the world and that is losing to a defensive player i.e pusher