Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE STROKES THAT WIN—THE DRIVES THE drives—forehand and backhand—are easily the most important strokes in tennis. You may learn any number of trick plays, you may have a splendid service, but if you cannot drive hard and accurately, you will never be a real tennis player. For every ace that you win with the spectacular smash or the lightning service, you will win a dozen aces with the homely drive. The drive is the foundation of the woman's game of tennis; you can be a f1rst-class player knowing only the two drives. Neither Mrs. Bundy nor myself can really do anything but drive. It is different with the men; the first flight of players must know the whole game. It is enough for the woman to drive equally well on both hands. Therefore learn to drive! Perhaps I place too much stress on the drives, but I think most players will agree with me that no adequate woman's game can ever be built up on a foundation other than the drive. Driving is my game; I am quite sure that at least twenty girls in this country could beat me if I tried to play a net game, while, on the other hand, if I were forbidden ever to volley, my game would not noticeably lose in strength. But driving is more than merely getting the ball back across the net: the true drive sends the ball swiftly and surely to an exactly predetermined place in the court. It is the easiest stroke to play and the hardest stroke to play well. Good driving demands the utmost in coordination, for it demands a precise combination of arm, foot, body, and eye. Hence it is that good drivers are scarce among both men and women. And, when you come to the backhand drive, you will find few women who are not weak. Any one may be a good driver if she takes the trouble to learn the stroke and then constantly to practise...