Many older players, who have taken up the game “any old way” and
believe in “just doing the best they can,” claim that professional
teaching is useless, as it makes a player “all form and no play.” Of
course, a professional cannot make a star player out of every pupil,
but he can make their best much better than it would otherwise have
been, much less tiring to the player, and more pleasurable to the
onlooker, by teaching them the correct form, the right way to handle
themselves and their racket.
Few start playing golf without taking lessons on how to drive, putt,
etc., or else reading the various articles that have been written on
how to play. There are just as many different strokes in tennis and
just as definite ways to play them in order to attain the best and most
consistent results. If the player knows the science of the strokes,
when she is off her game a little thought will soon find her error;
whereas if she is playing “hit or miss,” she will merely be disgusted
at being “off her game,” and have to trust to her lucky Providence to
get her “on” again.
A player who is “all form” has merely not carried her game far enough,
either has not played long enough or else has not in herself the
makings of a first-class player. But at least she looks well on the
court, plays a fairly consistent game and really fails only when it
comes to crack tournament play. As a matter of fact, she is a player
whom first-class players are always willing to play against, for she is
steady and has reasonable pace to her balls, making her a good opponent
in practise. Then, too, many people make this criticism of someone who
is taking lessons, when the pupil is really only just starting in, and
has to concentrate so much on how she is hitting the ball that she has
little thought left for strategy. Once, however, a player learns how to
stroke the ball correctly and how to handle herself on the court, the
rest comes rapidly. But the fundamentals have to be learned first, and
learned thoroughly, so that they become second nature to the player,
before there can be much thought of studying the tactics of play.
A professional, besides being able to give his pupil the required ball
again and again for the stroke under study, can also watch and tell her
what she is doing incorrectly. To pick up the game alone is, as in all
things, more difficult than to have someone pointing the way. However,
learning by oneself requires greater concentration and thought on what
one is doing, and insofar is all the better training.
The best way to begin without professional aid is to find a smooth
board wall against which the ball may be hit, with a level cleared
space in front of it. It is well to draw a chalk line the height of the
net, 3 feet from the ground, so that the player may become accustomed
to hitting the ball high enough.
By practising against this board for a while before playing any games,
the beginner can put all her attention on _how_ she is hitting the
ball. She has no opponent, no score, to worry her, and can become
thoroughly at home with the fundamental principles of the strokes. This
is the practise that a girl needs more than a boy, for it will give
her the necessary training for eye and body. She will learn to keep
her eye on the ball, to time her strokes correctly, and to use her
body easily and quickly in response to the demands of her eye. Above
all, she will be acquiring the habit of concentration, a habit most
important in tennis, and something that no one can teach.
The easiest and quickest way to learn to serve is to take a half
dozen or so of balls out on the court and practise hitting them in
the right way into the opposite service court, just as if a game were
in progress. In a very short time, the beginner will find that she is
ready to go out and hold her own against those of her friends who have
been “batting around” for some time but without any real thought as to
what they were doing.
It is best to learn the ground strokes first, the strokes used against
a ball that has bounced once. They are more easily practised alone, and
in learning to play them correctly, the fundamental principles which
are true for all strokes will be mastered. The player will learn to
concentrate on what she is doing, to keep her eye on the ball, to time
it in its flight, and to follow through, putting the weight of her
body into the stroke. The habit of keeping the _eye on the ball_, of
watching it throughout its flight, is a very necessary one to acquire,
and now is the time while there is no opponent to tempt the eye away.
Many players are so busy watching their adversary, to know just where
she is in the opposite court, that they do not know exactly where the
ball is, and have to take a chance at hitting it squarely. After all,
it is much more important to be sure of your ball, for if you do not
send the ball true, of what use to know just where your opponent is.
This is the cause of the many “scratch” shots made on the courts, balls
hit with any part of the racket, strings or even frame, instead of
with the center of the stringing. A player must learn to keep her _eye
on the ball_ all the time, in order that her shots may be clean and
true, and of the maximum speed, through having her racket squarely
behind the ball. This habit of keeping the eye on the ball develops and
includes the _habit of concentration_, another very essential habit
to form if one is to play first-class tennis. No one can do her game
justice if she allows her mind to wander the least bit from the matter
at hand. If she begins to think of the audience, or the umpire, or any
of the thousand and one things that are liable to distract a player,
her mind is not wholly on her stroke, her eye will waver, and a scratch
shot is the almost inevitable result. Proper footwork too, which plays
such an important part in getting the proper swing of arm and body,
comes only with constant thought. In time this keeping the eye on the
ball, and using proper footwork becomes so nearly second nature that
the player may use her powers of concentration on the problems of
strategy which advanced play require. But at all times she must keep
her mind as it were within the boundaries of the court and not allow it
to wander.