Compost Manure

Tennis psychology is nothing more than understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind, and assessing the effect of your own game on his/her mental viewpoint and also understanding the psychological effects resulting from the different external causes on your own mind.

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

You have to realize the effect on your game of the resulting annoyance, pleasure, bewilderment, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, go for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, but if that isn’t possible, try to ignore it.

Once you have accurately judged your own reaction to conditions, observe your opponents in order to determine their characters. Similar characters react similarly, and you may judge men of your own sort by yourself. Opposite temperaments you must seek to compare with people whose reactions you know.

Someone who can control his/her own psychology has an excellent chance of determining those of another for the minds works along definite lines of thought and can be studied. One may only control one’s own mental processes after studying them meticulously.

The regular, unemotional baseline player is rarely a keen thinker. If he were, he would not adhere to the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is usually a pretty clear indicator of his/her type of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually displays the baseline strategy, does so because he hates to stir up his/her slow mind to work out a safe strategy of reaching the net.

Then there is the other type of baseline player, who would prefer to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very 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 merely hits the ball without much thought about what he is really up to, while the latter always has a solid, thought-out strategy and sticks to it.

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I expect that this, my first 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 address the novice in my opening article and write of certain things which are second nature to the experienced tennis player. The best tennis equipment is not much use for the novice even if he really wants to improve. Nevertheless, one has to purchase good quality; it is a saving eventually, as good quality material far outlasts poor quality gear.

It is important to always dress in tennis clothes when engaging in tennis. The question of choosing a tennis racquet is a much more serious matter. I do not advocate forcing a certain racquet upon any player. All the standard makes are excellent. It is on the weight, balance, and size of handle that the real value of a racquet frame depends, while good stringing is essential to obtain the best results.

After having bought your racquet, make a firm resolve to use only quality tennis balls, as a consistent bounce is a great aid to advancement, while a “dead” ball is of no use at all. If you really desire to advance at the game and progress rapidly, I strongly urge you to see all the good tennis you can. Observe the play of the leading players and try to emulate their strokes. Read all the tennis instruction books you can find. They are a great help.

Much more tennis can be picked up off the tennis court in the study of theory and in watching the top players in action, than can ever be learned in one’s own actual play. I do not advise that you should miss opportunities to play tennis, far from it. Play tennis whenever you can, but try when playing to put into practice the theories you have read about or the strokes you have seen.

Never let yourself become discouraged by slow progress. The manner of playing some stroke you have worked on over weeks unsuccessfully, will suddenly come to you when least expected. Good tennis players are the product of very hard work. Very few players are born geniuses at the game. Tennis is a game that pays you dividends all your life. A tennis racquet is a letter of introduction in any city.

The fellowship of tennis is universal, for none but a good sportsman can succeed in the game for any lengthy period of time. Tennis provides relaxation, excitement, exercise, and pure enjoyment to the person who is tied hard and fast to his business until late in the 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 first with the mind. The best racquet technique invented will not suffice if the playing mind is erring. There are many reasons for a distracted mind in a tennis match. The main one is lack of interest in the game. No one should play tennis with any expectation of real success unless he cares sufficiently about the game to be willing to do the practice necessary to learn the game properly.

Jack it in right now if you are not willing to work very hard. The weather, conditions of play or the noises in the gallery usually confuse even very experienced match-players playing in new surroundings. Complete and utter concentration on the game is the only remedy for a wandering mind, and the sooner that lesson is learned the more rapid the improvement of the player.

The best way to keep a game in focus is to go for every set, every game in the set, every point in the game and, eventually, every shot in the point. A set is just a collection of made and missed shots, and the man who misses the least is the ultimate victor.

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The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing player is a person of impulse. There is no real strategy to his/her game, no comprehension 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 most dangerous 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. He is a player with a definite intention. A player who has an answer to every problem 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 slavish determination that fixes his/her mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the bitter end, with no thought of changing his gameplan.

This is the player whose psychology is fairly simple to understand, but whose mental standpoint is difficult to derail, because he never allows himself to think about 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.

Pick out your sort from your own mental processes, and then plan your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke, strength and equipment, the deciding factor in any match is the mental viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is often just seizing the psychological value of a break in the game, and turning it to your own account. We hear a lot about the “shots he has made.” Few realize 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. Allow me to explain. A player forces you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and having reached it, you smash it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is surprised and shaken, knowing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to attempt it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will strive to play the ball, and may fall into error. You have thus stolen some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, all because of a miss.

However, if you had merely tapped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to get the ball out of his/her reach, while you would only have been winded for no reason.

Let’s just say that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was a seemingly 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 ought never to have had. Second it also worries your opponent, because he thinks that he has lost a big chance.

The psychology of a tennis match is very interesting, but easily understandable. Both men start with equal chances. Once one player establishes a real lead, his/her confidence goes up, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental standpoint becomes poor. The sole aim of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thus maintaining his/her confidence.

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

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