The Strokes
In lawn tennis there are two great and distinct classes of strokes.
These are:- (1) Those which are played with a plainface racket, in other words, those in which the racket strikes the ball fairly and truly, and projects it on its course with a minimum of rotation. (2) Those which are played by the HANDLE. REAR VIEW. racket striking the ball while moving at an angle to the intended line of flight of the ball, and thus projecting it through the VOL. III air with a considerable amount of rotation on it.
These really should be taken separately, but in the limited space available they must be dealt with as concisely as possible.
Service. We have, firstly, the service.
The simplest service is a plain underhand service. This is practically useless, so it is generally varied by ladies with right to left cut. At the moment of impact the racket is cutting across the ball from right to left, and it thus imparts a lot of spin to the ball. This causes it on landing to keep very low to the earth, and to break away from left to right (from server's position.) When one has acquired this simple but most effective service, one may serve a deadly variant and drop-shot, by putting on pure back-spin or cross-spin. In this case the ball is hit much more underneath than in the ordinary underhand cut service. The spin of the ordinary underhand cut is much the same as that of a top. No cricketer would think of trying to use such a spin for break, but by cutting across underneath the ball pure off-break is imparted to it, and a wonderful amount of delicacy is lent to the touch. It is a most useful stroke to have, for it can be played as a drop-shot when close to the net, while the unfortunate person who charges madly up to save the point, only to be hopelessly beaten by the extraordinary break, has a most decided opinion as to its value.
The reverse of this service, the underhand back-hand cut service, is a useful variation. It is very rarely seen, but if one has only an underhand service, it should certainly be practised for the ordinary forehand cut service from right court to right court cannot be made to break out of the court. Its value is therefore somewhat discounted, because it is not possible to work [LAWN TENNIS court. The ball should be hit away from the server, but there should be no conscious effort to make it come down. It may be trusted to do that, as two causes conspire to produce this result. The ball is already falling when it is struck. It has gathered a certain amount of downward momentum, and there is such a thing as gravitation.
The most common error in serving is hitting the net. Start your serving with the determination to hit the base-line. The net will lose half its terrors. You will get near to the service court every time with quite a little practice, and you will have no "moral effect" to worry you in the shape of a net. Most players hit the ball too far in front of them. It follows that the face of the racket has turned over and gets on top of the ball a little. This ruins either deep smashing or serving.
In serving, one should stand behind the base-line with the weight on the right foot (for right-handed players). Throw the ball up until it is above the right ear and about nine inches or a foot beyond the reach MRS. LAMBERT CHAMBERS SERVING. one's opponent out of position so much as it is when serving into the backhand court.
There is an underhand lifting service, and an underhand American is possible, but they are both practically negligible at the present time. one We now have to deal with the service generally. In England the service is much too stereotyped, and there is far too much arm work and too little body work. The best general description of the service is that one should serve overhead, as would throw a stone, but instead of throwing a stone one throws the head of the racket. It is not uncommon to see quite good players standing as stiff as ramrods and using their arms in the service like a railway semaphore. The best result can only be obtained by a proper transference of weight at the moment the stroke is being played.
There are two important points that should be impressed on players in regard to the service. The first is that one should not try to hit the ball down into the service P. A. VAILE SERVING, AMERICAN SERVICE. of the racket. Immediately it gets within reach of the centre of your racket, strike it with the centre of the racket, so that it LAWN TENNIS] goes over the net and falls into the service court diagonally opposite to you. It is obvious that to do this you must commence your swing as you throw the ball up, so that by the time you hit the ball you have got some momentum on your racket. It is of the utmost importance in this service, as, indeed, in every department of the game, to keep one's eye on the ball until the last possible fraction of a moment before striking. There is without doubt in the stroke of nearly every player what may be called a "blind gap" between the time one loses sight of the ball and the moment of impact. Probably the player who reduces this "blind gap to the minimum will, all other things being equal, be the most accurate and dangerous. a For the ordinary straight overhead service the racket after hitting the ball follows out clear after it in the line of flight. To get the best result it is as important in lawn tennis as in golf to have a correct followthrough. If one's follow-through is wrong, it is almost certain that the first part of the stroke was wrong. This is where the importance of the follow-through comes in.
The importance of hitting the service at one's full stretch will be seen in Fig. 2.
Here A is serving. When he hits the ball at full stretch, A B, it, flying in a straight line, travels from B to C. A thus has all that strip of service court between C and E, and a bit more on the diagonal, available for his fastest services. If, however, he serves, as do some, with a half-arm stroke, B D placed with monotonous regularity and accuracy exactly where one's opponent wants it, right across the diagonal of the court. Variation in pace, pitch, and spin are as essential to a high-class service as they are to a first-class bowler.
P. A. VAILE FINISHING, AMERICAN SERVICE.
EC REPRESENTS ACCORDING TO PLAYER'S HEIGHT FROM 3FT. UPWARDS G F FIG. 2.
A The forehand cut service is got by cutting across the ball from left to right, finishing well out towards the right. It is a most useful and much neglected service.
It makes the ball swerve a lot in its flight, and (after pitching in the forehand court) break well away out of court, thus drivhis ball will, in a straight line, go from Ding one's opponent out of position. It to E. This gives him a much smaller margin of error than is open to him who takes advantage of every inch of height.
In the service, length is very important.
One should always keep a good length unless one is decoying the opponent up to the net, possibly to beat him next time with the good-length ball, for he never goes back far enough after a soft, short fault. So in the underhand drop service the first fault is quite frequently not thrown away, although, of course, it is never designedly played.
One should always endeavour to place the service so as to make the striker-out take it on the move. This is much neglected in England, where the ball is keeps very low, and as it not only breaks, but also swerves in the break (a point which has hitherto never been made by lawn tennis writers), it is a most deceptive ball to deal with.
The reverse overhead cut service is one of the most valuable services in the game.
It is played by cutting across the ball at the moment of impact from right to left.
It is a fine deceptive service, but players using the English grip cannot possibly produce it. One English player, who has discarded the unchanged grip, serves quite a good variety of this most puzzling service.
The chop service is a service of the greatest value, especially in hard court play.
It is thrown up a little higher than the I2 shoulder, but well away to the right, so that the player can hit it a severe downwardly glancing blow behind with the arm practically at full extent and both wrist and forearm very firm. This sends it away with 66 [LAWN TENNIS used, and exhaustive tests made. It is important for players fully to understand that this idea of extended contact is quite erroneous, as, especially in the forehand drive, it leads to many a smothered shot.
The contact is practically instantaneous, and all the spin is got by the racket face brushing" the ball rapidly as it passes obliquely across the intended line of flight; nor does the angle of the face of the racket to the intended line of flight alter much, if at all, during contact. There must be no attempt to obtain cut or top by turning the racket face quickly round or over a ball. That is a futile operation that has ruined many good strokes.
The ordinary American service is obtained by throwing the ball up well to the left, above the left ear, or if anything farther away. One stands more with the left side towards the net in this service than in the ordinary one. The body is bent backwards towards the left court, and the ball is struck a quick upwardly glancing blow that puts top-spin on the ball, but it is, if I may so qualify it, top-spin lying over at an angle of roughly 50°. The effect of this spin is to make the ball break in the plane of its spin. This is the only break REVERSE AMERICAN SERVICE. P. A VAILE. START. a large amount of back-spin, which causes it to shoot and keep very low on striking the court. It is a much neglected and little understood service, and its value is not-confined to hard courts. No liberties can be taken with it on grass, for it keeps below the net, while on a wet or sodden court it is deadly.
Without a doubt the chief modern development of the game is the American service. This service was for years a puzzle to English players. Messrs. Doherty explained in their book on the game that in this service "the ball travels on the racket itself, from the wood at one side right to the wood at the other side." In "Modern Lawn Tennis" I pointed out at the time, and it is well recognised now, that this was an error, for in every stroke in lawn tennis, be it a cut stroke or otherwise, there is only only one place to hit the ball with and that is the centre of the racket; and, as a matter of fact, the duration of contact and the length of the ball's travel on the face of the racket are very slight. The run of the ball on the racket after deducting the diameter of the compression barely exceeds an inch. This was proved by experiments with a racket marked with lampblack. New balls were REVERSE AMERICAN SERVICE. P. A. VAILE. IMPACT. 2 known where the break is got irrespective of what is commonly known as lateral spin.
The only spins for break that are known to cricketers, or were known to lawn tennis players before the explanation of the LAWN TENNIS] American service, were lateral spins that is, spin coming in from the side. The break of the American service does not depend in any way on lateral spin. It is obtained by a modification of top-spin.
Cricketers have not yet grasped this solution of the modern googlie. If one were to take a wooden hoop and throw it through the air spinning violently at an angle of 50°, it would, on contact with the earth, bounce up at an angle of 50°. It strives to remain in the plane of its rotation. This is why a top spins, why a Brennan mono-rail carriage stands up; is, in short, the secret of the American services and many other apparently complex but really simple little puzzles.
A player who has grasped this allimportant explanation will see that what he must aim at is to hit the ball an upwardly glancing blow, crossing it at the moment of impact at as nearly as possible 50°, although there is probably a margin here of 10° or 15° lower. If one finds, however, that one is getting too much 66 top" and too little "American," one must come across the ball more. This will alter the pure top, which will not give break, to American, which will. It is important to remember that, in learning the American service, the finish of the stroke is behind one. Finishing the cut in front makes it ordinary forehand cut. The natural finish of the American is behind the player serving it.
Now you must look at Fig. 3 and think that you are standing right behind the stand A, which is on your base-line, and that you are facing down the court towards the other base-line. If you hit the ball B which revolves on the axis CD with the stroke for the lifting drive, you will make it revolve from E to F-that is, with vertical forwardly rotating action. Consider the stand hinged at A. Push it down to an angle of 45° as shown by the dotted stand.
The ball has still the rotation of the lift in a forehand drive, but is rotating at an angle of 45° to the ground instead of vertically.
This accounts naturally for its peculiar bound which at first glance might seem unnatural. Now put your American Gunder the ball to show his service. Stop it revolving. He is going to hit upwards, and his racket will pass across the ball as shown by the curve HI. It is really an overhead lifting volley.
The reverse American service is very rare in England. I do not know a player of any eminence who has it. It is impossible for those who retain the English unchanged grip to produce this very fine service.
Anyone who can serve the ordinary reverse overhead service can very easily get the reverse American. The only difference is that, instead of being, as in the case of the reverse overhead service, cross spin or cut, REVERSE AMERICAN SERVICE. P. A. VAILE. FINISH. the spin of the reverse American is, as in the American ordinary service, overspin (H I, Fig. 3). This difference is obtained by throwing the ball more to the right and hitting it an upwardly glancing blow from right to left. It would be impossible to serve a reverse American if the ball were hit at the full extent of one's reach, but were it taken a foot, or even less, lower down it would be possible, for then the racket has the space in which to pass the ball in its upward passage.
There was a most foolish attempt to belittle the value of the American service when I first explained it to English players. Now, every tyro seems bent on hacking the cover off the ball. This is almost as stupid as trying to discount the importance of the stroke. Worse still, the less effective of the two services has been chosen because it is the only one possible with the present English hold. hold .
The American service is no doubt very valuable, but, like any other good thing, it can be overdone. An important open single was played on a hard court recently.
Both players used ordinary Americans.
One used it well, and scored freely on it.
The other did not do well. The American service gets up very high, and his opponent slaughtered" it. Yet this deluded player kept on giving away points. He had a good chop stroke that bothered his opponent very much. The play of his opponent was simply "screaming" for the chop service.
Either this player did not know the service, or he was not intelligent enough to see what was wanted. He went on exhausting himself with ordinary Americans, which his opponent put out of sight by driving them down. This is the weakness of the American service. That great player, Mr. [LAWN TENNIS a little more, must cover the ball more than is necessary with a plain ball that is not striving hard to rise.
The most important things to remember in connection with the service, which in many ways occupies far too important a position in the game, are:- (1) Keep your eye on the ball until you have hit it. (2) Hit it with the centre of your racket. (3) Be transferring your weight from your right leg to your left as you hit the ball.
E C K H D F E B D H C X B E D A S. H. Smith, showed this very conclusively when he simply blew Mr. Holcombe Ward off the centre court at Wimbledon in three sets. A service that keeps below the net cannot be slaughtered. One that rises above it can. Let those who are striving after one American service, and that the less effective, remember this.
The great secret in returning the American service, or any service with much top-spin on it, is to meet the ball with a very firm racket, and to cover it well.
One's wrist must be as firm as a rock, for if there is the least slackness the work on the ball gets its chance, and all accuracy of the return is gone; also it stands to reason that immediately the ball touches the racket the top-spin makes it strive to rise, for it is simply running side, as we say at billiards, and the racket is the cushion. To counteract this tendency, one must turn the face of the racket over towards the net (4) Follow through your stroke. (5) Do not try to hit the ball down into the service court. (6) Do not throw the ball up in front of you. To hit it effectively you should be under it, or in line with it.
The Forehand Stroke. The forehand drive, as it is generally called, is the staple of the ground game. It is wonderful what men can do with only a forehand drive if it is good enough. It is therefore well worth anyone's while to pay some attention to the main points in connection with the forehand stroke. In playing the forehand stroke one should have one's left side towards the net, as shown in the diagram on position of feet (Fig. 4). Indeed, if anything, the left foot should point more towards the net. The finish of every stroke should carry one's weight down one's foot just as one's spring at the start of a sprint does. One's weight should never be thrown LAWN TENNIS] across one's foot. The feet, in good footwork, are almost at right angles, with the front foot pointing almost down the line H. L. DOHERTY SERVING. the ball is intended to go. The footwork of most English players is very deficient.
It is an important but much neglected part of the game.
The forehand drive is best played when the ball is at the top of its bound, but the beginner will find it better to let the ball THE TATE LIBRARY, BRIXTON, S.W. the upward tendency of the ball's flight, aided in many cases by the top-spin, which also tends to cause the ball to fly off the racket with a higher trajectory than would be the case with a plainly hit ball. In both the forehand and the backhand strokes it is advisable to step on to the ball at the moment of making the stroke. In the forehand stroke a short step forward is taken with the left foot; in the backhand stroke the same thing is done with the right foot.
This is very frequently neglected, and, in consequence, the player's pace and direction suffer. The greatest drivers get their pace by timing the body on to the ball. Body work is far too much neglected. This is not a fad. It is the simplest of simple practical lawn tennis. In stone-throwing to boxing boxing it is the body that finds the power.
It is so in all athletic games. Lawn tennis is no exception to the rule; on the contrary, it most forcibly exemplifies the necessity for good body work.
It is essential to time this step well.
Sometimes the weight is transferred without making the step. In this case, as the ball approaches, the player swings his weight on to the foot farther from the ball, and at the moment of striking transfers the weight to the other foot. As a matter of fact the ball is struck during the transference of weight, and upon the accurate timing of this transference of weight RIGHT 8 LEFT FLIGHT OF BALL NET fall until it is quite near the ground before he plays it. He will gradually learn to attack it earlier until in time he is able to hit it as it rises. The drive off the rising ball will probably be the chief development of the game in the near future. With the advent of high-bounding services it is the natural reply. The main thing in this stroke is to see that the face of the racket is inclined forwardly to the net so as to cover A. W. GORE. FOREHAND DRIVE. depends much of the success of all lawn tennis strokes. Its importance cannot be exaggerated.
The feet should rarely, if ever, be flat on the ground. The whole essence of good and quick footwork consists in having the correct position, and in being ready to start quickly. If the player is standing flatfooted he must necessarily raise his heel and flex his knee before he can jump off, therefore let him have this already done. In other words, the grip of the court with the feet is from the ball of the big toe forward.
There is, whenever the ball is in play, generally no contact between the heel and the court, and there ought certainly to be no weight on the heel; also the knee should be flexed and ready for immediate use. No player who neglects these instructions can possibly be really quick about the court.
It is quite a mistake for a beginner to try to drive too near the net. It is possible to get a good-length, fair-paced drive 2 ft. above the net, especially when one has command of the lifting drive hereinafter described. The Lifting Drive. It is but a few years ago that in "Modern Lawn Tennis " I separated all strokes at lawn tennis into two great classes, those with spin and those without, and showed clusively that their methods of production and treatment are essentially different. For quite a year "rotation of the ball " was a stock-joke on every tournament con- [LAWN TENNIS former case, so in this, players are going to extremes. The best of lawn tennis today consists of the game almost as it was A. W. GORE. FINISH OF FOREHAND DRIVE. played fifteen years ago. Practically the only innovation is the American service, as it is called, but which had been used in New Zealand before it created a sensation at Wimbledon. It, however, was extremely rare, and its value in those days was but little understood.
The forehand lifting drive was well known in lawn tennis many years ago, although quite a number of players seem A. W. GORE PLAYING FOREHAND VOLLEY WITH HIS DRIVE.
FINISH OF STROKE. ✓✓ DIRECTION IN WHICH RACKET TRAVELS --> -- INTENDED LINE OF FLIGHT E G A 8 RACKET C ground in England. Now every player, who wants to be considered above rabbit, thinks that he must be able to get a lot of "work" on his ball. As in the a to think that it is claimed as a modern invention. The main principle in its production is shown in Fig. 5. The racket A B LAWN TENNIS] passes forwardly and upwardly in an oblique direction across the intended line of flight of the ball, brushing violently against the ball as it passes at G.
It will be seen at a glance that directly the racket hits the ball at G, it gets a grip on it, and sends it away rotating from G to E-that is, forwardly and downwardly.
This stroke is unquestionably the most valuable ground stroke in the game. At the moment of impact the face of the racket is nearly always more vertical than it is here shown. The diagram is designedly shown thus, for in endeavouring to produce top-spin, which is the spin of the forehand lifting drive, the common mistake is to turn the face of the racket forward too soon, and so to put the ball into the net.
It is very necessary to emphasise this point, for the most astounding things are written about the production of top-spin, and, indeed, about spin generally. In a book called "The Complete Lawn Tennis Player" we are told that " in order to get this top-spin, the ball must be hit at the bottom; this rule applies also to the service."
This statement is absolutely incorrect, and anyone attempting to follow it out is courting failure. The forehand top-spin in the modern drive is got by the "brushing" H. L. DOHERTY. FINISH OF FOREHAND DRIVE. action of the vertical face of the racket passing up behind the ball. The angle of the face to the court must not be altered until after the stroke is played. It follows that in this stroke the player generally hits that part of the ball that is farthest from his opponent. Moreover, if the ball has a high H. L. DOHERTY. FINISH OF FOREHAND DRIVE, PLAYED WHILE RUNNING.
In bound, the player frequently hits it above the centre line, and slants the racket more forwardly towards the top of the ball than in the case of a drive off a lower ball. no case can top-spin in a forehand drive be got by hitting the ball " at the bottom," and anyone advocating it takes the great responsibility of ruining a player's forehand. The fact is that many writers who originally scoffed at the scientific explanation of the game of lawn tennis are now endeavouring, with imperfect knowledge, to exploit the principles involved in these explanations.
It behoves players to be wary, for this is essentially a case in which a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The idea of hitting the service underneath is so amusing and amazing that it may be passed over very quickly. In the American service the ball is frequently hit half-way between the centre and the top.
Only a pure underhand cut service is hit underneath, and that but rarely, for the stroke is not generally known. In the ordinary underhand cut service the ball is generally hit at the back, if we may describe it so, and only very rarely does a player hit it underneath.
The outstanding advantage of the forehand lifting drive is that it drops suddenly during its flight. This enables one who has a fair command of the stroke to hit hard and yet well above the net, whereas one who trusts to the unassisted trajectory of the plainly hit ball must necessarily drive much nearer to the net, and so take greater risks. It is not really hard to acquire the stroke when once the mechanical principles involved in its production have been grasped. It is of almost more importance than usual, in playing this stroke, to keep very firm grip of the racket at the moment of impact. a The Chop. This stroke is not usually called a drive, because most of the players who use it play it very slowly and with a high trajectory. It is the reverse of the last stroke described. It is got by coming down behind the ball as shown in Fig. 6.
The racket, AB, with its face nearly vertical, as shown at AB, passes down the line EF in a forward and obliquely downward course, so that in passing the intended line of flight, CD, it meets the ball at C, and, by reason of the glancing or "brushing" contact, causes the ball to revolve backwardly in the direction CG. The racket, after hitting the ball, continues its down- D F G A B A C E ward course until it is suddenly arrested quite near the ground.
The chop is an imperfectly understood stroke. It is a very valuable return, and a fine shot to go up on, for it keeps low, and sometimes if the player has cut across it a little, breaks in a disconcerting manner.
It is an invaluable stroke, both as a service and during the rest on hard courts, for it always keeps low when well played. Great care in volleying it is required, as, unless it is taken very smartly, the backspin on it turns it down into the net.
An interesting comparison of the flight of the plain forehand drive, the lifting drive, and the chop is given in Fig. 7. [LAWN TENNIS adequately described as this important and beautiful drive. Invented originally in England, it is now, in the land of its birth, Ordinary plain face drive without rotation showing even and symmetrical flight of ball and bound thereof. 。 Drive with lift or forward vertical rotation showing sudden drop at base line when initial force weakened, also bound with rotation still asserting its influence. م The chop (usually played on fairly high bounding ball) showing peculiar straight flight due to backward vertical rotation, also peculiar shooting bound. FIG. 7. a lost art. In playing this stroke it is generally best to hold the leather in one's hand and to place the thumb up the handle of the racket, but if one can do better with the grip shown in Plate D it is not necessary to do this. Footwork is of the essence of this stroke. As one plays the forehand stroke with the left side of the body facing the net, so one plays the backhand stroke with the right side of the body facing the net. The position of the feet in making the backhand stroke is clearly shown in Fig. 8. If this be not most carefully attended to, the backhand stroke is bound to be cramped and ineffective, as it unquestionably is with most players. The backhand stroke, instead of being a weak, defensive shot, is, in the hands of a man who understands it, a beautiful, vigorous, and effective drive, capable of being most accurately placed, and having the valuable quality of concealment of direction until the last moment. It is, in a word, a man's shot, whereas the stroke most in vogue is calculated to bring contempt on the game. The accompanying series of photographs illustrates the more important portions of the stroke. No. I. shows the swing back as the ball is approaching. Note carefully the LEFT RIGHT FIG. 8.
LINE OF FLIGHT OF BALL position of the feet, and that the weight