The hard-hitting, unpredictable, net-rushing tennis-player is a creature of impulse. There is no real strategy to his/her attack, no understanding of your game-plan. He will make brilliant rallies on the spur of the moment, mostly by instinct; but there is no, no consistent thinking. It is an interesting type of character.
The really unnerving player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court at the direction of an ever-alert mind. This/her is the player to 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 dogged determination that fixes his/her mind on one strategy and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the bitter end, with never a thought of changing his gameplan.
He is the player whose psychology is fairly easy to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never permits himself to think about anything except the business at hand. 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.
Pick out your type from your own mental processes, and then work out 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 viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is often seizing the psychological advantage of a break in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. We hear a lot about the “shots players have made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots players have missed.”
The psychology 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. Let me tell you why. A player drives 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 shocked and put off his stride, knowing 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, just because of a miss.
If you had just tapped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt even more confident of your inability to put the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded for no reason.
Let’s suppose that you had succeeded with that shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible get. 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, because he feels that he has thrown away a big opportunity.
The psychology involved in a game of tennis is fascinating, but easily understood. Both player begin with equal chances. However, once one player has gained a real advantage, his/her confidence rises, while his/her opponent stresses, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes poor. The sole objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby maintaining his/her confidence.
If the second player draws even or pulls ahead, the inevitable result 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 inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The situation of the other player is the reverse. He is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The breakdown of his game plan will be the result.
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