1 Ski Boot Ski Gear

The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing tennis-player is a creature of impulse. There is no real system to his/her game, no understanding of your game-plan. He will make brilliant rallies at the drop of a hat, mostly by instinct; but there is no, no 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-active 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 of the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of slavish determination that sets his/her mind on one strategy and sticks to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the end, with never a thought of changing.

He is the player whose psychology is fairly easy to work out, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never allows himself to think of anything except the business at hand. 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 plan your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are in the same class concerning stroke, strength and equipment, the determining factor in any game is the mental viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is usually just grasping the psychological value of a change of flow 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 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 explain. A player forces you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and getting there, drive 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 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: all this by a miss.

If you had just popped 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 without result.

Let’s just say that you had succeeded with that shot down the sideline. It was a seemingly impossible achievement. First it amounts to TWO points, in that it stole 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, as 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 weaker. The sole 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 is an even more drastic contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but boosted by 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 likely to lose confidence and play worse. The breakdown of his game plan soon follows.

If you are into the psychology of tennis, you ought to take a look at our website called Tennis Tips for Beginners

Helpful Articles