“The Basics of Tennis”

If you are walking into the tennis court, you want to make sure that you do it right. Knowing exactly what to expect, and bringing along the right expectations can help you get off to the right foot. By knowing the basics of tennis, as well as the expectations to bring, you can be sure to enjoy the game more thoroughly.

The first part of tennis to study before walking onto the court is the tennis etiquette that is standard for the game. This is also often times referred to as the code of laws that is standard for tennis. It is used to help define whether specific circumstances will count as a point or whether it will still continue the game. By following the tennis etiquette, there will be no questions about a play and how it is being aimed, giving players the ability to be their own referee.

As soon as you understand the basic rules, you will want to know what you are walking onto. You will have to cover a distance for the ball that is about twenty seven feet wide. Your side of the court, before being divided by a net will be about thirty nine feet long.

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“Hit”

Being ready for the tennis balls that are likely to come your way will help you to make the best hit possible. By getting the ball out of your court, you will have the ability to continue working towards the win. As a coach or a player, you will want to make sure that you know what the options are so you can learn to use them in the right place.

There are eight basic shots that you can take in order to keep the ball going. When combining this with the ways to maneuver your body, you will have the ability to play each game better than the last. Following are general guidelines to keep in mind when preparing or coaching for the game.

Before even beginning the game of tennis, you want to make sure that you have the right stance. This will mean being prepared for the ball to come your way. Most tennis players will have their feet hip width apart with a bend in the knees. The focus will need to be on the ball and where it is about to go. By doing this, you will have the ability to get to the right place quicker. You will also want to have both of your hands on the grip of the tennis racquet, which will help you to control the ball more, as well as switch sides for the racquet.

After you have this stance, there will be the beginning of the game by service. A serve will begin on one side from the back of the court. After the ball is thrown into the air, the server will be able to hit the ball. They can control the way that the ball begins to be thrown by simply hitting it in a different way. This may make the ball spin, go to a different length, and move to a different area of the court.

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“Coaching Tennis”

For those who are interested in a more individualized sport, tennis is one of the popular options. This particular game is built to show strength, durability, and grace all at the same time. If you are looking at the possibilities for participating in tennis, you can begin by understanding the basics of the game.

Tennis is not a game that was invented at any recent time. In fact, the game has been traced back to the ancient Greeks and was played casually among several cultures for centuries. By the year 1874, the name tennis was patented and became a standard game around the world. It first became popular in French, then spread to Portugal and England, eventually moving to a world wide known game.

Tennis begins in a court that is about seventy-eight feet long and twenty-seven feet wide. It will either be made of grass, clay, or concrete, depending on the texture that is needed for the game. One player will be on each side of the court with a net stretched all the way across the middle in order to divide them. One of the players will begin by serving the ball and the other player will be designated to receive the ball.

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“Professional Tennis Teaching”

Beginning to coach tennis is one way to help others stay physically fit as well as wins the game that they want to. If you are working towards a profession of teaching tennis, you will want to make sure that you know exactly what you are walking into. By going into the court prepared, you will be able to keep the ball over the net and get your player to make the right moves.

The two major pieces of equipment that you will need to start are a tennis racquet and a tennis ball. When you are looking at the racquet, you will want to make sure that it has the necessary qualities to stay in good shape. This first begins by having a frame that will help you to control the movement of the ball. It also means that you will want the interior strings of the racquet to stay in place and to be wired together correctly.

This is the only major piece of equipment that any tennis player will need. When you begin to teach professionally for tennis, you will want to make sure that this equipment is matched on both sides. You will also want to make sure that you can show the player that you are coaching basic and advanced techniques.

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“GRIP, FOOTWORK, AND STROKES”

Footwork is weight control. It is correct body position for strokes, and out of it all strokes should grow. In explaining the various forms of stroke and footwork I am writing as a right-hand player. Left-handers should simply reverse the feet.

Racquet grip is a very essential part of stroke, because a faulty grip will ruin the finest serving. It is a natural grip for a top forehand drive. It is inherently weak for the backhand, as the only natural shot is a chop stroke.

To acquire the forehand grip, hold the racquet with the edge of the frame towards the ground and the face perpendicular, the handle towards the body, and “shake hands” with it, just as if you were greeting a friend. The handle settled comfortably and naturally into the hand, the line of the arm, hand, and racquet are one. The swing brings the racquet head on a line with the arm, and the whole racquet is merely an extension of it.

The backhand grip is a quarter circle turn of hand on the handle, bringing the hand on top of the handle and the knuckles directly up. The shot travels ACROSS the wrist.

This is the best basis for a grip. I do not advocate learning this grip exactly, but model your natural grip as closely as possible on these lines without sacrificing your own comfort or individuality.

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“SERVICE OF TENNIS”

Service is the opening gun of tennis. It is putting the ball in play. The old idea was that service should never be more than merely the beginning of a rally. With the rise of American tennis and the advent of Dwight Davis and Holcombe Ward, service took on a new significance. These two men originated what is now known as the American Twist delivery.

From a mere formality, service became a point winner. Slowly it gained in importance, until Maurice E. M’Loughlin, the wonderful “California Comet,” burst across the tennis sky with the first of those terrific cannon-ball deliveries that revolutionized the game, and caused the old-school players to send out hurry calls for a severe footfault rule or some way of stopping the threatened destruction of all ground strokes.

M’Loughlin made service a great factor in the game. It remained for R. N. Williams to supply the antidote that has again put service in the normal position of mere importance, not omnipotence. Williams stood in on the delivery and took it on the rising bound.

Service must be speedy. Yet speed is not the be-all and end-all. Service must be accurate, reliable, and varied. It must be used with discretion and served with brains.

Any tall player has an advantage over a short one, in service. Given a man about 6 feet and allow him the 3 feet added by his reach, it has been proved by tests that should he deliver a service, perfectly flat, with no variation caused by twist or wind, that just cleared the net at its lowest point (3 feet in the centre), there is only a margin of 8 inches of the service court in which the ball can possibly fall; the remainder is below the net angle.

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“MATCH PLAY”

The first and most important point in match play is to know how to lose. Lose cheerfully, generously, and like a sportsman. This is the first great law of tennis, and the second is like unto it to win modestly, cheerfully, generously, and like a sportsman.

The object of match play is to win, but no credit goes to a man who does not win fairly and squarely. A victory is a defeat if it is other than fair. Yet again I say to win is the object, and to do so, one should play to the last ounce of his strength, the last gasp of his breath, and the last scrap of his nerve. If you do so and lose, the better man won. If you do not, you have robbed your opponent of his right of beating your best. Be fair to both him and yourself.

“The Play’s the thing,” and in match play a good defeat is far more creditable than a hollow victory. Play tennis for the game’s sake. Play it for the men you meet, the friends you make, and the pleasure you may give to the public by the hard working yet sporting game that is owed them by their presence at the match.

Many tennis players feel they owe the public nothing, and are granting a favour by playing. It is my belief that when the public so honours a player that they attend matches, that player is in duty bound to give of his best, freely, willingly, and cheerfully, for only by so doing can he repay the honour paid him. The tennis star of today owes his public as much as the actor owes the audience, and only by meeting his obligations can tennis be retained in public favour. The players get their reward in the personal popularity they gain by their conscientious work.

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“SINGLES AND DOUBLES IN TENNIS”

Singles, the greatest strain in tennis, is the game for two players. It is in this phase of the game that the personal equation reaches its crest of importance. This is the game of individual effort, mental and physical.

A hard 5-set singles match is the greatest strain on the body and nervous system of any form of sport. Singles is a game of daring, dash, speed of foot and stroke. It is a game of chance far more than doubles. Since you have no partner dependent upon you, you can afford to risk error for the possibility of speedy victory. Much of what I wrote under match play is more for singles than doubles, yet let me call your attention to certain peculiarities of singles from the standpoint of the spectator.

A gallery enjoys personalities far more than styles. Singles brings two people into close and active relations that show the idiosyncrasies of each player far more acutely than doubles. The spectator is in the position of a man watching an insect under a microscope. He can analyse the inner workings.

The freedom of restraint felt on a single court is in marked contrast to the need for team work in doubles. Go out for your shot in singles whenever there is a reasonable chance of getting it. Hit harder at all times in singles than in doubles, for you have more chance of scoring and can take more risk.

Singles is a game of the imagination, doubles a science of exact angles.

Doubles is four-handed tennis. Enough of this primary reader definition.

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“DRIVE IN TENNIS”

The forehand drive is the opening of every offensive in tennis, and, as such, should be most carefully studied. There are certain rules of footwork that apply to all shots. To reach a ball that is a short distance away, advance the foot that is away from the shot and thus swing into position to hit. If a ball is too close to the body, retreat the foot closest to the shot and drop the weight back on it, thus, again, being in position for the stroke. When hurried, and it is not possible to change the foot position, throw the weight on the foot closest to the ball.

The receiver should always await the service facing the net, but once the serve is started on the way to court, the receiver should at once attain the position to receive it with the body at right angles to the net.

The forehand drive is made up of one continuous swing of the racquet that, for the purpose of analysis, may be divided into three parts:

1. The portion of the swing behind the body, which determines the speed of the stroke.

2. That portion immediately in front of the body which determines the direction and, in conjunction with weight shift from one foot to the other, the pace of the shot.

3. The portion beyond the body, comparable to the golfer’s “follow through,” determines spin, top or slice, imparted to the ball.

All drives should be topped. The slice shot is a totally different stroke.

To drive straight down the side-line, construct in theory a parallelogram with two sides made up of the side-line and your shoulders, and the two ends, the lines of your feet, which should, if extended, form the right angles with the side-lines. Meet the ball at a point about 4 to 4 1/2 feet from the body immediately in front of the belt buckle, and shift the weight from the back to the front foot at the MOMENT OF STRIKING THE BALL.

The swing of the racquet should be flat and straight through. The racquet head should be on a line with the hand, or, if anything, slightly in advance; the whole arm and the racquet should turn slightly over the ball as it leaves the racquet face and the stroke continue to the limit of the swing, thus imparting top spin to the ball.

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“TENNIS PSYCHOLOGY”

Tennis psychology is nothing more than understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind, and gauging the effect of your own game on his mental viewpoint, and understanding the mental effects resulting from the various external causes on your own mind. You cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes, you must study the effect on yourself of the same happening under different circumstances.

You react differently in different moods and under different conditions. You must realize the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever form your reaction takes. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never give it to your opponent.

Does it deprive you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, or if that is not possible strive to ignore it.

Once you have judged accurately your own reaction to conditions, study your opponents, to decide their temperaments. Like temperaments react similarly, and you may judge men of your own type by yourself. Opposite temperaments you must seek to compare with people whose reactions you know.

A person who can control his own mental processes stands an excellent chance of reading those of another, for the human mind works along definite lines of thought, and can be studied. One can only control one’s, mental processes after carefully studying them.

A steady phlegmatic baseline player is seldom a keen thinker. If he was he would not adhere to the baseline.

The physical appearance of a man is usually a pretty clear index to his type of mind. The stolid, easy-going man, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his torpid mind to think out a safe method of reaching the net. There is the other type of baseline player, who prefers to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intended to break up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist.

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