How to Beat a Pusher: Tactics Against the Player Who Returns Everything
The player who never misses, never hits a winner, and somehow still beats you. Here is how to out-construct a pusher without losing your patience or your match.
By Two brothers in Melbourne, co-founder of RallyHub.
Every club has one. The player who never misses, never hits a winner, and never seems to be trying very hard, yet somehow you walk off the court having lost six-two to someone you are sure you are better than. That is a pusher: a player who simply gets every ball back, deep and safe, and waits for you to lose patience and miss. Pushers are infuriating, and beating them is a skill in itself. Here is how to do it without losing your mind.
Why pushers win
Pushers do not beat you with their tennis. They beat you with yours. Their whole game is built on one truth: in social and club tennis, most points end on an error, not a winner. So they remove their own errors, return everything with a high, safe margin over the net, and let you supply the mistakes. The longer the rally, the more it favours them, because every extra ball is another chance for you to go for too much.
The trap is emotional. You feel you should be winning, so you start swinging harder to "put them away". Harder swinging means lower margin, which means more errors, which is exactly the game they want. The first step to beating a pusher is refusing to play their script.
1. Accept the rally, then control it
You will not blast a pusher off the court, so stop trying on ball three. Settle in. Tell yourself the point will last ten shots and that is fine. The mindset shift from "I need to end this" to "I will out-construct this" is the single biggest change that beats a pusher. Patience is not passive here, it is your weapon.
2. Move them, do not just hit hard
A pusher standing still in the middle of the baseline is comfortable. A pusher running is not. Stop aiming for pace and start aiming for corners. Hit one deep ball cross-court, then change direction down the line. Open up the court with angles so they have to cover ground. A tired, stretched pusher floats the ball short, and that short ball is your invitation.
3. Bring them forward, then lob
Most pushers hate the net. They are baseline retrievers and their volleys and overheads are usually their weakest shots. So make them come in. A short, low slice or a soft drop shot drags them off the baseline they love. When they scramble forward and pop up a nervous reply, you have two choices: pass them, or lob them. Either way you have taken them out of their comfort zone, which is the whole game.
4. Attack the short ball on your terms
Pushers feed you short balls all day. The mistake is treating every short ball as a winner. Do not. Treat it as an approach. Step in, hit a controlled, deep, heavy shot to a corner, and follow it to the net behind a good first volley. You are not trying to hit through them in one shot, you are taking the position that wins the point in two. Controlled aggression beats wild aggression against a retriever every time.
5. Use height and spin, not just flat power
Heavy topspin is a pusher's nightmare. A flat ball sits up at a nice height for them to block back. A ball with heavy topspin kicks up above their shoulder, which is an awkward height to control and a much harder ball to push deep. Add net clearance too: aiming a metre over the net with topspin gives you a huge safety margin while still pushing them back. You beat the player who never misses by also never missing, just with more on the ball.
6. Target the weaker wing relentlessly
Almost every pusher has a side they only slice or block. Find it in the first two games, then live there. Hit ball after ball to the weaker wing until it breaks down or until they run around it, at which point the whole court has opened up for you on the other side. Do not get bored and "mix it up" for variety's sake. Repetition to a weakness is not boring, it is how you win.
7. Hold your nerve on the big points
Pushers win a lot of points at thirty-all and deuce because that is when frustrated opponents go for a low-percentage missile. Decide in advance that on the big points you will play your highest-margin version of an aggressive plan: deep to a corner, heavy spin, to the weak wing, and into the net behind it. Aggressive intent, safe execution. Let them feel the pressure of the long rally for once.
The mental game is the whole game
Beating a pusher is ninety percent attitude. They are trying to make you angry, impatient, and reckless, so the player who stays calm wins. Breathe between points. Reset after every error. Remind yourself that a pusher cannot hurt you with their own shots, they can only profit from yours. Take away your own errors and you take away their entire game.
Do all of this and the scoreline flips, not because you suddenly hit harder, but because you finally stopped playing the match they wanted and started playing the one they cannot win.
For more on building the patient, high-percentage game that beats retrievers, see our doubles tactics guide, and sharpen the shots you will need with the five shots every social player needs.