Racket (sport)

“ It is a good plan, too, to take to tournaments at least two rackets as much alike as possible. If anything goes wrong with one, you will have a good substitute, one that is not strange to you.
Always take great care of your rackets. They are very susceptible both to damp and excessive dry heat, and should always be kept in a press when not in use. A warped frame is fatal. If you do not use a tennis bag, your racket should be protected in a waterproof case. It is a good plan, after use in the wet, to rub the surface of the strings with a little beeswax or varnish. ”

“ The racket has a blade, shaped like a lawn-tennis racket, about 6 in long and a handle long enough to grasp comfortably, all in one piece. Rackets are made either wholly of wood covered with vellum, cork, sand-paper or rubber, or of light frames covered with vellum or some other material. The table was at first marked out in courts, but is now plain. It should be unpolished and stained. In serving, a player must stand directly behind his end of the table and use an underhand motion only. The ball must clear the net and strike the table anywhere on the other side. ”

“ No player should have a racket that he cannot hold absolutely stiff from the very end of the handle. It is essential that a racket should be light enough for him to volley with it at the very end of his reach without any yielding in his wrist. If his wrist is not strong enough to stand this strain with a racket of the usual weight, it is better for him to use a lighter one. ”

“ The weight of your racket should vary according to your strength of wrist, and should depend on whether you volley or play entirely from the back of the court. I am inclined to think there is a tendency on the part of lady players to use too light a racket. ”

“ Rackets.—The choice of a racket is an important matter, and it is also a difficult one. Young players seem to take pleasure in selecting the most extraordinary rackets in a shop. Let me strongly advise them to avoid all unusual handles, heads, or methods of stringing. All these eccentricities are useless at the best. Nothing is so good as the simplest form of racket, possessing an octagonal handle, and strung in the usual way. Such a racket is used by all the better match-players in England. ”

“ As a matter of fact, such a player seldom uses his wrist at all, but rather he should be thankful for the advantage that a good wrist gives him, instead of handicapping himself by using an absurdly heavy racket. Almost more important than the weight of the racket is its balance. By balance is meant the way in which a racket hangs in the hand. Many rackets of 14 oz. feel as heavy as others of 141⁄2 oz. There is only one way of judging the balance, and that is by holding the racket by the end of the handle, as if in actual play, and trying how it comes up, and if it feels light or heavy. ”

“ With practice, you will manage to return a ball that has bounded five or six feet beyond you. Try also the same stroke on the forehand side. You can get in this way alone more practice in handling a racket, and in making the eye and hand work together, than you are likely to get in ten times the length of time out of doors. Ask some friend, who really knows, to tell you if you hold your racket in the right way, and to point out to you any faults of style that you may have. It is of the greatest importance not to handicap yourself at the start by acquiring bad form. ”

“ Let half a dozen healthy young Americans stop before the window of a shop where sporting goods are exhibited. Here are fishing-rods, tennis racquets, riding-whips, golf-balls, running-shoes, baseball bats, footballs, oars, paddles, snow-shoes, goggles for motorists, Indian clubs and rifles. Each of these physical objects focuses the attention of the observer in more or less exact proportion to his interest in the particular sport suggested by the implement. If he is a passionate tennis player, a thousand motor-tactile memories are stirred by the sight of the racquet. ”

“ Having only once got up the ball in the course of an hour, and having sharply struck myself on the side of the head with my own racket, to say nothing of the curious attraction of the ball to my shoulder-blades, I determined that that should be my last as well as first visit to a racket court, charming as the game doubtless is when well played. ”

“ When serving for speed only, the face of the racket should be brought fairly against the ball with no twist whatever, and the head of the racket should be made to come over on the top of the ball by a sharp bend of the wrist. When trying to put twist on the service, the racket should not meet the ball fairly, but should pass round on the outside of it ”

“ Instead of trying to hit the little ball near his opponent, thus saving him useless exertion in running about, each endeavored to put it wholly out of reach of the other's hitter—racket, do they call it? ”

“ These rackets are called ligi. In the northern part of the peninsula they use another sort of racket, called lapki, which are shorter, and made of leathern thorns twisted, like the firings of a tennis racket; two small sharp pointed bones are fixed in the bottom, which penetrate the ice, and are a preservative against sliding.
[58] A kind of close coach to sleep in, and which is fitted to the sledge. It is like a carriage very common in Russia, called vezok; mine was lined with bear's skin, and covered with the skin of the sea wolf. ”

“ Raise the racket at the same time as you throw up the ball, hit it with the centre of your racket, bringing your body forward with all its weight on to the ball, and transferring your weight from the right foot to the left at the moment of impact. Bring your racket right through, and finish a little to the left of your left knee. At the time you throw the ball into the air the left shoulder must be facing the net, and as your racket hits the ball and follows through to your left knee your body should be brought round to face the net. ”

“ How to hold the Racket—One finds many different ways of holding the racket among good players, and no exact rule has ever been received as correct. Still, nearly all good players observe certain principles in holding a racket. It is of the first importance that you should be able to play a ball either fore- or back-handed without changing your hold on the racket. If the hold is changed, there is always danger of not getting the racket into the right position quickly enough. ”

“ It is very difficult to accomplish with success; there is always great risk of not getting it out of your opponent's reach and having it killed outright. It is generally played with an under-hand stroke by hitting the ball before it has reached the ground, and lifting it well over your opponent's head. It should be a high lob. The racket must be grasped firmly and held nearly, horizontal for this stroke. In playing lobs the racket must come well underneath the ball, which should be struck very truly in the centre of the racket. ”

“ Care should be taken when making the racket to have the cup-shaped receptacle at the end of the shaft of such size as to hold the ball without its rolling about, in which case it would be easily dropped when being carried on a run; yet it must be large enough to catch and hold the ball as it is flying about. ”

“ The ball is dropped outside, and a little in front of, the racket, which is brought forward against the ball, and thus, by a quick inside turn of the wrist imparts a strong twist to it. In striking, the weight is thrown forward on to the left foot, and a short step forward with that foot is made to give pace to the service. The service should not be delivered with a jerk, but by a quiet easy swing; the only really quick motion being the turn of the racket round the ball which gives the twist. ”

“ To learn the game of tennis, first obtain a proper grip of the racket. It should always be held firmly and as near the end as possible, the leather butt being inside the hand. A loose grip will absolutely prevent a player from becoming expert, as the accuracy and quickness that are a part of tennis can never be obtained unless we have the racket under perfect control. ”

“ You cannot be too particular to have a really well-made racket. Fortunately there are now so many good makers that it is a player's own fault if she is not suitably equipped. It may be a little more expensive to buy a really first-class racket; but the few extra shillings are well worth while if you mean to take up the game seriously, and to get out of it all the enjoyment you can. ”

“ Next week takes us to Gatwick and Sandown— (or rather the train takes us—another absurd expression) —the last day of the latter Meeting being devoted to "Jumping Races," which is the contemptuous way some people speak of the winter branch of our National Sport!—forgetting that it demands the two most desirable qualities in a horse, speed and endurance—whereas the modern flat-racing has degenerated, for the most part, into scrambles and gambles, where speed is the only requisite!—but more of this anon—but not anonymous, as I believe in signed articles, as the apprentice said! ”

“ A ball made of india rubber and covered with cloth, and a "racket" for each player are the implements needed for playing. The racket is used for handling the ball, and is about two feet in length, with net work at the outer end, by means of which the ball is tossed from one place to another. Rules for playing the game are obtained with the implements needed, which can be procured from dealers in such lines of goods. ”

“ Instead of using a racquet, it is played with a curved wicker basket strapped on to the right wrist. This basket is not unlike in shape to those wicker-work covers which in pre-taxi days were placed by London hotel porters over the wheels of hansom-cabs to protect ladies' dresses in getting in or out of them. When a back-handed stroke is necessary, the player grasps his right wrist with his left hand, using his wicker-encased right hand as a racquet. The court is nearly three times the length of a racquet-court, and is always open to the air. ”

“ The end of this flat end where it curls round upon the shaft or handle must be bound firmly to the shaft with thongs or heavy twine. Holes are sometimes bored through the rim and the thongs or twine are passed through them and woven into a loose netting to form a bottom to the coiled end, making a shallow cup-shaped receptacle in which to catch or hold the ball. The rackets are not difficult to make. Each lad should make his own racket and mark the stem with some device by which he can identify it should he drop it during the play. ”

“ By boating, I do not mean going out in a large tub, and sitting under an awning, being pulled by a couple of paid men or drawn by an unfortunate horse, but boat-racing, for prizes or for honour. The Oxford and Cambridge race has done more than anything to make this sport popular, and the thousands who applaud the conquerors, reward sufficiently the exertions which have been necessary to make the victory possible. ”

“ Horse-racing has so long figured in the eyes of the unlearned in turf matters as a "pastime," that the idea of there being any "business" to transact in connection with it has often drawn from persons, who know no better, an expression of surprise; but before any race meeting can be advertised, or any race be run, much work of a thorough kind has to be got through, the whole machinery of racing has, in fact, to be evoked. ”

“ As almost the only self-made Racquet player and Tennis player who knows every single step of his own slow journey out of a hopelessly dark jungle of hampering errors into a comparatively clear and light country, a journey elaborated during a very busy life of reading, writing, and teaching, I can speak with weight. I can honestly say that all my thousands of Racquet and Tennis foot-exercises, shoulder-jerks, body-swings, and so on, in bedrooms and elsewhere, have been well worth while ”

“ When once the club or racket had been invented for horseback, it was easy to use it on foot, and thus in the middle ages there began the whole set of games in which balls are hit with bats, such as pall-mall and croquet, tennis, hockey and golf, rounders and cricket. ”

“ It is the Big Bertha of tennis. It is the long range terror that should always score. The rules of footwork, position, and direction that govern the volley will suffice for the overhead. The swing alone is different. The swing should be closely allied to the slice service, the racquet and arm swinging freely from the shoulder, the wrist flexible and the racquet imparting a slight twist to the ball to hold it in court. The overhead is mainly a point winner through speed, since its bounce is so high that a slow placement often allows time for a recovery. ”

“ HORSE-RACING
—has been a favorite sport with the superior classes for many centuries, but never arrived at any degree of local celebrity till the reign of Charles the Second; who, entering into the spirit of the TURF, and becoming personally present with the full splendor of his court, then laid the foundation of the meetings at Newmarket, which are now become so justly eminent, and where RACING has long since attained the full zenith of perfection. ”

“ Organized play and competition were established at service bases, colleges, schools and YMCAs. A new breed of young, active Americans became enamored with Squash Racquets and the pendulum swung away from Squash Tennis. After all, what is a racquet game without an appropriate ball? ”

“ The indication and execution are often all but instantaneous from the rack. He is really more neatly collected on the rack proper than on any other gait, except the canter; and though the rack is unrecognized as a School pace, I feel certain that I could convince any master of the Haute Ecole that within proper limits it is an addition, not a loss, to the education of a horse. What School-riders mean when they exclude the rack from School-paces is that a racker has rarely any other gait ”