TENNIS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 19 February 1916, Page 3

TENNIS.

The following from an American paper_will be read with interest by local committees:

Most players have a horror of handicaps, because they think of them only as a scoring device, by which the better player gives an advantage to his weaker opponent. But there lire other kinds of handicaps that can be adopted to the advantage of the ambitious player that will vary the game and improve his play at the same time. When practising against an adversary who is not quite so strong as you are, it is well to try to improve your weakest point by voluntarily limiting the use of your strongest strokes, and playing only those which you are not so sure of. Players who ' are weak in backhand play should practice their backhand strokes regularly when practising against men whom they can hold safely, while good backhand players should al.vays practise their forehand strokes against men whom they can beat easily. Still another style of handicap that is particularly helpful in cultivating length of stroke is to stay back in your own court against a player whom you can beat, and count as ''out" any return that you make that falls short of your opponent's service line. You can allow your opponent to nlay into any part of your court while yoti have the advantage of less than half of his, the half-back of his service line. Discarding handicaps altogether, both players can use this limitation in practice play, and both cultivate length at the same time. This is sulendid nractice for even the best players, as it* cultivates length. The same methods can be used in volleying to cultivate length Still another form of voluntary handicap is for a better player to limit all of his returns against a poorer antagonist to ground strokes—that is, to forbid the better man to ever volley the ball except in delivering the service. Allowing the opponent to use the full variety of his strokes, and limiting yourself to the ground strokes, will cultivate this side of your play, and concede a handicap to the other-man. This plan can be reversed, and the better man can be limited to the volleying only, and this is one of the most severe handicaps. To require one player never to let the ball bound except in returning the service means that he must not only run to the net every time be serves, but also after each return of the opponent's service. However, it has often been done, and helps the volleying game of the player conceding the handicaps, wonderfully, to say nothing of cultivating speed in getting to the net and endurance.