How to play the short ball 👉 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sMiTl5WH1s-acmQ.html

Also, the mental game is HUGE in beating pushers. You have to be mentally prepared to hit a million shots to win one point. And when you make an easy mistake on a shot you have to be able to get over it. You will have 100 chances to make up for it, don’t lose your mental edge

every single tennis player has a story about losing to a pusher. its one thing that brings us all together!!

As a tournament player and high school tennis coach I think your analysis is great. I get tired of my players complaining how terrible the other player was because they had no strokes, no pace or didn’t know how to hit properly. Pushers show you that YOU have a lack of certain skills and YOU need to develop and improve to beat them. They show that your not as good as your ego thinks you are! So many players don’t put any time into practice or develop the necessary skills to play against a variety of styles. Your videos would really help if they take the time to practice with a partner instead of just playing sets all the time an repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

If you are 4.5 level. and you play club tournaments, sooner or later you will face pusher. Do not ever underestimate pusher. because you can start your game leading quickly 3:0 and suddenly lose the set 3:6 after making simple mistakes trying to overpower pusher.. I saw this many times. As coach Nikola said if you have a problem with finishing high balls and you are not consistent enough you are in trouble. My strategy is simple..move the pusher around , do not go for winners only be patient waiting for short high ball to finish it or attack always on backhand side and being ready for extra volley or overhead.. that is it. .lol

It's amazing how most of these videos about beating pushers totally forget to mention the physical aspect of these players. They're mostly in good shape, so being patient also requires you to be fit.

I saw a lot of videos about this issue, I have to say that you explained exactly the four main problems with this kind of players: lack of pace, moonballs, short low balls and short high balls. I’ve been playing all weeks against this kind of player and this video helped me to recognize what I have to train to beat him without much effort.

I used to get frustrated playing against a pusher, but I think its a good challenge. For example, when Im playing against a person who pushes the ball, it forces me to work on my weaker areas such as overhead and volleys. Also, mentally you have to problem solve in tennis. That's the fun part of the game.

Things that got me past the pushers. Better ball recognition, ability to hit on the rise, the belief that I have it in me to finish a match against these monsters. I really respect pushers, a great pusher is a good tennis player. This vid is on point.

honest confession: im a Pusher. i wanna be aggressive, i wanna end the points. but the more aggressive i become, the more i lose. the more defensive i think, it seems the more i win. i dont wanna run all day defending but it always ends up becoming that. its really frustrating and annoying.

Been waiting for this topic to be covered. Drives me insane especially players with an absolutely lousy backhand.

One of the best KZfaq coaches.

Even comments are so amazing , everyone has a bad exprience against pushers , they are mystery and frustrating ,even at the end of the match you're not willing give a hand shake cause you know you beat yourself and not the opponent , please make a video showing us some exact related drills about pushers ball and how to deal with them ( All 3 types of balls) Thank you coach ❤️

Whenever I played pushers one of two things happens with my game and they both end up resulting in losses or struggles against them. Either I try to hit to aggressive and lack the proper patience like you mentioned in this video and I lose to many points by missing or I don't play aggresive enough and basically end up trying to out push a pusher which also ends up in me losing a lot of points since now I am playing my opponent's game instead of my own. Finding that right balance of patience vs aggresion against a pusher is something I have always struggled with. The times I have beat pushers was simply because I was serving well that day and won a bunch of free points on my serves which was just enough to tun the tide.

I teach 30-35 hours a week and i use some of your tips on my lessons. After 30 plus years of teaching i found sometimes its learning to say the same thing in a different way! I Learn something i can use on my lessons and my self every time i watch one of your lessons! Also your use humor (very important to relax your students) and solid technique helps me get more motivated to teach. Thank you Nick ! Craig Thompson Uspta Elite pro

God I used to get so mad playing these guys as a kid - can't remember how many (wooden) racquets I broke!

This is so true. Thank you for clear and concise explanations.

Excellent points. Right on point with what I’m struggling with and up against. Will try to implement soon.

You’re a great coach and presenter! Been on both sides of this.

Good video! Ball recognition is definitely key and an underrated skill. I think the more you play different types of players, the better you get with ball recognition, but also, the player has to be very aware of the opponent's movement, style, and their own shot selection as well.

excellent advice and breaking down different problems with the short, slow ball. It's often the hardest shot for a mid-level player. It's gotta be practiced for sure

Thanks, Nick! Look forward to more videos in this subject.

Great points and tips!!

THIS IS THE VIDEO IVE BEEN WAITING FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE

Nick you really are the best teacher on youtube! Long time watcher, please do a video on high and low balls with a 2H backhand and/or forehand! Keep doing what you're doing!

Thanks I am due to play a defensive pusher and the thing I found most useful was practicing hitting high balls with pace and to practice this shot every session. I will start practicing this with the rebound net I have and then on court. Whole video useful thanks

Nick, you're the best of the best. LET'S GET THIS GREAT COACH TO 100,000 SUBSCRIBERS & BEYOND!

Thank you for your hard work! I can't think of a better name for your channel.

Good video for club players. Your observation skills are amazing!

Really good pointers there Nick, particularly the need to practice high balls. That’s something I really need to work on as it’s the one shot I hate receiving

thanks for this coach! it's very helpful!

Lol describes my problems perfectly. So painful. I can hang with 4.5's no problem, but as soon as I play a 3.5 pusher, I get murdered.

This and Top Tennis Training both the best youtube tennis coaching on youtube, brilliant stuff thanks for the amazing vids.

Another really great video. I think the ball recognition part is the hardest of these to become great at for someone who didn't start learning at an early age. Everyone talks about footwork, and footwork is very important, but I think it starts with ball recognition. Watching high level players (which I am not), its obvious that as soon as the ball leaves the opponents racquet, they know subconsciously where the point of contact is going to be for them and then they flow to the point on their side of the court that allows them the proper spacing to hit that shot with their best technique. Most recreational players have to watch the ball longer to get the trajectory and figure out where the point of contact is going to be which as you mentioned makes us rush to get to the correct spot which leads to having to adjust our technique to hit the ball.

So good video! I used to struggle with this kind of player but much less now. Congrats on alll of your videos ,,they are so good and there s a lot to learn from them.Thanks very much!

Absolutely true. I always struggle with taking high balls. I've been making mistakes for so long that I either wait for them to take them when they're down or get afraid of generating power at that high ball and end up giving an easy ball

I played some doubles yesterday with people in the mid 70s and and 80s. I am 51 years old and experienced everything you mentioned in this video, I fixed the problem in mid set. I realized placement is way more important than to try to hit clean winners. One person hit their serve so slow, you could time it with a sun dial. I also am not trying to hurt anyone out there either. I was dinking my serve’s just so we can play points out. I have noticed in tennis, some people would never play people who aren’t as good as they are. I learned a lot from playing tennis against all levels of players. Great video my friend.

Wish there were all these online videos when I was playing. I had work ethic but lacked the coaching/information.

Always great videos!

Thank you for this helpful video

im playing a very defensive player today! this will definitely help me!

Outstanding !!!

Yup, that's how I lose usually, much appreciated!!!

To beat a pusher, become a better player. If you see your opponent about to slice and your are not on the ATP tour move in a few steps. It is going to be short. If not short you can still get back to it or hit it out of the air.

Thanks for this amazing video!

Dear Nick, all is crystal clear: 1. Develop technique, 2. ball recognition, 3. shot selection, 4. patience. Obviously, it takes time and a lot of repetitions, and I appreciate that. Yesterday I lost again to a shitty player who returns very slow and random balls, and it feels bad. Indeed, I rather beat myself. Could you please give us some tactical tips on how to beat a pusher in one of your future videos, e.g. create pace yourself, go to the net more often? Going to the net is tricky, as pushers are usually very good in hitting lobs. Many thanks in advance.

Excellent upload thank you

Thanks for the video! This applies to me. My comfort zone is to hit the ball waist level. When I get a high bouncing mid court ball I don’t have a lot of confidence taking it high and will often wait and let the ball drop to my waist if it’s a big point in a game. My practice season now includes serving and self feeding high balls in the mid court. Why do think waist level shots are more comfortable for rec players?

Great video. Never understood this until now.

Substantial enough, thank you. For high balls there's also a good way, hit it straight forward and the gravity will surely take it down! It's not so simple to follow cause recs always tent to add some height... But try and you'll see how well it works

This is sound advice. Has this player which we play often and he basically alternate with short and deep slices to good effect, then with a flat but accurate and moderate speed forehand to direct shots to the open court and winning many. Many struggle against and is super hard to read as he make grunting sound even doing drop shots and mid court skidding slices and driving you out of positions. Really would like to see a detail video of way to play against these kinds of major slice players that control the rally with slices that barely bounds and skids the ball low about half way below the knee cap.

In italian the term to define such a kind of player is 'pallettaro'. The pallettaro is a nightmare for any amateur tennis player. I'm a good hitter, but a running pallettaro is the worst thing I could face on the court. My colleague plays like that and we have been playing against each other twice a week for 10 years so I am trained enough to face such a monster, but each time it happens something dies in my soul, a deep sadness grabs my heart and I don't want to play tennis anymore!!!!

Well worth hearing.

This is why I think Tennis is overall the greatest sport to play and watch, it has a lot of technique and every player has his own style, a lot of strategies and the match-ups differentiate and depends on the style of playing like Federer struggling against Nadal because of his heaving spin on the backhand side while Nadal struggles against Djokovic because that strategy fails short due to Djokovic's backhand quality, the Serb looks less comfortable versus Federer because he mixes things up and has better service but recently grinds his win because of his mental strength even tho Federer is technically superior IMO.

Had a game last night. Nik this video described the game perfectly. Managed a win, but low level play.

I think the first problem when playing with "Pusher" is that we are not physically well enough to play with this type of opponent. 2nd, We have no focus to play long points. 3rd, We do not know what to do to win against these opponents.

FWIW my long time hitting partner is a pure junk baller with some tricks. to win, you have to get into his brain... pushers think they can handle you and dictate where you go and how you play. what i've learnt is : - mirror their game, focus on keeping the ball in. - they expect you to rush and ambush you. - make them come to the net. right in the middle with a sliced ball...often pushers have a poor attack game and hate to handle short low balls (that's why they play them to you) - get prepared to a dropshot - work hard on volley, you can take their balls early once you identified a low high ball. get prepared to a lobe - don't hit flat - learn hard how to crush a weak ball and inject pace when you feel good. - pushers usually don't win : you loose against yourself. and thanks a lot for making this enlightening video.

I'm a very aggressive player, and even tho I know all this, I just can't resist going for the winer. And eventually I end up losing. I'm the most successful when I'm (very rarely) playing patiently. So playing smart is the way too go, against this kind of players. PC: I find this kind of players very annoying. I cannot even imagine waiting for the other player to miss for the whole game.

Two days ago I entered an recreational tournament. I faced a pusher and I can not put into words how much I hated him hahaha. I lost, but after watching this video I will work on my offense a bit more. Attacking short balls are key to beat these type of players. Thank you.

Yeah it's true, im a rec. player and I really hate it when my enemy gives me a slice that goes mid court or those high forehand shots. When I hit those high shots they usually end up just missing a little of centimetres to go u p the net or they are out of the court comepletely

Reminds me of that 4.5 player codenamed MEP (most exhausting player) on tennis troll channel. He frustrates a lot of good players with his shots and it's fun to watch.

Could you make a video about the difference in technique between waist-height balls and high balls? Both for foreheand and backhand would be nice 👍🏻👍🏻

Regardless of skill, there are two ways to play: 1) play to win 2) play not to lose.

Thing I struggle with is not pushers, but players who aren't technically very good, but this actually ends up being their strength. No matter what you hit at them, they will block it back. Rather than hitting volleys or drop shots, they are hitting really poor groundstrokes that just get over the net. If I'm at baseline, it's really hard to get these shots back.

Don’t go for winners on short low balls in mid court. This is the mistake I keep making and hitting the ball long no matter how much spin I put. I need to take pace off. Thank you for explanation!

Ha funny I just mentioned this on another vid earlier! I call them hackers! When I stepped up from junior to senior tennis when I was 14 I used to meet these at tournaments all the time... it used to make me very angry! ha! took me ages to work out how to beat them!

It is so obvious how much Niko knows about tennis.

frankly, before this video, I didn't even know the definition of pushers. for me it was frustrating only on my behalf, blaming my self for extra aggression all the time. problem is that during knocking pushers play with pace, but during the match their real self is revealed.

I believe another reason might the fact that we don’t focus enough on practicing against no pace balls. Usually we spend a lot more time working with a little more pace, so during a match against a pusher the speed and height of the ball is so different that it causes insecurity. Also the fear of losing to a pusher and making mistakes on “easy” balls is a big factor (at least for me, but I’m working on it). ON THE OTHER HAND... being a pusher might actually be an effective style to play tennis. Djokovic could be considered a pusher compared to Federer for example and he has VERY good record in those matches.

Great topic and video!! Agreed.... In my opinion, at the junior level this is a necessary “obstacle” to figure out how to play against. A “pusher” in the juniors is an archetype that must be overcome rather than avoided. Once a player learns the proper shot selection and the necessary patience required (so long as they have proper technique, as you said) then these types of players will be still annoying to play, but no longer road blocks. I hear all the time from players and parents that they would rather avoid playing this type of player and instead “play up in age group”. I fundamentally disagree....this is part of a players overall development. Thanks!!!

One thing which works for me on clay against high level pusher is combination of flat ball and fast net transition if I see that the opponent is on the run. Pusher usually gives no pace but high trajectory. So it’s easy to hit through the ball make them run left to right. We need low ball so flat drive is the choice. This way they will have less time. This tactic still requires technique to execute flat drive and decent net game. If I try to spin with pusher they will just run and keep lobbing me so this doesn’t work well. If I try to just keep ball in play I will get tired faster as high level pushers are usually very athletic.

Great info as usual. I hate pushers and ive come across a lot of them over the years. My question is: can a serve and volley tactic be efective? Ive tried that ( on a inspired serving day) and got some good results. Even if you have good technique, a pusher can really disrupt your game.

The greatest pusher in the world is a practice wall 😂.

keys things for me: court is suddenly shorter, the net seems higher, the pressure rises cos you feel you 'have to' win the point off this shot! The ball is slower, no pace, and often in awkward places. And people say it's easy. The pros make it look easy, but it's not easy!!!

Identify which shot a pusher is uncomfortable with. I find it's usually receiving slower topspin shots to their forehand which forces them to have to hit with some pace which isn't their strong suit. If they don't make an error, their shot frequently goes high, slow and typically lands in the middle of your side of the court. When approached early, you can put these away with forehands, backhand volleys, smashes or drive volleys. It's a great way to practise a variety of shots too.

Thanks!

Is there a connection between hitting one's hardest and diminished recognition of the next ball? I tend to lose my bearings if a moon ball comes back.

Great problem analysis. I just wish the tennis pro's in my area (Netherlands) would share your view to include short ball work in every training. I've yet to find any :-( Also curious to hear your views on how to prevent the pusher from lobbing you after you've successfully returned the sitter/slice forehand.

NOTE: practical never heard anywhere before tactical tip at the end. The main problem is players do not respect good pushers. You feel superior and disdainful of their ugly but very effective shots. What you really want to do is look ¨good ¨rather than win. Pushers like to quote Borg - I prefer to look good when holding the trophy. Until I took a good long honest look at myself ( and all my self delusional excuses...) and started to respect all the varieties of defensive players and study their tactics as I would any good player - i.e. consider them ( shudder..) WORTHY opponents - enjoy learning their tricks and dealing with them, playing them was torture..and who df wants that?. When competing in my younger days I met a guy who was a fine A player and he did just that by starting at C tournaments when he had the skills of an A. He stated 20 bucks entry fee don´t mean you Open. To be a LEGIT Open you have to win an A. No one can challenge that claim and you in turn can ask anyone claiming Open status - have you won an A?. The answer of I am too good for A is specious and lacks true confidence unlike a claim backed by results. If you cannot ever beat guys you deem you are superior to...guess what? you ain´t superior ...AND YOU KNOW IT. What´s even more humiliating...the pusher knows it too. Ouch! At my prime I gave D1s a tussle and can legit claim to a peak level of Open (doubles) by winning an A and a dozen Bs ( some not even in Podunk, hahaha...); and decent A singles by one B trophy and some finals... In my half century journey of tennis duelling, I learned A LOT more from pushers than big hitters about how to win on court as well as in Life. I expect your ears to be deaf to this as mine was at your stage. Appreciate the painful lessons as those are the ones that you really need. Tactical Tip - Great defensive players are great shot readers - the bigger you swing the easier to read. What I do is set up and in balance, take my time let the ball come to my comfortable wheelhouse ( just above net ), hooold.....or show a shot watching him ( you have time...) swing smoothly and flat somewhere else as he moves. An effective combo is show dropper and tap it deep. One step and he´s beat. And he HAS to take the initial fake ( for neurological reasons...) Work on your deception and all will be better, boys.

I primarily play table tennis, and play defensively there as well. Everyone hates it. I'm glad that now I can transfer that contempt to tennis, and do my best to be a pusher there too 😅

our singles 3 in HS was a pushed and we always made fun of how predictable and boring his tennis, but he went undefeated and was a huge reason we made it to city finals

You Sir speaketh the truth.......coming from thy recreational player 🙏🏼

WTA Hsieh-Su Wei is legendary "pusher", one of the best

I agree with your excellent observations, Nik. If we enlarge the concept of "technique" to include your three reasons for failure (technique, ball recognition and shot selection) then we can ask the question: "what level of skill is necessary to beat a pusher?" and use the NTRP scale to answer it. If we restrict our discussion to just club-level players, I would estimate that a NTRP level around 4.5 is necessary. Stated this way, it is clear that the average club player does not have the equipment to beat an average pusher since I believe the former's skill level hovers around 3.5. Why a 4.5 level? Because, as you point out, the balls that the pusher hits tend to be outside the typical strike zone (either high bouncers or low slices) and lack pace which makes extra demands on hitting a quality aggressive return. And the pusher's ability to run down offensive shots puts extra demands on the self-confidence of the opposing player (this tends to require a higher NTRP rating).

The only thing you could have mentioned, is under “Recognition “, that you watch the other person’s racket, and you can identify the spin imparted, based on their stroke path. Therefore, you get started faster, to set up sooner.

I am most proud of my wins where I played a player who hits much much harder than I can hit and I have had to solve how to not let him play with his strengths and the game turns to a real mental battle. Sometimes I have been asked do you enjoy playing pushing.. Well yes I do, I enjoy competition and challenges. I don't train pushing shots, if I can be an attacking player then I use more my huge topspins especially from forehand which is very much same looking as rafas forehand. I don't have a good playing buddies so I can't hit consistently huge topspin shots without making errors if my opponent hits harder than I am used to..Off course I could just go out there hitting hard every time and making more errors than my opponent who probably even hits better for my harder shots. But instead I want to beat my opponent and if you want to win a player who trains much more than you and has better technigue and harder more precise attacking shots. he is more skillfull than you but I allways believed there is a way to win if I just find my opponents weaknesses and understand my own limits and strengths. At my peak I had superior endurance and speed to most players as I was one of the best badminton players of my nation. but thats not enough to win those better players jus being quick. You need to understand positioning on the court and what kind of shots to use in each situation so your opponent doesn't get an easy winner next shot and you need to read your opponents shots well and be totally focus on every shot you make and be allways ready to suddenly run full speed to any shot your opponent tries. There are many different ways of defending and I change tactics by what kind of player I'm playing against and in what conditions..Basic pushing style is moonballing which is sometimes very effective style against some players especially on high bouncing clay courts hitting deep lobs time and time again so your opponent can't hit winners from far back unless he is very good at hitting to a high bounce with hard and deep flat shots which he hits earlier than most players. It works better against players who ads a little topspin to their shot, they will usually waitfor ball to fall on their hitting comfort zone. I use this tactic quite often in some situations. Once I made a much better hard hitting player to just play same pushing game with me and it became a real mental battle and I was mentally ready to hit hundreds of shots every damn point and I saw that my opponent was frustrated and didnt really know what to do against me so I had a clear mental advantage.Even if my shot landed short after those minutes of rallies, I knew I'm fine because he had got stuck in that pushing mode, so if he suddenly gets attacking chance after we have hit moonballs for hundreds of shots in a row he feels that he needs to attack but he was afraid to hit suddenly an attacking shot so I had really hacked into his mind. I eventually won that three setter that lasted well over 4 hrs 7-6 2-6 7-5. I was down 4-1 in third but I decided in that moment that I will do my all so that every point would last as long as possible, because we had played well over 3 hrs and opponent was close to winning so would feel pressure of ending the long lasting match, so I used his relief to my advantage kind of..Letting him so close to winning and then make him realize after every rally is over 100 shots that he is actually far from close to winning ;)It's hard to refocus if you think you have win in a bag but then realizing that the match will last long and you really have to hit winners if he wanted match to ever end haha. I don't use moonballing very much on softer low bouncing clay courts because its much easier to attack and especially against those who hit so hard flat shots deep, they are a nightmare for me as they slide in court and then bounce so fast and so low. Against those players I defend keeping ball low with slice defence. I can't let them hit from over the net or I lose very quickly. But I have changed lot of matches where I lost a first set 6-0 or 6-1 by that change of tactic. When opponent is forced to hit from low, he must take pace out of his shots and concentrate to hit precise shots running his opponent and I loved to run balls down, I loved long rallies, I never wanted my opponent to hit an error during rallies, but off course thats my strategy to make opponent hit errors, but during rallies I never hope or expect my opponent to do errors thats why I can be so patient. I just keep concentrating my own playing and try to accept everything that happens in court. I never hit a shot with an attitude that it will be a winner no matter how good it looks like, I keep myself allways ready for next shot so I don't get surprised and panic when opponent gets the ball back from seemingly impossible situation. then there is counterpunching. It's best made for hard courts and you need to hit very flat shots which I dont know how to hit them. shots should be deep and low preventing your opponent to hit winners and absorbing the pace of your opponent's shot usually. Shit I should write a damn book about competition mentality and how to win by pushing lol. Now I have wrote so long that I need to stop.

Just lost another close match to my pusher nemesis. I swear some of those rallies must have been 30 shots. Its just madness. Some kind of crazy ping pong with all kinds of slices and low shots and lobs and drop shots. He has a good volley so pushes until he can approach basically... as long as that takes. And I find even if I'm on my game ...sooner or later I get sucked into his way of playing and lose. It's such a negative feeling , cannot smash his weak second serve, cannot put away his deep backspin moonball returns - always at my left foot on baseline - he is accurate. I need that basic technique alright - no confidence in adding a lot of pace in all of the odd locations he makes you hit form in EVERY rally.

Coach, do you have any lessons on how to handle the high ball that is so difficult for many rec players?

Pushing in itself is a technique. It is used to break momentum and cause unforced errors. If your opponent is a constant pusher, its almost guaranteed that he isnt a good confident player with all round solid technique, and the best way to beat him is to place high percentage consistent simple textbook shots instead of going for more difficult powerful winners every time although it’s tempting. So do not get frustrated and lose😄

I list to some like this in a final. He just pushed everything back and I kept hitting long,

Monfils is the best pusher creating easy rhythm that gives him the appearance of being in disadvantage then quickly turning the tides after weakening his opponent.

Yep, I just play pushers at their own game until they make a mistake and give me a higher ball then I put it away. In fact, you can just whack it at them because it's so fast that they're generally not used to the pace so either do a defensive shot that floats over the net giving you time to smash it or they defend badly and it hits the net or pings off their racket and goes outside the court. Patience!

Slice ball, moon ball. Smells like something can deal with by net rushing and hats what I do all the time against these players. Could you explain whether this is a good strategy or not?

This is the best strategy in tennis because tennis is, believe it or not, a game of mistakes. The person to make a mistake first loses. It’s like tic tac toe - a game stupid by design.

I do not slow down my game to any type of player especially pushers. Pushers make me play more agressive and offensive than I usually do. Yes it takes some adaptation but never lost to such players in my life. Call it survival instinct or else.

This guy I play with is very frustrating to play with. His serve, His serve returns bounce twice before crossing the service box. He Shanks half of the time leading to very slow and short balls and has no control on the direction of hitting but some how lobs the ball. It is getting very frustrating losing to this guy and now I am confused - should I continue to play with him or avoid him for a while. Please advise as playing with him is actually deteriorating my technique.

I think foot work is very important - many club players will slow down their foot work and hence not be in a proper stance when hitting

Is a 'pusher' playstyle a conscious style of play, or more because of lack of technique? Because it sounds like the latter

Do a vid on higher balls, backhand side as well.

bottom line: you need weapons: FH and overhead smash: you'll use them a *LOT* in push-world. if those shots are not weapons: you will suffer