HOW TO USE THIS SITE - Part 2

Articles In This Section:

Fig. 2 shows Francisco Segura's famous two-handed forehand drive. Although he had great success with this stroke, no other player ever rose to stardom with it. Thus a two-handed forehand drive could be called "unique-form" rather than the age old "good-form."

The big difference between men and women players is degree of strength. Naturally men players can hit the ball harder. Often women players make up for their lack of strength by greater accuracy. Court strategy differs only in the amount of net play used. Many women players cannot hit the ball hard enough to follow it to the net. Thus women's tennis is often characterized by being a baseline game with net trimmings, while men's tennis becomes a net game with baseline trimmings. The best women players are at the top because they play a man's game. Figs. 3 and 4 show the similarity in hitting an overhead smash between a man and woman world champion. (All action pictures of women players in this book show championship form which is the same for men and women topflite players).

Girl players should set their tennis goal in terms of a man's game. They should practise and play with male companions whenever possible. Otherwise girls tend to develop soft strokes which will not stand up in real competition. It is not possible to place spin on balls which are hit too gently, and spin is essential in a good-form tennis stroke. Likewise boys may learn much from the greater accuracy of girl players. When you can make your opponent hit the ball into the net or out of court, you have a winning game. There is a limit to the force which can be placed on the ball, if it is to be accurately placed. Each learner must decide on a happy combination of force and accuracy, although good force must be used in good-form strokes. Good force does not mean trying to hit the cover off the ball, and home runs pay no dividends in tennis.

Even the champions go stale, forgetting some element of good form. In Fig. 5, Don McNeill, Jr. is shown practising a forehand drive at the time he was National Singles Champion. Notice his intense concentration on watching the ball. Experts sometimes lose this skill in their endeavor to watch their opponent, or the placement area on the opposite side of the net. Probably "taking your eye off the ball" is the most common fault in tennis, as in golf. Thus an advanced player has lapses, making costly errors because of such a fault, and must practise to regain his ability to watch the ball until he hits it. Research studies have shown that beginners frequently fail to hit the ball squarely in the center of the racquet because they do not watch the ball, or do not get the racquet behind the ball in time to aim it accurately. The beginner can learn a very important lesson from the action picture shown in Fig. 5.