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The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing player is a person of impulse. There is no real system to his/her game, 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 fascinating type of character.

The really dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her strategy from back to fore court under the command of an ever-alert mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite purpose. 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 dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and sticks to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the end, with never a thought of change.

This is the player whose psychology is rather simple to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is difficult to derail, because he never allows himself to think of anything but his game. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the mental capacity of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of purpose of Johnston.

Choose your kind from your own mental processes, and then plan your game along the lines best suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke and equipment, the determining factor in any given match is the mental standpoint. Luck, so-called, is often grasping the psychological advantage of a break in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. We hear a great deal about the “shots players have made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots players have missed.”

The psychology of missing shots is just as vital 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 tell you why. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard for it, and having reached it, you smash it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is shocked and shaken, realizing that your shot could just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not risk it next time. He will attempt 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.

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 merely have been winded for no reason.

Let’s just say that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible achievement. First it amounts to TWO points, because 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 upsets your opponent, because he feels that he has lost a big chance.

The psychology involved in a game of tennis is very interesting, but easily understood. Both player start with equal chances. However, once one player has gained a real advantage, his/her confidence goes up, while his/her opponent stresses, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes poor. The only objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby maintaining his/her confidence.

If the second player pulls even or draws ahead, the inevitable reaction is an even greater contrast in psychology of the players. First, there is the natural confidence of the leader of the game, but it is boosted by the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly sure-fire defeat into a likely 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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