How to Beat a Pusher

What a pusher actually does

A pusher adds no pace of their own. They retrieve everything, keep the ball deep and safe (often with height, moonballs and slice), and wait for you to make the error. Their entire game is built on one bet: that you will lose patience and go for too much.

Once you understand that the pusher is not beating you — you are beating yourself — you're already halfway to the win. The scoreboard says you lost to them; the stat sheet says you lost to your own unforced errors.

The trap: you cannot out-hit a pusher

The single most common mistake is trying to blast winners to end the misery. Bigger swings with less margin means more balls into the net and long — which is exactly the outcome the pusher is playing for. Every frustrated bomb you miss is a point you hand them for free.

So the first rule isn't a shot at all. It's a decision: stop donating points. You beat a pusher with controlled aggression, not aimless power.

Rule 1 — win the patience battle

Reset your expectations for how long points will last. Against a pusher, a 15-ball rally is normal, not a sign that something has gone wrong. Your baseline job is simply to make one more heavy, safe ball than they do — plenty of net clearance, plenty of depth.

Treat each point as a puzzle to solve rather than a wall to punch through. Calm beats furious every single time here.

Rule 2 — take away their time and space

Pushers love standing back in the same spot, feeding off your rhythm. Deny it. Move them side to side, hit into the open court, and use angles to drag them off the court so the next ball opens up.

Where you can, take the ball earlier — on the rise, a step inside the baseline — so they get less time to reset into their comfortable retrieving position.

Rule 3 — come forward

Nothing unsettles a pusher like ending the point early. They are far less comfortable being forced to pass you or hit while moving forward. Approach behind a deep, heavy ball and close the net.

Your volleys do not need to be pretty. Even average net play beats a pusher, because it removes the one thing they rely on: time to chase the ball down. Mixing in the occasional serve-and-volley keeps them guessing too.

Rule 4 — the drop shot and lob one-two

Because pushers camp deep behind the baseline, a good drop shot pulls them into the forecourt, where they are least comfortable. Follow it up: once they've scrambled forward, a lob over their head or a pass by their feet finishes the job.

This one-two — drop shot to bring them in, then lob or pass — is one of the most reliable pusher-killers there is.

Rule 5 — vary spin, pace and height

Rhythm is a pusher's oxygen. Cut it off by never giving them the same ball twice: a heavy topspin ball, then a low skidding slice, then a flatter drive. Change the height and shape constantly.

Use heavy, deep topspin to push them back off the baseline so they can't step in and dink — then attack the short reply.

It's a mental match as much as a tennis match

Pushers win by frustrating you, so refuse to be frustrated — and never show it. Visible annoyance is fuel for them. Commit to the plan even through a rough patch of points, and keep your feet and your breathing calm.

One more edge: fitness. Expect long rallies and long matches, and be the one who is still moving well in the third set.

Drills that prepare you

• Cross-court consistency — rally to 20 with heavy margin, so grinding feels normal, not stressful.
• Approach and volley — feed a short ball, approach deep, close and finish.
• Drop-shot targets — land drops inside the service box off both wings.
• Depth targets — heavy topspin landing in the back metre to push opponents back.