Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 216, 1 December 1927, Page 9

Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

By RENE LACOSTE (Exclusive to THE SUN)

VIII. SPEED AND SPIN INSERVICE

The first time you play against a champion you are certain to be surprised at the speed of his service, arid you will wonder how you could ever acquire a service of anything like equal force.

This speed in service—speed like that of Paterson—results above everything else from serving, not with the strength only of the arm. but with the strength and weight of the whole body. It is the result of the combined action of arm muscles, shoulder rotation, back muscles, body weight and wrist.

You must remember first that you must not lose control of your swing, although at the same time you must waste no chance of putting speed into the stroke. You must therefore start your swing slowly (as a golfer does), increase its speed gradually, and bring the speed to its maximum only just before the moment of impact.

Your wrist must be taut. If you allow it to be loose and weak you will have a tendency-—one which is particularly common with girls—to strike the bottom of the ball instead of its top; and if you strike the bottom of the ball you will not be hitting it as high as you can, which is always essential. In the swing you will follow the actions already described, and you will find that your wrist will act like a spring in controlling the position of the head of the racquet. USE THE WHOLE BODY But. important as are these details of action, they are certainly no more important than the fact that you must serve with the whole of your body instead of merely with your arm. In the back swing, your back is bent and your shoulder depressed toward the left; in the forward swing, your back straightens and your shoulder comes up and forward to the right. Patterson finds his power in his back. The pace of Johnston’s service comes from shoulder rotation. With both of them

the weight of the body, at the beginning of the swing, rests on the back foot and passes forward on to the front foot just before the moment of impact. Similarly, if you watch the service of Richards or Gobert, you will see them lean so far forward that if they missed the ball they would surely lose their balance. THE FOLLOW-THROUGH If you neglect this, or even partially neglect it, your stroke will show less power. The speed of the racquet is bound to be lessened just before the . impact if the stroke is meant to end at that point of impact. Not only that, but the follow-through will leave you in the correct position for following your shot to the net, with the result that you will reach the net sooner. Imitate Brugnon and McLaughlin in the way in which they shift the weight of their bodies and follow through their strokes so perfectly that to maintain equilibrium they are bound to bring forward the right foot, thus taking the first step toward following the ball. THROWING UP THE BALL Von Kerhling throws his ball very high and strikes it -while it is falling. I think this is a mistake. It is much better to know exactly how far above your head you can reach in the service stroke and to throw the ball exactly to that point, so that you can hit it when it is neither rising nor falling, but, as nearly as possible, still. Slow motion pictures prove that most experts start to throw up the ball with the left hand at the exact moment when the right hand begins the swing, and that the ball leaves the left hand at the height of the shoulder. It has then to reach the top of its flight in exactly the titne that the right arm is taking to complete the swing. You will be able to hit the ball with the greatest freedom if you throw it exactly over your head. In the straight services of Decugis and Williams the ball is struck when it is practically over the server's right ear; it is struck full on its back and the follow-through goes straight behind the ball, but rather over it. Most experts, like Tilden and Patterson, use the straight service as a first delivery, while many, including Williams, Cochet, Anderson and Borotra, hardly use any twist on the second ball. On the other hand, the best servers of to-day—Patterson, Tilden, Richards and Brugnon—do use spin on the second ball, and if you want to be sure of sending a reliable second delivery, you must know how to impart it. Of the two great varieties of twist service, the American slice service is probably more useful and reliable, as well as less tiring, than the American twist service. It is this that Johnston uses with great success to make up for his lack of strength. To play this service you must hold the racquet as for the straight service, but throw the bali more to the right, over your right shoulder; then, with the head of the racquet depressed slightly forward and downward, strike the ball from left to right, on the upper part of its right side—that is to say, at the point which, if it were not round, would be its top right corner. Do not try to impart this spin so much by wrist action as by shoulder rotation. Finally, follow the stroke through over the ball toward the right. In this service you must not seek increased speed by hurrying your swing; you should get it rather by increased shoulder rotation and follow-through. AMERICAN TWIST The chief alternative to this is the i American twist service, which is used J on the second ball invariably by Pat- ! terson and often by Tilden and Brugj non. | In this also you must hold i the racj quet as for the straight service, and ! the head of the racquet must be de- * pressed: but now you must throw the ball over your left shoulder and strike I it. still on its top and from left to right, but on its left side. Patterson is the best exponent of this service. His foli low-through passes over the left side : of the ball, the racquet finally descend - l ing well on the player’s right, with the