Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 172, 31 May 1918 — Page 8

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. A. Vaile, Tennis Authority, Tells of

New Movements in the Great Game, and Gives

Practical Suggestions on Debated Grips

and Strokes That

iviean Efficiency.

The Best Racket Hold as Illustrated by P. A. Vaile. By P. A. Vaile International Authority on Tennis and Golf

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REVOLUTION is taking place to this fundamental requisite, must ia tennis. Not many people be badrealize it. but that does, not 1 showed the danger of the Eng.

Tfo. u , , . hsh holds, with the angle between alter the fact. It has been caused by the forearm an(J racket handle( ft slip of a lad, one William M. John- endeavored to persuade English eton, a Californian and ex-holder of players that this angle was a very

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Johnston in Backhand Stroke.

real danger to the game and that,

unless altered, it would kill English tennis. However, they could not understand that the methods that were then beating the world could be unsound it was such a paradox.

the national singles tennis champion

Ship (1915) of the United States. Johnston weighs about 120 pounds, yet there Is not in America a speedier or more accurate forehand drive than that of the diminutive Californian. Naturally, tennis players are anxious to know the secret of Johnston's

power ana precision, u lias not yet derrul players. They introduced the been fully explained, although it is English angle into tennis. Thev did

wonderful things with it, but nobody

Expert in the Came.

The Doherty brothers were won-

comparatively simple when once it has been stated. Briefly, it may be eald that Johnston gets his remarkable results because he is always in truth, that is to say, at the time of making his stroke his forearm

else ever did. That is the very wonderful thing about their game. It did not produce a single champion except the Dohertys themselves while within a vear of m

and his racket handle are in one and Australasia had won all of En th same straight line, or at least in honors and held thom .....

.w. oia t-trs.

the same plane of force. This is the whole secret of the strength and certainty of the modern (tame. Ten cr fifteen years ago Johnston would have been voted a faeak

The lesson of the Australasians was that they favored the system of keeping the straight line. The English game is very nrettv ,h;,.

pieiuer io watch than the Australa- Doherty brothers, but here in one

jump the Californians came round to

P. A. Vaile, Author of "Modern Tennis." sian or Californian, but it has not the severity or the pace. I was accused of being a revolutionary in advocating such drastic changes in the game as the abandonment of the methods of the famous

Diagram Showing How Top Spin Is Obtained with Face

or tne icacKet, c D Vertical, but Accentuating

Obliquely from E to F, Thus Producing the Spin A B. The Face of the Racket Does Not Turn Over or Forward as in the Other Diagram Until After the Ball Has Left It.

D I: ball ;) b 4 O

W. W. Johnston Returning.

bound into the strong, manly game of the West. Johnston's hold, which is used by many of the Californian players, causes the main force of the impact, both on the backhand and forehand, to fall across the fiat of his wrist joint in the way in which it bends least. This is the secret of the great pace that he gets. It is easy to say this, but without some further explanation the mere statement is not very convincing. The main reason for the force of this stroke is that resilience meets rigidity. Now resilience on resilience is not good for produr'.ng a rebound. For instance, drop' a golf ball on a rubber f.oor and it will not rebound. That is resilipnfo on resilience, but

drop the same ball on a marble floor and it will bound according to the height of its drop. That is resilience on rigidity, and that is what the Californian hold of the racket means in tennis, resilience on rigidity. In other words the blow practically falls on a locked joint that cannot give way to the impact of the ball and racket. There can be little doubt that this forehand grip means a revelation and a revolution. What can be done by one who has full command of it will prove a revelation to tennis players, and then the revolution will be in full swing. Even as it is, it is working. The American is always on the lookout for new and improved methods. He has seen that the English method of holding the racket is obsolete. As a matter of fact, it only persists because a few professionals who learned their game in England, and therefore do not know the newer tennis strokes, teach it. Now, let me make a confession. I prophesied ten years ago the coming of a revolution in tennis and showed the grip that would make it. For ten years before that, week in and week out, I played with an Australasian

else,

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the changes I advocated and have even gone quite beyond them.

Players, who wish to be up-to-date player who never used anv thin

in tennis must consider the modern who was one of the finest players in

forehand grip. Ten years ago, l stated that any remarkable development of the forehand drive would come from this stroke. Well, it has come, and the Californians have given the English players something to think of, for they are producing a game that is very remarkable. The main characteristics of American sport are its amazing youth and virility. Here we have national champions at 20 and "veterans" as the peers called McLoughlin, at 24. In England some of the leading players before the war were old enough to be the fathers of these young American champions. The combined ages of one international pair totalled SO years. America has the finest body of young tennis players in the world, and it is because they have had the sense to break away from the obsolete English game and to go at one

Diagram Showing How Many Players Think Top Spin Is Produced and Try to Get It. The Only Result Y vv Is to Pull the Ball vXv IntotheNetor on the Court NxV Before It oA Gets to the Net.

The Proper Forehand Grip of the Racket, Showing Arm and Racket Handle in Line.

The Same Grip, but with Leather in the Hand. This Is the Old Grip and the Freest.

The English Forehand Grip, Declared to Be Quite Unsuitable for the True Tennis Game.

Backhand Grip. Thumb Around Handle. Front View. Note That the Racket and the Forearm Are in Line. This Is a Fine Grip for Volleying.

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Backhand Grip. Rear View of the Hold Shown Above. Norman E. Brooks Uses This Hold for All Backhand Strokes.

Backhand Grip, with Thumb Straight up Handle. This Is Probably the Best Grip for All Backhand Ground Strokes.

The English Backhand Grip. Notice the Angle Between Arm and Racket Handle, Which Causes Inaccuracy and Loss of Power, The Illustrations Are from Mr. Vaile's "Modern Tennis."

player. In those days the famous English players. R. F. and H. L. Doherty were beating everybody, including the Americans. Their style of play, however, could not endure, for It was basically unsound, in that they held their rackets at the side, instead of gripping them correctly, which was according to the method used in Australasia and America at that time. Fundamental of the Grip. These grips tend to bring the forearm and the racket handle into lino nd any grip that does not conform

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Showing the Natural Tendencies of the Drive with Lift.

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PlQiO VERTICAL PACKET

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the world, who had marvellous control of the ball on the forehand, and neither I, nor any of the other players, that this little fellow he was smaller even than Johnston was in the habit of beating, would conde

scend even to experiment with his forehand grip! We thought that it was a freak hold and that it was merely a personal shot and of no use to anybody save "the owner," but the scales are

off my eyes now. Those who want to move with the times, who want to get full value for what Is in them at the great game, must know that a revolution is going on in tennis and must be in it.

Looking at the Ceiling to Tell the Tim

r

e or

Night

AWAKING in the night and wondering what time it may be, who has not longed to see the clock without getting up and striking a light? To make this longing easy to satisfy, a firm in Paris has just put on the market a clock that by pressing a button is made to project a pic

ture of its face in a ray of light upon

the ceiling. This clock, which looks like a small cannon, stands upon a box containing three dry batteries. Its mechanism is in a metal tube, at one end of which is an ordinary di3l. The push-button can be placed under the pillow or upon a table beside the bed.

When one wants to see the time in

the night one presses the button; this lights the lamp, which projects upon the ceiling or upon the wall a greatly magnified picture of its face, so that one can lie comfortably in bed and read the time at a glance. Another push of the button extinguishes the lamp.

Newspaper Feature Service, J91"J.