Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 186, 27 October 1927, Page 8

Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

By

RENE LACOSTE

(Exclusive to THE SUN) 111. THE THREE GREAT ESSENTIALS

In every sport—indeed I would say in every branch of human act-ivity—-concentration is the first essential for success. TX lawn tennis, without concentration practice is useless, match-play a failure. If you lack sufficient interest in a game to think of it exclusively while it is in progress—don’t play it. More than any other sport, lawn tennis is played with the mind. You will never know the full pleasure of the game until you learn to forget everything else while on the court. In practice games, think of your strokes, correct your bad habits, make perfect your tactics —and play always with as much care as if you were playing a match. In matches, forget the gallery, forget points of technique, forget the score, and forget your opponent. Think only of how to send the ball where your opponent does not expect it and where he will not be able to reach it. Remember that good strokes result from concentration during practice, and good match-play results from concentration during matches. During a match, concentration is by no means always easy; there are so many things to distract the attention; moving people, running ball-boys, noises, and all the incidents of a crowded court. I, as a rule, am good at concentration—yet, I remember once losing several points against Tilden, in Philadelphia, through an airplane passing over the court! Equally well, however, do I remember that three years ago, while playing at Wimbledon against Lycett, suddenly as I was about to serve, I saw him standing at attention with his back to me, looking respectfully toward the far end of the court. Then as I looked round in surprise, I saw everyone in the gallery standing also. My concentration had been so good that I had not noticed the entrance of the King! PHYSICAL FITNESS This, the second essential, is really quite as important as the first. The two, in fact, must be bracketted together, for while concentration enables you to make full use of your brain, physical fitness enables you to make equal use of your muscles. Lawn tennis is a more athletic game than some people appear to think. It calls for all your speed as well as all your strength and physical slackness is as prejudicial to success as mental slackness* In lawn tennis one has all the time to go “all out.” It is quite a false idea that one must keep some energy in reserve: all one’s energy has to be in the game all the time. Even Cochet and Vincent Richards would be much greater players if they followed this rule, particularly in the matter of speed. For a beginner, it is perhaps better to seek accuracy and control rather than speed and pace, but later, as soon as you can rely on yourself to make correct strokes, then, if you want to be a champion, you must train yourself never to play “soft” and never to stand still on the court. Wilding, Johnston and Borotra owe much of their success to their untiring activity on the court and to the terrible strain put upon their opponents by the pace and strength of their shots. Remember, in making your strokes, that you have got to put in all your strength. Try to achieve pace like that of Anderson, speed like that of Borotra, spin like that of Washer. Remember, too, that your arm, at the monTent of hitting the ball, must not be held too straight; if you would add to accuracy, the greatest possible power, you must keep your arm slightly bent as you wait for the ball, with all the muscles contracted. When you run on the court, start always as if you were out to win the hundred yards’ chaihpionship of the world. When you see Borotra starting a run of even three yards, you will think that he is beginning a race. Borotra indeed, is the man to imitate in this matter of speed. Cross the court as rapidly as he does, and you will find that you have more time to prepare your swing and consequently more chance of achieving a shot that your opponent cannot return. As you await the service, stand on tip-toe, with bent knees and keep all your muscles contracted. Start a run with quick short steps; you are not setting out on a five mile race. Be alive, quick, alert. It will be tiring, of course but if you have got to lose a match, surely it is better to lose it through exhaustion than through slackness? EYE ON THE BALL Now we come to the third essential rule, the one which, more than any other, lawn tennis shares with the other ball sports. In lawn tennis, at any. rate, keeping the eye on the ball is not easy. Often the background is not dark enough to let you have clear sight of the ball; often somebody in the gallery or the ball-boy will distract your attention; or another ball lying on the court will draw your eyes from the ball in play. Many players are unable to keeji their eyes on the ball for the last second before it reaches them; they glance at their opponent or at the place to which they want to send the ball back. But that is bound to mean, at the least, loss of accurary in the shot. The ball is travelling at great speed, and its flight may be effected by spin, or it may bounce badly. If you are not watching it right up to the end of its flight, you will hit it too early or too late, too near or too far from your body,

or with the side of your racquet instead of with the centre. While, of course, points in lawn tennis are to some extent won simply by good placing, probably 80 per cent, of your points will be won as the result of your opponent’s errors, and of these errors at least 80 per cent, will result from your opponent’s failure to look long enough at the ball. To be a Johnston or a Suzanne Lenglen you have to watch the ball continuously from the instant it leaves your opponent’s racquet until it actually touches your own. Even though an expert may occasionally raise his eyes a fraction of a second too early and still register a good shot, the fact remains that he would have made a still better shot if he had not looked away. That is why halfvolleying must necessarily be uncertain, since its action makes it impossible to watch the ball right up to the instant it touches the racquet. Do not run away with the idea that your shot will be more accurate if you take a fleeting glance at the base line of your opponent. What you will gain will be nothing to what you will lose by removing your eye from the ball. By looking at the ball, you control the ball; and to control the ball is to have the first thing necessary for the making of a champion. (Next week: Footwork.)