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 at the drop of a hat, largely by instinct; but there is no, no consistent thinking. It is an fascinating sort 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-active mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite intention. A player who has an answer to every problem you present him in your game. He is the most subtle opponent in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the end, with no thought of change.
This is the player whose psychology is rather easy to understand, but whose mental standpoint is hard to derail, because he never permits himself to think about anything but his game. 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.
Choose your sort from your own mental processes, and then work out your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are on the same level as regards stroke, strength and equipment, the determining factor in any game is the mental viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is often just seizing the psychological value of a break in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. We hear a great deal about the “shots he has made.” Few understand 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 drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard for it, and having reached it, you smash it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is surprised and shaken, knowing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to attempt 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 stolen some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, just because of a miss.
If you had merely 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 made the shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible get. First it amounts to TWO points in that it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one you ought never to have had. Second it also upsets your opponent, as he feels that he has thrown away a big chance.
The psychology of a tennis match is fascinating, but readily understood. 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 poor. The sole aim 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 occurs with an even greater contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but coupled with the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The reverse is the case of the other player, who is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The collapse of his game plan soon follows.
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