The Art of Lawn Tennis | Page 7

super-tennis.
Thus the importance of getting the ball in play cannot be too greatly
emphasized. Every time you put the ball back to your opponent you
give him another chance to miss.
There are several causes for missing strokes. First, and by far the
largest class, is not looking at the ball up to the moment of striking it.
Fully 80 per cent of all errors are caused by taking the eye from the ball
in the last one-fifth of a second of its flight. The remaining 20 per cent
of errors are about 15 per cent bad footwork, and the other 5 per cent
poor racquet work and bad bounces.
The eye is a small camera. All of us enjoy dabbling in amateur
photography, and every amateur must take "action" pictures with his

first camera. It is a natural desire to attain to the hardest before
understanding how to reach it. The result is one of two things: either a
blurred moving object and a clear background, or a clear moving object
and a blurred background. Both suggest speed, but only one is a good
picture of the object one attempted to photograph. In the first case the
camera eye was focused on the background and not on the object, while
in the second, which produced the result desired, the camera eye was
firmly focused on the moving object itself. Just so with the human eye.
It will give both effects, but never a clear background and moving
object at the same time, once that object reaches a point 10 feet from
the eye. The perspective is wrong, and the eye cannot adjust itself to the
distance range speedily enough.
Now the tennis ball is your moving object while the court, gallery, net,
and your opponent constitute your background. You desire to hit the
ball cleanly, therefore do not look at the other factors concerned, but
concentrate solely on focusing the eye firmly on the ball, and watching
it until the moment of impact with your racquet face.
"How do I know where my opponent is, or how much court I have to
hit in?" ask countless beginners.
Remember this: that a tennis court is always the same size, with the net
the same height and in the same relation to you at all times, so there is
no need to look at it every moment or so to see if it has moved. Only an
earthquake can change its position. As to your opponent, it makes little
difference about his position, because it is determined by the shot you
are striving to return. Where he will be I will strive to explain in my
chapter on court position; but his whereabouts are known without
looking at him. You are not trying to hit him. You strive to miss him.
Therefore, since you must watch what you strive to hit and not follow
what you only wish to miss, keep your eye on the ball, and let your
opponent take care of himself.
Science has proved that given a tennis ball passing from point A to
point B with the receiving player at B, that if the player at B keeps his
eye on the ball throughout its full flight his chance of making a good A
1 2 3 4 B ------------------------------- return at B is five times as great as
if he took his eye off the ball at a point 4, or 4/5 of a second of its flight.
Likewise it is ten times as great at B as it is if the eye is removed from
the ball at 3, or 3/5 of a second of its flight. Why increase your chances

of error by five times or ten times when it is unnecessary?
The average player follows the ball to 4, and then he takes a last look at
his opponent to see where he is, and by so doing increases his chance of
error five times. He judges the flight of the ball some 10 feet away, and
never really sees it again until he has hit it (if he does). A slight
deflection caused by the wind or a small misjudgment of curve will
certainly mean error. Remembering the 85 percent errors in tennis, I
again ask you if it is worth while to take the risk?
There are many other reasons why keeping the eye on the ball is a great
aid to the player. It tends to hold his attention so that outside
occurrences will not distract. Movements in the gallery are not seen,
and stray dogs, that seem to particularly enjoy sleeping in the middle of
a tennis court during a hard match, are not seen on their way to their
sleeping quarters. Having learned the knack of watching the ball