How to Beat Pushers in Table Tennis

Last Updated on July 10, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

If there’s one type of player that you are going to face in your local league it’s the pusher. These folks are everywhere and seem to multiplying. This seems to be in part because players slow down as they get older — some of them used to be attackers like us!

A weird thought I know. You could well end up as one, one day… the horror… Anywho, I digress. While pushers can seem tough to tackle initially, their style is fairly one-dimensional. In this post, I’ll be explaining areas where pushers flourish, and the cracks in their game which you can exploit.

For clarity’s sake, this guide targets pushers with inverted rubbers as this is the most common kind you will face.

How to Beat Pushers in Table Tennis

1. Topspin Rallies

Susceptibility to topspin rallies varies heavily among pushers, however, in my experience, most tend to not favor so well when forced into topspin rallies.

Think about it. By initiating a topspin rally, pushes are now off the table which is where pushers excel. Most will resort to a heavy blocking or chopping game instead. And from the many matches I have played in my local league, I can say that the majority go to blocking as it is much easier. In fact, some pushers are fairly weak when it comes to chopping which may be a bit of a surprise.

This is perfect for you if you are an attacker. While their blocking game may be good, it should be levels below their ability to push, and you have the freedom to attack how you see fit.

2. Slow Heavy Loops

A good portion of advanced players can loop kill long pushes, but many of you are probably far off this point. This is why I instead recommend using slow rollover loops as your primary form of attack.

This topspin shot is loaded with heavy topspin which makes it the perfect shot to counteract pushes. It’s also ideal for tackling loaded pushes too which may be giving your trouble.

Yet it’s not just how effective they are at shutting down pushing rallies that makes them so great. They are also fairly safe from counters most of the time. Generally speaking, pushers are very limited when it comes to attacking shots. They don’t possess great smashes, punches, or counter loops. As a result, they are pretty limited at punishing slow rollover loops that bounce high. This means often you are free to air on the side of safety by performing slow rollover loops that comfortably clear the net — such a shot would likely be killed by a competent attacker.

3. Bide Your Time

There’s no denying that pushing rallies are tedious, and you likely want nothing more than to smash the ball past your opponent, but don’t! Pushers are quite literally relying on you to get frustrated and make mistakes. They mostly win their points through your unforced errors rather than making exceptional plays.

So to maximize the amount of points you win, focus on consistent pushes, and then attack the balls that are favorable. Rushing your offensive game is the quickest route to a stinging loss.

4. Push More to the Forehand

I stand by what I said about not trying to outlast a pusher in a pushing rally. However, this doesn’t mean you should make pushing easy for them. Feel free to work angles and depth to get them moving. I recommend trying to push plenty to their forehand.

Most players favor backhand pushes as they are a little easier to control. It’s also a little harder to put heavy backspin on forehand pushes, so target the forehand fairly often.

5. Use Quality Topspin Serves

As pushers want nothing more than to start a rally with backspin, you really should try and use a range of topspin serves to get them out of their comfort zone.

I am particularly fond of fast and long topspin pendulum serves. These will often result in a weak block or chop which I can easily attack. Remember, most pushers are not very confident in their offense, so often you can use these long topspin serves without risk of having the ball smashed back at you.

You can then pair these fast and long serves to the backhand with a short serve to the forehand. When used sparingly, this can really catch them off guard and gives you some easy points.

6. Flicks Can Be Your Friend!

If you lack the ability to open up from backspin with a slow and spinny loop, try using banana flicks to initiate topspin rallies instead.

These are great for when balls are short and are not too difficult to pull off. While they likely won’t pose too much of an issue for your opponent to return, they do switch the rally to topspin which puts you in a favorable position.

7. Use Floats

This is more of a generic recommendation, but I still think it is worth mentioning. Floats are balls with almost no spin on them, and they can work beautifully against pushers.

It’s easy to get to become complacent and simply expect there to be a certain amount of spin on the ball, especially if the opponent doesn’t vary it all that much. Therefore, you should try to catch pushers out with occasional float pushes. The key to pulling off a float is to keep your motion similar to a regular push while harshly reducing the amount of spin.

This will take some practice to consistently deceive your opponent. But it’s something well worth integrating into your game.

8. As a Last Resort Try Lobbing

Yes, you heard me right. Lobbing can work on pushers. It’s certainly not a strategy I recommend going in with initially, but if you’ve tried everything else and nothing is working, throwing out some lobs could shift the dynamic of the game.

Usually, you would never want to lob the ball if you are close to the table and not out of position. Firstly, lobs completely take the pressure off your opponent, and secondly, they give your opponent a free smash.

However, we are not talking about any old opponent here, we are talking about pushers. You see, half of these ancient players have seemingly lost the ability to raise their racket above their shoulder! Many will simply flat-out refuse to smash the ball. Instead, they’ll try either try to awkwardly push or block the ball.

Sometimes this will give you an awkward return of your own, such as fast pushes from height, but other times, you’ll be fed the ball high for a more basic loop or smash. While these rallies may not always seem favorable, they certainly upset a pusher’s rhythm and get them out of their comfort zone.

A quick disclaimer though: if you’re facing a pusher with decent offensive capability, give this strategy a miss!

Strengths of Pushers

1. Patient and Consistent

One of the most frustrating elements of playing a pusher is that they are both consistent and incredibly patient. Executing pushes is debatably the easiest shot to pull off in table tennis. This is because rallies are slow and controllable. In comparison, while blocks are often simple enough to play, they quickly shift to challenging if you’re facing a powerful attacker.

As such, pushers can push all day long and are content to do so. While you can likely hold a pushing rally for a long time, you probably won’t last as long as a pusher. It’s their specialty. So never try to out-push a pusher.

2. Good Placement

Pushers have excellent accuracy and will carefully place the ball to prevent you from getting your game going. If you have a terrible backhand, they will likely pin you wide on the backhand side making it difficult to come around to play your forehand.

Similarly, if you can attack from either side, they may keep the ball short or quickly move you around making it hard to find an opportunity to attack. This is why you constantly have to be on your toes. Never keep your weight on your heels.

3. Pushes Loaded With Backspin

If there’s one push I love to use personally, it’s the loaded push. These are long pushes with very heavy backspin. You’re probably thinking: long push? That’s an easy attack, right? Wrong. These may be long, but they have so much backspin that they are hard to attack.

Even intermediate and advanced players frequently under account for the spin on these balls causing them to end up in the net. That’s why I use them so often. And so do pesky pushers!

4. Fast Deep Pushes

While pushers will push the ball short or fairly long, occasionally, many will throw out a fast and deep push. This is a massive rhythm upsetter and can easily get you caught out — especially if you’re planning on coming around to attack with your forehand for that shot.

Because you’re so close to the ball, you don’t have the time or space to perform a proper push. Instead, you’ll likely just try to get under the ball and quickly lift your racket to prevent it from going into the net. If you’re successful in making the push, it will likely be quite high — it may even tempt some pushers into attacking.

The Pusher in Action

Above you’ll see a video of two pushers playing one another. While both of these players can attack to some degree, their offense is very limited. If the ball remains low over the net they adopt a heavy pushing game. They only switch to attack to punish very high balls.

As you may have noticed, a lot of their pushes are fairly high and prone to a quality attack. I expect both of these players are around the Division 3 or Division 4 level of their local league. You can expect something similar for your area. Division 2 pushers are much harder to face as their pushes go low over the net.

Closing Thoughts

If you’re a beginner or intermediate player, going up against pushers can be tough. The best way to overcome them is to have solid looping ability, but many of you may not have developed this skill just yet.

That being said, you don’t need picture-perfect loops. As many pushers won’t attack you can afford to loop the ball fairly high over the net without repercussion. Also, remember to try out fast topspin serves, I tend to find that they work a treat!

Next Lesson

Now you know how to handle a pusher, give my next lesson a read where I cover how to overcome choppers.