THAT TOURNAMENT FEELING

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12247, 19 September 1925, Page 15

THAT TOURNAMENT FEELING

(BY

WARREN HENRY)

Every tennis player who is not a positive 'beginner -will know what I mean. She may know it as “tournamentitis,” or tournament fever, or simply match play. It makeß no difference. You are playing before an im-

nortant crowd for the first time in your life, and you feel awful 1 There is a reason for this. A very great professor of the game once eiKlained it to me. “Your other self,” e said, “is sitting in the audience. It knows all about you—your strength

and weakness—it knows how and when vou become panicky, if you do; how long you can last; and, worst of all, exactly what your expression will be at every tnrn of the game. It also knows whether you think you are going to win or lose.” He went on to explain that it isn’t any nse to. try to forget the spectators. That other self won’t let you. The only thing is to be so well up in your game that you can play with confidence, so that this other she is confident, too; and the onlookers, infected by her, seem friendly instead of critical. I .am sure there is something in it, because there isn’t a player who “never gave a thought to the crowd.” It is never neutral. And the confidence of. which the “professor” spoke, is a thing that can only come from knowing your strokes to the point of mastery. FEELING “RIGHT” The - rest is a matter of commonsense, with a sprinkling of cunning. “Think abont your opponent beforehand,” added the great man. “Take every opportunity of studying her play before your own match begins. If yon cannot, then you must make up your mind from the moment you go on the court that she probably has every kind of tennis virtue that you have read about, or seen, or heard of. Thus you cannot be suddenly reduced to a bag of nerves from the shock of coming up against a genius.” This, he argued, is the way to feel “right.’.’ A little nervo'iisness, half an hour before the match begins, is the healthiest thing in the world. The excited feeling is just the neoessaTy preliminary ip putting up a good show. It stimulates. Concentrating too long before a match brings brain fag. Being without any nervousness until the moment of starting is a sign of overconfidence, which is fatal. Both of these things are dangerous extremes. . . But' the best thing my professor told n.o was this: “Never for a . moment lose hope during a match simply because you are feeling exhausted. It is a hundred to one your opponent is feeling the same; and she may feel even worse.”