Gwyn is a 4.0 league player who loves playing singles for her USTA team. She’s a step or three slower than the twenty somethings recruited by many teams to play their singles spots. Recently, Gwyn learned that she has been referred to as a ‘pusher,’ and was stung by the comment.
The term has been around for ages and almost always is used with a critical tone. As you may know, a pusher is a player who builds their game around consistency and defensive skills and usually lacks weapons that can hurt an opponent.
So, how do you play, and ultimately defeat, this type of player?
First things first. Put the label pusher in the trash can.
Why?
If you enter the match with this type of pejorative mindset, it does you more harm than good. You battle for an hour and it’s 5-5 in the first set.
She goes up 30-0 in game eleven and the mental monkey in your mind comes alive…’I can’t believe you’re behind against this PUSHER!’
Your opponent has seen this before and decides to play even more ‘no pace…mess your mind up…Chinese torture-like points.’ You lose games 11 and 12 and your monkey is now in hyperdrive. ‘You mean that to win this match, I have to play at least 90 minutes more of this excruciating tennis?’
There is a better way. Forget the label unless you want to use a complimentary one like ‘finesse player.’
Realize that this player probably does not possess blistering passing shots so, if you can volley and smash, take every opportunity to come in and finish points at the net.
Expand your thinking and bring her out of her comfort zone. Hit short to draw her in and then pass or lob her. Do not get caught up in a wait and see backcourt battle that she is more adept and experienced in than you are.
Monitor your monkey and subdue it with positive self talk. Please read that again.
Try a moonball to her weaker side and then move in and take her reply out of the air. Maybe a lesson on the swing volley will invigorate your game to help you on this.
Remember…diminishing her with the wrong label can be the kiss of death.
In writing this, I was reminded of athletes in other sports who lacked ‘big time’ weapons.
Whitey Ford pitched for The Yankees and did not have the ‘electric’ stuff of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale or Bob Gibson. Take a guess where Whitey is located now. Yep…he’s in The Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Paul Runyan was a professional golfer nicknamed ‘little poison’ by his competitors. They outdrove him on every single hole…often by as much as fifty yards. This finesse player was undaunted as he had the best short game and putting skills of his generation. One can almost imagine the golf monkey of his opponents intruding with toxic phrases like…’are you kidding me, how can this guy be one up on you? I mean really…your sister Helen hits it as far as he does!’ Guess where you’ll learn more about ‘little poison?’ Yep…The International Golf Hall of Fame.
In tennis, Google Manolo Santana if you want to learn more about a tennis finesse player who is also a Hall of Famer.
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