Tennis for girls

It has been seen that the main object of the game of tennis is to keep the ball in play and put it where the other person cannot reach it. This entails more or less skill and accuracy in making shots. The quickest way to gain this skill is, as in all things, to start in right. Learn the correct way and form, whereby the best results are obtained with the least effort. If a good professional is within reach, the simplest and quickest method is to take a number of lessons from him to get the fundamental principles of the strokes; then start playing, keeping these instructions actively in mind until they become more or less instinctive. A girl usually has to make more of a conscious effort to acquire some of the fundamentals than does her brother, for she is not accustomed to games involving a ball in flight, nor to the quick muscular response required. She has to train both eye and mind to their proper uses.

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.