AL—First Steps in Playin; Getting the Right Idea from the Start: How to Hold the Racket: Grip for the Fore-hand Stroke: And the Back-hand By Suzanne Lexouew (In these articles Bille.
Suzanne Lenglen has set herself to explain to the average amateur how the game should be played to secure the best result.
An article from her pen will appear every Saturday in the "North-China Daily News")
Lawn tennis looks so easy, ovsn't it, whicn you see two experts playing it? Yot through how many dreary hours of despair must beginner live before he can reach even average form.
I wonder if it will encourage the beginner to know that a good many players, who have reached one point and who stick there, wish that they ould begin all over again? They won't do it, of course, because while' they are unlearning their faults they will play worse than ever, but} it would be a very good thine. for them if they would do The trouble is that most players! start wrong. There are not enough Jwn tennis coaches in the country] fo fo around. A' man or a, gil 5 a racket, joins a club, watches Srditsreat papern an sepis doen faults.
Band sidewasa, with ome left foot point the direction in stich you wish the ball to" gri, and your weight on your right] fiot. As you hit, follow through—I''shall have a tot more to say about that later on—and transfer, the weight to the left foot, as to get the whole of the body into the stroke, D'you see what mean? Well, that's enough to go with for the moment. Mind, racket in line with arm, arm at full stretch, follow through, and feel that you are getting the weight of your body, as well as the force of your wrist and arm, into the shot. Never mind about} the back-hand stroke yet. That'll come later, That Bugbear the Back-hand Stroke!
There are men and women in Tawn tennis to-day, the Wimbledon, class of lawn tennis I mean, who, if they had only begun right, would be now very near to championship form, Yet they stick where they fare, and, so set are their faults, that they cannot ever hope to improve, Now if you are beginning to feel, that when you do go on a cour you may be able to hit a hi with what we call the fore-hand stroke, I" want you to make an experiment, just to satisfy yourself. Twant you to feel what's wrong, and what's right with the various strokes.
Now that is the reason why fam going to insist on little details at the start. You may think I'm writing about things that don't matter, but, believe me, I'm not. Every little detail counts, and if you get one of them wrong you will pay the penalty, Hold your racket just as you] have been doing. Only now turn with your right side facing the supposed net, instead of the left, Suppose a ball is coming at youl ich you must play. back-hand. Make a sweep of it, without altering your grip,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.