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  • Tactics for singles. Well, you don't know what tactic you are going to use unless you

  • know how your opponent plays so we are going to talk about three tactics against three

  • different types of opponents.

  • First, you often might come up against a pusher. We call a pusher a player that just gets everything

  • back, who has really foot work, runs everything down and just gets every ball that you hit

  • to them back. So, how do you beat a pusher? First, you want to attack a pusher as best

  • you can. You want to try to penetrate their consistent defenses by hitting really good

  • deep shots. Another way to beat a pusher is to draw them forward. Why? Because a pusher

  • loves to run side to side and camp out at the baseline. They don't generally like to

  • come forward. Pushers like to stay back and get the ball back. If you can hit some drop

  • shots or what we call sink shots, low soft shots, make them run in then you can either

  • pass them or lob over their heads. Also, because a pusher generally doesn't have a very good

  • volley and a very good overhead because they don't spend their lives playing at the net.

  • They spend their lives at the back being defensive. That is probably the best tactic to use against

  • a pusher.

  • How do you play a hard hitter? How do you play the opposite of a pusher? Someone who

  • belts the heck out of the ball and hits winners all over the place? Well, you have got to

  • become defensive. You almost have to become a pusher. You almost have to get that ball

  • back and make him hit more than one, two or three shots. If they are forced to hit three

  • or four shots generally a hard hitter is going to make a mistake. So be consistent against

  • a hard hitter.

  • Kirk: One comment on the style of play these days is there are so many players now with

  • these semi western grips that have great forehands and not necessarily great backhands. How do

  • you play against that player? One thing that these players are very good at is hiding their

  • backhand so they are adept at moving to the left, moving to the left. If you fall into

  • the trap of trying to force the ball to their backhand they don't have to do anything to

  • hit the backhand better. So the trick against the player who covers up his backhand is to

  • get the bear out of the cage. Hit the ball to his right. Make him move to his right.

  • Make him chase the ball down and hit a forehand. If he doesn't hit a winner, and he won't very

  • often, you can now make him move to his backhand. He might have Popeye's forehand and Olive

  • Oil's backhand.

  • Speaker 1: So remember, your tactics and the strategy you employ are dependent on who you

  • are playing.

Tactics for singles. Well, you don't know what tactic you are going to use unless you

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