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Show leisis Ion Do EosIop To Loapn By ED COLLINS Copley News Service If you've recently dropped tennis for another form of recreation, because the game was driving you crazy, then please let me have your attention. at-tention. YOU'RE RIGHT - tennis is not easy to learn -- in fact, it is probably the world's most difficult game to master. There's no such thing as instant success. The resiliency of the ball and racket see to that. TENNIS courts everywhere every-where echo with distraught dis-traught voices: "I barely touched the blankety-blank thing!" -- as another player leaves the court to retrieve his ball. What's often worse than ; hitting the ball over the fence is sending it into your neighbor's neigh-bor's court. It never fails: the ball always rolls onto their court when they're in the middle of a long, dramatic point. IT WOULDN'T be so bad if they returned it politely. Instead, In-stead, they send it accompanied accom-panied with a look that says: "Why don't you go hit against the backboard." If jerks like these scared you off the courts, and frustration frus-tration outweighed enjoyment, en-joyment, then I want you to reconsider making a comeback. THIS TIME don't try so hard. Whatever happens, don't judge yourself. Keep your mouth shut. Give it three months of regular several-times-a-week play. Instead of rallying from the baseline, first move up to the net and master a game called "Shortcourt." Simply tap the ball back and forth while you count your successful hits. : WHEN YOU feel out of control, slop the ball with your racket, regain control and send it back. Keep a mental record of your longest .rally. ; When you move back to the baseline, realize that the net gets higher. The farther back you go the higher you must aim to gel il over. ; FINALLY, FOR the time jbeing, don't "hit" (he ball. Instead, swing your racket as slowly as possible. Stroke it. :Trust the strings to get it .back. If you follow these four -suggestions, I'm confident ryour attitude will change and .you'll be on your way lo ', becoming a player. AND THEN, for as long as you play this game, consider yourself a student. That's the thing about tennis: there will always be a challenge. One day it humbles and frustrates you, the next day you feel like a genius. If it weren't so difficult to learn, it wouldn't be the greatest game in the world. |