TRADE SECRETS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16350, 12 February 1921, Page 12

TRADE SECRETS.

MYSTERIES OF THE RACQUET. -‘CAN’T TALK TO TILDEN.” Holding a tennis racquet is not a profoundly difficult task. But -when you are a world's champion it is as well to veil your tactics (says th© Sydney “ Sun.”) This, at any rate, is th© philosophy of W. T. Tilden, the American player, as demonstrated in a curious interview with a Press photographer. With the idea of securing pictures of the ways in which th© various champions grip their racquets, the photographer did ill© round trip from Brookes and O’Hara Wood to Tilden, Washburn and Johnston. Brookes, with imperturbable good nature, swung his racquet into several positions with grace and unconcern, demonstrating how he held it for strokes full of craft and cunning. There was a faint twinkle in his inscrutable eyes. You felt that, however ho might hold the thing, what seemed an easy sweep of the arm with him, would mean years of practice to anybody else. O’Hara Wood, a trim, slight figure shorter than Brookes, went through some racquet exercises with equal facility. “Do you always hold the racquet like that?’’ he was asked. “ Well,” he answered with a smile, ‘‘ T try toBut, of course, you twist your racquetas the occasion demands.” “FIFTY PHOTOGRAPHS.” W. M. Johnston and W. T. Tilden, the Americans, were interviewed next. Almost obscured in the shadow of Tilden, Johnston, a small, sturdy man. with lithe muscles all over him, broke into a smile. “What do you mean?” he asked the photographer. “ Well,” said tho latter, “do you hold your racquet in one way only ” “No, you don't!” interrupted Tilden. “ But anyhow, you’d have to take about 50 photographs to show how a man holds his racquet.” This decree, issuing from the mighty Tilden, rather staggered th© photographer. “ Give him a forehand drive, Johnston,” advised Tilden- “That ought to do him. Then give him a backhand.” “But what about the service?” said the photographer as the obliging Johnston began a series of manoeuvres.. “No, no. No serve !” ordered Tilden. “ Forehand and backhand. That ought to do, I guess. You can’t go and give him it all* Why, you’d have every amateur tennis player in this burg trying to learn how to do it.” “ Well,” said the photographer, casting Tilden what he thought was a winning smile. “ Would you mind showing me how you grip your racquet, Mr Tilden P” “ Listen,” said Tilden. 4 * Who's going to write this up, eh? Are you going to illustrate it about fifteen different wavs? It's no good my showing you how I hold my racquet. 1 hold ifc dozens of ways—dozens !” “That’s right,” agreed Johnston, looking far up into the height above him, where Tilden’s face floated vaguely. “Yes—you said something.” KNUCKLES ONLY. “Well show me one of the dozens!” implored the photographer. “Ha, ha!” said Johnston, regarding Tilden’s chest humorously. “Ho had you there, Tilden. Show him one.” “ Wei here you ar© then,” said Tilden, in what must be called italics. “ This is a forehand drive. This is a backhand drive. See?” As Tilden, in each case, held his knuckles to the camera, the grip *as still a mystery. “ No, I don’t,” said the photographer, disgustedly. “Turn the front of your hand round, will you-” “Now, that will do,” decreed Tilden impatiently. “ It’s no good showing you th© front. Take that, or nothing at all.” “ But show me your service,” pleaded th© photographer, still undaunted, but all the same mystified. “ I tell you, I don’t want to,” replied Tilden. “You’ll have every amateur trying to do it.” WASHBURN’S TURN. Tli© photographer turned in despair to Washburn, who loomed gigantically in tho background, accourted in hornrimmed glasses. “You can only just show him th© forehand drive,” said Tilden hurriedly. “ You don’t want to give the Press too much.” “ All right then ; here you are,” said Washburn, brandishing hi© racquet. “ But that’s no different to what Mr Tilden did,” complained the photographer. “ I tell you, you can't do it properly unless you have about thirty or forty pictures—and write it up decently,” interrupted Tilden again. “ Come on, you’ve given him enough.” Ho herded the two others off with him agitatedly. “ Well, there,” said a large American in the vicinity, in pleased nasal tones. “ I guess you can’t talk about tennis to Tilden!” And so the Americans’ method of serving still remains an awful mystery.