I always did it that way too. I used a 12” x 12” piece of plywood. But lately I have not been getting clean results and I don’t know why. In the past, it always worked perfectly.
As an aside, if you ever retire a wooden interior hand rail, cut off a couple of 6” long pieces and screw it to the push material (easier with my 12” x 12” plywood). It offers excellent hand purchases and is very comfortable. You can buy it by the foot form Home Depot, but I had an old used rail. Set it on a slight angle towards the fence to guarantee good contact with the fence along with the forward movement.