TENNIS PLAYERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 939, 8 December 1933, Page 9

TENNIS PLAYERS.

Simple Rules of Health Disregarded. WOMEN WORST OFFENDERS. It is strange that girl tennis'players and champions at that, seem to violate many of the rules of health that men players regard as sacred in the cause of the game. Perhaps women think they are hardier (there is a tradition that says so), that they don’t catch cold so easily, and that they do not “ coddle ” themselves. But no man would dream of sitting down to afternoon tea without changing from the-damp clothes he has worn during a match to dry garments, while women will sit down and chat over a cup of tea immediately after play. Letting their clothes dry on them* they are running the risk of cramp, catching colds, and developing rheumatism later on. Their diet just before playing does not seem to worry many girls, either but men have learnt to their cost that the food taken just before a match may impair their eyesight. Girls often play immediately after quite a big meal, a habit that has been responsible for the breakdown of one or two well-known players, whose i digestion was. thoroughly disorganised as a result. Many women read or IvfiAt while they are awaiting their:, tunvgef the-courts. Both these pastimes are bad fOr their game, as they are a continual strain on the eyes. Tennis players have suffered much less from eyestrain since the introduction of the eyeshade. Most of the champions are very fussy, about their shades. Eyeshades, in spite Of their superior virtue in protecting the eyes, took some time to become popular, because they detracted from the appearance of the wearer. Helen Wills Moody, who introduced them to women in England, wore hers in a dead-straight line, but Peggy Scriven decided to wear one at a snappy angle, and they became the established headwear for tennis. - Only a few girls now -wear the more attractive bandeau, which, although it keeps the hair in place, does not relieve the eyes of strain. No Stockings Now. Helen Wills Moody is perhaps the most conscientious champion in the world to-day. When training for big matches she gives up -everything. She goes to bed at 10.30, and will leave a dance or bridge party in the middle of a rubber to keep her.-rule;. .Not many other champions, abroad or in New Zealand, are so earnest about their game. She has seen some changes in women’s tennis wear, apart from the transfer from the hat and bandeau tc the shade. It was only last year that girls had the courage to brave Wimble don with bare legs. Since then it has become so fashionable to play withoul stockings that it is out of the ordin ary there to see a girl among the champions wearing stockings.