The hard-hitting, unpredictable, net-rushing tennis-player is a person of impulse. There is no real system to his/her attack, no understanding of your game. He will make brilliant coups on the spur of the moment, largely by instinct; but there is no, mental power of consistent thinking. It is an interesting sort of character.

The really unnerving player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court at the command of an ever-alert mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite intention. A player who has an answer to every query you present him in your game. He is the most subtle antagonist in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the end, with no thought of change.

He is the player whose psychology is fairly easy to understand, but whose mental standpoint is difficult to upset, because he never allows himself to think of anything but his game. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the intelligence of Brookes more, but I admire the determination of Johnston.

Choose your kind from your own mental processes, and then work out your game along the lines best suited to you. When two men are on the same level as regards stroke, strength and equipment, the determining factor in any match is the mental viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is usually just grasping the psychological advantage of a break in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. We hear a lot about the “shots he has made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots he has missed.”

The science of missing shots is just as important as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Let me explain. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and having reached it, you drive it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is surprised and shaken, knowing that your shot could just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will try to play the ball, and may make an error. You have thus taken some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, just because of a miss.

However, if you had just tapped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to put the ball out of his/her reach, while you would only have been out of breath to no avail.

Let’s just say that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible get. First it amounts to TWO points, in that it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one that you should never have had. Second it also upsets your opponent, because he thinks that he has thrown away a big chance.

The psychology involved in a game of tennis is fascinating, but readily understood. Both player start with equal opportunities. However, once one player has gained a real advantage, his/her confidence rises, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental standpoint becomes weaker. The only objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thus maintaining his/her confidence.

If the second player draws even or pulls ahead, the inevitable reaction occurs with an even greater contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but coupled with the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The reverse is the case of the other player, who is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The collapse of his game plan soon follows.

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Tennis psychology is only understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind and assessing the effect of your own strategy on his/her head and also understanding the psychological effects resulting from the different external causes on your own head.

However, it is also true that you no one can be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding his own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing occurring under various circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.

You have to realize the effect on your game of the ensuing irritation, joy, bewilderment, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the reason, but if that isn’t possible, strive to ignore it.

After you have properly measured your own reaction to circumstances, study your opponents to decide their temperaments. Similar characters react in a like manner, and you can judge people of your own kind by yourself. Opposite temperaments you must try to liken with those people, whose reactions you are already familiar with.

A person who can control his/her own psychology stands an excellent chance of determining those of someone else for the minds works along definite lines of thought and can be studied. One can only regulate one’s own mental processes after studying them very carefully .

A steady, phlegmatic baseline player is rarely a keen thinker. If he were he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is often a fairly clear indication of his/her type of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his/her torpid mind to think out a safe strategy of getting to the net.

Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would prefer to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intended to break up your game. He is a much more dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking opponent. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.

The first kind of tennis player mentioned above simply strikes the ball without much idea of what he is actually doing, while the latter always has a definite strategy and sticks to it.

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I trust that this, my initial dissertation on the fundamentals of tennis, will be found useful by both novices and experts alike in the tennis world. I am trying to arouse interest in the student of the game of tennis by a somewhat lengthy discussion of match play, which I hope will cast a new light on the game of tennis.

I will turn to the novice in my opening article and speak of certain matters which are second nature to the experienced tennis player. The best tennis equipment is not a lot of use to the beginner even if he really wants to succeed. Nevertheless, one has to purchase good quality; it is a saving eventually, as good quality material far outlasts poor quality equipment.

It is vital always to wear tennis apparel when playing tennis. The question of selecting a tennis racquet is a much more serious decision. I do not like to force a certain brand of racquet upon any player, since all the famous makes are of excellent quality. However, the weight, balance, and size of the handle are the really important considerations when choosing a racquet frame, while good stringing is essential to obtain the best results.

After you have bought your racquet, make a firm resolve to use only good tennis balls, as a consistent bounce is a great aid to advancement, while a “dead” ball is no use at all. If you really want to succeed at the game and advance rapidly, I strongly urge you to watch all the good tennis you can. Study the play of the leading players and try to copy their strokes. Read all the tennis instruction books you can get your hands on. They are a great help.

More tennis can be picked up off the court, in the study of theory, and in watching the top players in action, than can ever be learned in actual play. I do not mean miss opportunities to play tennis. Far from it. Play whenever possible, but try when playing to put in practice the theories you have read or the strokes you have seen.

Never become discouraged by lack of progress. The trick of playing some stroke you have worked on over weeks unsuccessfully, will suddenly come to you when you least expect it. Good tennis players are the product of hard work. Very few players are born geniuses at the game. Tennis is a game that pays you interest all your life. A tennis racquet is a letter of introduction in any town.

The brotherhood of the game is universal, for none but an athletic sportsman can succeed in the game for any long period of time. Tennis offers relaxation, excitement, exercise, and pure enjoyment to the person who is bound hard to his job until late afternoon.

The following is the order of development that produces the quickest and most lasting results: i. Concentration on the game. ii. Keep the eye on the ball. iii. Foot-work and weight-control. iv. Strokes. v. Court position. vi. Court generalship or match play. vii. Tennis psychology.

Concentration. Tennis is played primarily with the mind. The most perfect racquet technique in the world will not suffice if the playing mind is wandering. There are many reasons for a distracted mind in a tennis match. The chief one is loss of interest in the game. No one should play tennis with any hope of real success unless he cares enough about the game to be willing to do the spadework necessary to learn the game properly.

Pack it in immediately unless you are willing to work very hard. The weather, conditions of play or the noises in the gallery usually confuse even experienced match-players playing in new surroundings. Total concentration on the game is the only cure for a wandering mind, and the quicker that lesson is learned the quicker the improvement of the player.

The best way to keep a match in mind is to play for every set, every game in the set, every point in the game and, finally, every shot in the point. A set is merely a collection of made and missed shots, and the man who misses the least is the final victor.

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