Again I urge that you play your drive:
1. With the body sideways to the net.
2. The swing flat, with long follow through.
3. The weight shifting just as the ball is hit.
Do not strive for terrific speed at first. The most essential
thing about a drive is to put the ball in play. I once heard
William A. Larned remark, when asked the most important thing in
tennis, "Put the ball over the net into the other man's court."
Accuracy first, and then put on your speed, for if your shot is
correct you can always learn, to hit hard.
CHAPTER III. SERVICE
Service is the opening gun of tennis. It is putting the ball in
play. The old idea was that service should never be more than
merely the beginning of a rally. With the rise of American tennis
and the advent of Dwight Davis and Holcombe Ward, service took on
a new significance. These two men originated what is now known as
the American Twist delivery.
From a mere formality, service became a point winner. Slowly it
gained in importance, until Maurice E. M'Loughlin, the wonderful
"California Comet," burst across the tennis sky with the first of
those terrific cannon-ball deliveries that revolutionized the
game, and caused the old-school players to send out hurry calls
for a severe footfault rule or some way of stopping the
threatened destruction of all ground strokes. M'Loughlin made
service a great factor in the game. It remained for R.
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