Have you ever thought about playing tennis?
The habit of establishing and holding pressure on a tennis adversary will pay big dividends. So many players bear down only in fits and starts. An early lead will give many a player a sense of false security, and cause him to let up, when actually he has nothing more than a slight advantage due to his opponent’s starting slowly. The match actually has not begun.
There are a number of extraneous factors, beyond the control of a player or his opponent, which can upset a star performer considerably, and can wreak havoc with the game of an ordinary player. A man who really understands how to take full advantage of unusual conditions has a big edge over one who doesn’t.
The first-class court general and tactician is the man who not only knows all the technical answers but is also trying to exploit the psychological element to the detriment of his opponent. Such a man is always consciously aware of the logical reply to the shot his opponent plays, and also which sequence of shots of his own will pay off most frequently. He knows that he must wait out all spin shots until they have crossed the top of the bound.
Tennis matches are won by the man who hits the ball to the right place at the right time most of ten. That right place may be determined by the possibility of making a clean winner, but more of ten it’s a place from which an opponent will make an error on his return shot. Nothing is so disconcerting or upsetting to a player as to miss. A magnificent shot, which beats him completely, doesn’t cause him much mental anguish because, if he is a sportsman, he will admire it and then not worry about it any more.
Over the entrance to the great centre court at Wimbledon, England, and also over the marquee steps to the stadium at the West Side Tennis Club, Long Island, are identical signs. They carry two lines from Rudyard KipIing’s “If”:
This is nothing more than a very delicate slice or chop shot, made with the racquet head tilted backward about halfway between the slice and the lob techniques. It requires quite a little wrist flick, very little backswing, and a fair follow-through. The racquet head must meet the ball fairly solidly, but pass under it imparting distinct backspin. The shot definitely rises in the air and should have a safe clearance of a few feet above the net line at the top of its arc. It must fall within eight feet or less of the net to be of any real value.