Lawn Tennis

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERT SKILL The evolution of lawn tennis from Major Wingfield's primitive pastime to its present state of development has been consistent as well as rapid. Particular plays have received undue prominence at different periods in the brief history of the game; but...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERT SKILL The evolution of lawn tennis from Major Wingfield's primitive pastime to its present state of development has been consistent as well as rapid. Particular plays have received undue prominence at different periods in the brief history of the game; but with the exception of the service, each one has been conquered before new laws became necessary to curb its power. In fact, little legislation in lawn tenniijs--evssary, and the law= of ffi wgame have been alterecHmry'ln' places of minor importance. It is still very doubtful if new plays will force any radical changes in the rules, and the healthy development seems likely to continue along normal lines. Of the first few years of the crude sphairistike, little need be said. The evolution of lawn tennis really began in 1877, when the first tournament was held with a rectangular court and a service line. Here, three years before the adventof the Renshaws, the reputed inventors of the volley stroke, volleying was first seen, and Spencer W. Gore won the first championship tournament chiefly with this play. His success was due more to the high sagging net, so much lower at the centre than the sides, and to the fact that his antagonists knew nothing of the volley, than to the soundness of his net play. The following years others had learned to lob, and they promptly tossed the ball over Gore's head every time he came up in his court to volley. At the time this new play seemed to sound the death- knell of net play, and the stroke fell into temporary disuse. The next three years have been aptly described by an English historian as the era of pat-ball. Many players learned to return the ball with great certainty though little speed, and the defence was developed so far beyo...