Yeah, the reading of 'pushing' has always been an interesting point to me especially in the case of Leuctra where the 50 deep Theban left managed to crush the Spartan right and inflict massive casualties. The interesting bit seems to have been that the Spartans held the initial charge but eventually broke during the course of the fighting so it must have been a slightly drawn out affair. :\

At Coronea, the Spartan right managed to quickly rout the allied left after a mutual charge. Its hard to say what exactly was the nature of hoplite warfare...