One of the most difficult things in tennis for intermediate players is beating pushers. But in this podcast we cover some strategies…

Defeating a pusher, meaning a player that keeps getting the ball back, but not taken any initiative of his or her own and not trying to hit the ball hard, is difficult. All tennis players have lost to this type of players at least once in their playing career. You see their strokes in the warm-up and think: “This is going to be easy” but then match starts and after missing some “easy” shots, you lose your confidence and start pushing as well. That’s exactly what the pusher wants. Beating pushers requires patience and an idea of what you want to do with the ball.

Coach Evan is not new to many of you. He has written many posts for Tennisnerd, many of them match analysis pieces. But he has also featured in a couple of podcasts. I personally find his take on tennis interesting and fresh and always get some food for thought for my own understanding of tennis after our conversations.

Beating pushers – the podcast

As usual we do this podcast over Zoom, so you have to live with slightly sketchy video quality. But you should be able to see and hear about Evan’s ideas as he draws them up on his whiteboard.

Tennis is a rich sport and there are obviously many different ways to beat a player, but one of the most popular questions among recreational tennis player online is how they defeat players who just keeps getting the ball back. Many lose patience, start missing and the match quicky gets out of their hands.

It helps if you’re physically and mentally stronger than your opponent, but even if it’s just that your strokes or your technique are better, you can use that to your advantage in beating the pusher.

I hope you find our conversation useful and can integrate one or two tips into your own match play.