Tennis Psychology (Part 1)
Tennis psychology is nothing more than understanding the make-up of your opponent’s mind and assessing the effect of your own game on his/her head and also understanding the psychological effects resulting from the different external causes on your own mind.
However, it is also true that you no one can be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding his own psychology. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing occurring under various circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.
You must realize the effect on your game of the resulting annoyance, joy, bewilderment, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, try for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, or if that is not possible, try to ignore it.
Once you have correctly measured your own reaction to conditions, observe your opponents in order to determine their characters. Similar characters react similarly, and you may judge men of your own kind by yourself. Opposite temperaments you must try to liken with people whose reactions you already know.
A person who can control his/her own mental processes runs an great chance of reading those of another for the mind works along certain lines of thought and can be studied. One can only control one’s own mental processes after carefully examining them.
The regular, unemotional baseline player is seldom a quick thinker. If he was, he would not adhere to the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is often a fairly clear indication of his/her kind of mind. The impassive, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to activate up his/her torpid mind to think out a safe strategy of getting to the net.
Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would rather remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a much more dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking opponent. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.
The first kind of tennis player mentioned above just strikes the ball without much idea of what he is actually doing, while the latter always has a solid, thought-out plan and sticks to it.
If you are a beginner tennis player or want to know more about the general psychology of tennis, please visit our site called Tennis Tips for Beginners
Traditional Bows
Archery is as old as Old Nick. The oldest bows to have been found date back to about 2000 BC and bows are almost definitely older than that. Archery is so old that no-one knows where or when the bow and arrow was invented. It has always been used in hunting and warfare. Buddhist monks in the Far East have utilized archery in their martial arts routines for centuries as well.
Archery is even now being used by some tribes around the world for hunting purposes and many millions of ordinary people practice archery for recreation. Buddhist monks still utilize it in their meditation techniques. There are essentially three types of archery recognized: primitive, traditional and modern archery.
Traditional archery includes such bows as the longbow and the recurve bow. Bows of both types have been found dating back to 2000 BC. It appears that the longbow was more common in northern Europe and the recurve bow was more widespread in southern Europe and east from there all the way to Japan.
The modern compound bow can achieve a heavy draw weight by expending comparatively little physical strength compared to traditional bows by the use of a set of pulleys or cams, however still many people prefer to use traditional bows. People seem to want to get back to the root of archery.
Longbows are very simple items, traditionally manufactured from one piece of yew or ash. Recurve bows could also be made from one length of wood, but more often, the tips would be crafted from wood and horn or bone. Remember that the tips of a recurve bow point to the front when the bow is unstrung.
Because of the recurved tips, a recurve bow is more powerful than a longbow weight for weight or inch for inch, but recurve bows are normally fairly short, so the standard longbow is much more powerful than the average recurve bow.
However, both types of bow require quite an amount of physical strength to draw them to full power and hold that draw to take aim.
This cycle of drawing and holding without quivering or trembling takes a great deal of strength and concentration, which usually has to be learned. It can require years of practice to master traditional archery. The British longbow men of the 14 th and 15 th centuries practiced all their lives.
In fact, Henry VIII made it law that all English and Welsh men had to train with a longbow at the butts every Sunday aiming at targets at least 220 yards away. Nowadays, 90 metres (100 yards) is about the farthest archers shoot. It would often take ten years to become this proficient, but some archers could shoot an arrow 400 yards and more.
In order to shoot an arrow that far, traditional longbows used in warfare had a draw weight of between 160 and 180 lbs, which would send a three ounce, armour-piercing arrow about 300 yards. Not many men could pull a bow like that these days These days, a typical draw weight for a longbow would be 100 lbs and for a recurve something over 60 lbs.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with archery bows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special offers, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.