Evening Star Newspaper, July 28, 1926, Page 23

SPORTS. PERFECTION OF BACK-HAND STROKE GAVE THE EVENING 8 HIM EDGE ON JOHNSTON, SAYS CHAMPION Californian Found Weak Spot in 1919, But Big Bill Was Tanight Lesson, and It ‘Was Different Thereafter—Sacrifices, Concentration and All-Around Game Needed for Success, Titleholder Declares. The world of tennis, having learned from its woman champion, who “played and mastered the game for un” now may know from Tilden, repeating champion of the courts, not only the mastery of a particular stroke Which he belicves brought him wictory over Bill Johnston, but alse how an aspiring tennis player may lift him- #elf out of the ordinary class. Gould, in response to a request of the general manager of the Associated Press. New York staff of the dssociated Press, which copyrights the interview. Wy the Associated Press. N The romance of the game, as Tilden has known il, was disclosed to Allan J. Mr, Gould is a member of the W YORK, July 28.—Little Bill Johnston, if he lever knew it before, can here and now learn of the stroke which Big Bill Tilden had to acquire and master seven years ago in order to defeat Johnston at tennis. And Tilden not only gives credit to Johnston for having been instrumental in pointing out to Tilden the latter's weakness in the game, but he also expresses gratitude to Johnston, who, he says, had greater experience and match temperament in 1919, when the two met in contest for the first time. “It was Johnston's ability to pound my backhand stoke to a pulp,” said Tilden, “that taught me I had to have an offensive backhand stroke, So during the following Winter I worked indoors four days a week on my back- hand at Providence. Before we went to England, in 1920, for the Davis Cup matches I had acquired through in- tensive practice an offensive as well as a defensive backhand stroke. “It was the difference between my backhand of 1919 and that of 1920, plus addi ional experience, that en- abled me to win the Wimbledon tournament, carrying with it the world title at that timé, and later the Ameri- can championship. In the American final that year Johnston set out to pound my backhand as he had done the year before, but it wouldn't be pounded this time. “It is just'this difference in back- hand strokes which I believe has pro- vided the margin of my victories over. Johnston through the past six years.” Formula for Success. For the mass of vouns tennis play- ers who aspire to lift themselves out of the ranks of the ordinary, Tilden has a formula for success, compound- ed out of the elements of his own ca- reer of unprecedented triumph on the courts. It is the formula that has given Tilden the magic touch and made him the champion of cham- pions in an era of stirring compett- tion. but there is no secret key to it. no short cut to the final product, for chief ingredients are sacrifices, tion and an all-around game. re the factors that stand for in_the zame of life as well Their product is champion- =hip stuff. and if you could hear Til- den himself as he expounded their ap- plication to his own career, as well As to others, you would know the in- tensity with which he has lived them, made them the cornerstone of his own existence and sought to spread their gospel to othe here was Spartan sort in Tilden's early career. After being a. “bust” for some seven or eight years he was willing to spend A half-dozen more overcoming ob- stacles and developing the game that has lifted him to the top. There was concentration of a single-track va- ylety in this, and there wasz concen- tration in his lean figure, his almost gaunt features, as he drove home for another generation the lessons of his rise. Got an Early Start. “T started to play as soon as I was old enough to hold a racquet, at the age of 5, he began. “I was pretty good as a youngster for my age, and ®got a great deal of incentive from helping as a ball boy at the German- town Cricket Club, watching Parke and Dixon, the British stars, play such Americans as Larned, Clothfer, Beals Wright and Ward. “My brother Herbert, 7 years my r, was one of the best young in the Philadelphia district at the time. The most valuable thing he did was to give me a general bawl- ing out after every tournament T plaved in. That made me sore and I tried to do better.” As he recalled these days of his gangling youth, Tilden glanced re- flectively at one of his proteges— “Jumior” Coen, who has come east after making his mark in middle- western ranks. The champion, a few minutes before, had been making im- aginary slices with a collection of new racquets under Coen’s admiring gaze. “From the age of 12 4o about 19 or he went. on, “I played pretty hadly. T was as wild as a hawk. My shots were not particularly sound. I was just a swatter type. At about 18 T made up my mind to remodel my game, which at the time was very erratic off the ground, and had as its only redeeming feature a fast serv- ice. T realized it wouldn't get me anvwhere and that T needed a sound zround game. On that theory I an- alyzed my place along common-sense, scientific lines and for the next half dnzen vears, or until I was 25, I vorked on an all-court game, Has His Own Ideas. “FEvery one, including my friends, told me I was foolish: that I couldn't he both a baseline and net player, but fortunately I was pigheaded enough not to believe them and kept at it. As a result in 1918 I got to the finals of the national singles, losing to Lindley Murray, and found a place in the first 10 for the first time. “In 1919 Bill Johnston and I began our long span of rivalry, meeting four times altogether. I defeated him the first time we met, at Newport, and also wen in the east-west matches, but he turned the tables in the clay court tournament and agaln in the title round of the national singles. Two factors secounted for John- ston's decisive victorles—frst, his cater experience in match tempera- ment: second his ability to pound my hackhand to & pulp.” Tilden then told how he developed an offensive. backhand in Providence Auring the Winter of 1919 and'1920. “1 am -eonvinced that any player who wants to can master any stroke in the game,” he said. *“And no player will Wold the American championship in the future who has any pronounced weakness. = Therefore Aany young player who aspires to be a national champlon must be willing to go through the long. tedious and at times seemingly hopeless grind of learning the fundamentals of an all-court game. Also Must Have Style. “Style, too, must be acquired. By that I mean correct form, which 1s & combination of racquet technique and footwork. The ability to keep the eye on the hall at all times and cor- ract court position. are absolutely es- sentfal to success. “Every player to reach the top, muset acquire these fundamentals, yet these alone ‘won't make a champlon t's the willingness and the knowledge of when to sacrifice to ald this form that makes a great champlon, “Rill Johnston, a model of styls, will sacrifice comfort, looks and dignity to win a crucial point if that peint happens to mean victory or defeat. “It 18 this ability, which I term the ability to scramble, the determination to go after everything, which cartles most players out of the mass of the good into the melect circle of the great. Lacoste has it. So have Rich- nrds and Borotra, but they are a few among many. Diek Willlams, for ex- ample, 1s not willing to scramble, and, as a result, has falled to touch many of the heights to which his spectacu- Jar game otherwise would have car- ried him. “I cannet {eo strangly urge yeung players to uttempt the impossible in recoveries. At least 78 per cent of the shots oconsidered imponsible are actnally reogggrable if the effert i rifice of the most | made for them. Let no player cramp his style by worrying about the gal- lery thinking he is playing to the grandstand when he is trying for sen- sational recoveries.” Believes in Imitation. Tilden lives up fully to +hi$ own advice to scramble. With his long stride and tremendous reach, he has 1 advantages that enable him to make difficult gets with seeming ease, but at the same time he is al- ‘ways ready to dash far out of court or plunge to the net, risking possible ury. “I am believer n imitation,” he ‘went on. “Not that a player can ac- curately copy another’s strok®, but in attempting todo so he is apt to discov- er a valuable stroke of his own. My forehand drive which actually bears no resemblance to J. O. Anderson's, is the nearest to it which I am able to produce. My backhand slice, which has no family connection with that of J. J. Armstrong, former Harvard star and ex-intercollegiate champion, start- ed as an imitation of his famous slice. “My advice to young players is to see as much good tennis as possible and attempt to copy the outstanding strokes of the famous stars. “In attempting to develope the game of various juniors I have found the road to greatest success lies in taking their patural game and, modifying it for orthodoxy without destroying | its individuality. The greatest dan- ger of professional coaching lies in the fact that every professional strives to make a duplicate of his own game, whereas a sound tea¢her should treat each pupil as an individual case to be developed along different lines rather than as a standardize product. Have Their Own Style. “I could not have developed Carl Fischer, the former intercollegiate champion, along lines of Vincent Richards, nor Sandy Wiener and Junior Coen on parallel plays. Fach is great in his own way, which is not mine, but no t are -great in the same way. Had [tried to make them play my game, I would have rulna\iI them all." The guide lines which Tilden stakes out for boys would not, however, ap- ply to feminine players, he believes. “‘One hears discussiorf of the relative merits of the tennis o leading men and women, but their games are en- tirely different,” he said. “To me the ideal type of game for & woman is the base line game. I consider it impossible for women to play an allcourt game for three sets. ‘They are not physically able to do so. Even as great a star, and unusually strong a woman as our own national 'champlon, Helen Wills, or our former ¢hampion, Mrs.” Molla - Mallory, or Elizabeth Rvan, cannot. consistently 80 to the net through thfe sets and stand it. “It is common knowladge that Suzanne Lenglen, notwithstanding the sensational photographs of her playing, only goes to the net when she's drawn in by her opponent.” Dodges Psyehology Question. Tilden™ deftly parried a. request to explain some of the playing psychology that has been so conspicuous in his many close matches: his frequently uphill vietery in international play. He did so because he feels this is a peculiar attribute of his own game and that no explanation or analysis of it would be beneficial to any other player. “Tell us, then, what match was your hardest?" “‘Unquestionably my five-set strug- gle with Rene La Coste in the chal- lenge round of the Davls ‘Cup play last year," replied the champlon. » “1 never was in a worse hole and I never took any greater physical unishment getting _out of -¥# than Tid tn that mateh, °T wgs physically dead on my feet In the first wset, losing it well as the second set and the first four games of the third set before striking my stride, I was four ! ‘within int_of losi; the Wallace_!ggqr Co. NASH Sales and Service 1709 L Street N.W. Just East of Conn. Ave. Main 7612 match before T took the third set and turned the tide, but even then it was 4 terrific battle right down te the finish.” “What are your views as to pro- fessional tennis?'’ “I do not believe in professional tennis. My faith and interest are in the amateur game, but at the same time I think professional tennis might succeed. Personally I have never considered turning professional and have no thought of it now. Neces- sity would be the only thing that would interest me in it.” | | | | | | tmust be taught to wa'k. AR. WASHINGTON. . D.' C:-'WEDNESDAY. JULY 28, .1926. The @pcninfi Qtar BOYS 000 Birmingham Bost o win Who Taught * EEP practicing .on the stroke ‘we' started yesterday. The crawl stroke originated with the South S It's as natural as walking, but a baby Later it became the Australian crawl, and then was adopted in Europe and then came to America. It is the popular stroke here now. 1t is the simplest, easiest and most natural stroke. In it are strength, stamina, a maximum of .speed and en- durance. It is best for rough water. It is best for self<protection and for life saving. That is why we are so interested now in the crawl stroke, because we are learning to save lives. Today’s test will be: 1-—8wim 50 yards, using the crawl stroke, beeause that Will ‘get vou to the point desired in the quickest time and ‘will leave you sfrength enough to then rescue the drowning person. crawl TRE, CRAWL STROKE START, —— — e 1 o S R BAOR b U——— 50 YD5: ——+ ive several feet at the end of im. wim on back to starting point, STAR CLUB BOYS TO SEE YANKEES PLAY THE GRIFFS Thursday [ HE EVENING STAR BOYS CLUB at American League Park on August 12, will be the organization’s first big get-together since the track and field meet held at Central Stadium last Spring. That the coming affair will be a bigger one than the track meet goes almost without saying. Membership in the club has nearly doubled since March, and practicaliy every boy is a base ball fan, especially when there is a chance to see Babe Ruth and the rest of the famous Yankees, who ap- pear to be headed for another American League pennant after having stood aside for two years while Washington was ruling the roost. Members of the club will attend in a body and sit together in a section of the grandstand, where they can witness every bit of action and all the preliminaries that go with a big- league game. Naturally the boys will be expected to conduct themselves as true sportsmen and live up to the club pledge by being careful not to annoy the players or other spectators. That's all that President Griffith, in extend- ing the invitation, is asking of wear- ers of The Evening Star Boys Club button, There will be room enough for every fellow in the outfit. Also there will be room enough for those not already on the club list, but who would like to get in on the game and other activities. Those who wish to take thelr friends along need only have them fill in and mail the application appearing else- ‘where on this page, and all club bene- fits will be theirs. The organization ls open to every boy of school age who wants clean athletics. “There are no dues. The only obligation is the signing of the club pledge. Applications have been received al- ready this week from half a dozen base ball fans who want to be all set when the gate opens on August 12, The latest additions to the roster fol- low: Frank L. Ball, jr., Clarendon, Va.; Robert R. de Masi, 709 Sheridan street; Myer Gildershorn, 4400 Georgia ave- nue; Patrick Caldwell, 3206 Northamp- ton street; Lewis Jacobs, 5113 Iilinois avenue; Richard Drifmeyer, 5421 Con- duit road; Leon J. Levin, 1039 Seventh street northeast; Nathan Rosenbers, 1521 Fifth street; Morris Akman, 1521 Fifth street; Sam W, Meloy, 3211 Fifth street southeast; Abraham Wi. dome, 402 Kentucky aveénue southeast, The Evening Star Boys Club Pledge WANT to be a member of The Evening Sh!' Bloy: jlub, ;ndl fif t:mptetl to mem~ Keop':np':lf n.l:uyn in ‘ood physical con- dition. Play fair. Be a modest winner and an umcomplain- ing loser. Abide by the rules of all sports I engage in and respect officials. - Follow the activities of the Club through The Evening Star. Never neglect either home duties or school classes. I am——years old; attend. I would like to have a Membershi and The Evening Star Boys which T will wear, Marr McGratu's Titular Feet School. Certificate ub button, “JEET ..how they're kept + free from corns., . *“You don’t win any medals, in athletic meets or walking a beat, whey 2 toe is torturing you,” writes Matthew J. McGrath, Olympic weight and hammer thrower and lieutenant. ew’ York police “So athletes and . policemen who are wise never tolerate corns. They get rid of them,” There is no substitute for good old * Blue=jay. For more than 26 years it has been vanquishing corns to the eount of millions yearly. For Bluejay first of all relieves the Its cool, cushiony pad ends the cause of corns. sl sure and pain at once. Then the medi- cation loosens and ends the corn. Usually one plaster is sufficient. But “old offender” wil even an withstand 2 second ¢ s o Acall will seldom T Island natives. | B v was that test? not easy keep practicing can do it with ea to follow the will be even more se. vere tests and you can’t hope to meet | them if you are unable to do the first | one. _Thll test. is suitable to the boy of fairly good size and who already is fairly adept in water. For small boy | and those who have just started their | | swimming lessons we can cut them | down te 25 yards for the distance, CLU until Water is a good friend but a deadly enemy. Make it your servant, Next—More about (Copyright, MAIN KENILWORTH BOUT PROVES FIASCO life maving. 026 ) Another fiasco resuited in the main | event of the boxing show at- Heine Miller's Kenilworth arena last night, | which. brought together “Young Mon- | treal” of Providence, R. 1., and Harry | Brandon, New York, bantamweights. | Neither boy, to ali appearances, had any real intention of actually fighting. Montreal kept a light left jab working on Brandon's face, but that was all. It was not even a good gvm workout and the crowd an leaving the arena immediately after the first round. The agony lasted for five rounds, when Referee Charlie 8hort announced that unless the fighters actually fought he would stop the fight. In- stead of acting as an incentive to mix things, it proved just the reverse. The sixth was just under way and Montreal was landing a few light blows to the body when Brandon's seconds tossed in the towel. Terry O'Day, local bantam, ecar- ried Benny Jukes of Panama, a fly- weight, through six rounds of fast boxing. Jukes was fast and po: quite a punch for a little man, but O'Day’s speed and expegience was too great a handicap. K. O. Thomas in an exchange of body blows landed a low one on Jack Kinney of Howard University in the first round and the latter was awarded the fight on a foul. They are colored heavyweights. Ptomey, erstwhile Fort Myer sol- dier, who has been fighting up around New York and Philadelphia, won the decision from Harry DeVore of Hunt- ington, W, Va., after four rounds of battling. Ptomey looked like a heavyweight alongside of his opponent, but the youthful mountaineer gave him a raftling good bout. Kid Woody, Government Printing Office_middleweight, won the decision over Tiger Rose Carroll of Northeast ‘Washington in four rounds. The bell saved Carroll in the third and fourth rounds. A capacity crowd was on hand for the show. — NAVY NETMEN AHEAD. Navy took five straight matches from Patent Office yesterday in the Departmental Tennis League serles. ‘Wood and Wilson were the only Pat. ent Office team to extend a Navy pair to three sets, —the same outstanding W htte Owl 'va_lue, ! The old ballyheo alway. JACK PUT Makes Gr PUT THROUGH MILL IN READYING FOR FIGHT eat Hit With Kearns’ Mother and Is Built' Up by Her Cooking—Farrell Gives Him Firs: Lessons in Finer Poin BY JACK sent it on, or another, 1 scraped the In the meantime I was interested in his request that I get him a fight. | The old spirit of ballyhoo took hold of me again when sending some third or fourth /| turned the t was the opening of my i 3 T went to Tommy Simpson, who was promoting fights across the bay | southpaw punch. in Oakland, and asked him to put on a fellow that I had just taken over, | | a heavyweight Yhat was going to be th “Who is he?” asked Simpson. “Young Jack Dempsey, a great fighter and the next champion.” T | replied with dignity but much of the old confidence. “Young Jack Dempsey. - What, that awkward ham? Young Jack = Dempsey? Why 1 wouldn't you $20 for . " Al Norton kicked his brains| out. He's no| damned good and | he’s no card. Do T look like I've | got sleeping sick- ness? Dempsey? Blows up in two rounds! And since you've tangled up KEARNS. With him, let me = tell you for your own good, he doesn't ‘take it' any| too well. Tender stomach or some- thing."” “I can ses you're just wild about| Dempsey,” I told Simpson. “But wild or no wild, give me the twenty bucks you mentioned and I'll put him on with any man you select.” The facts are, Simpson was fishing around for some man for Willle Meehan, who was going good at the time and beating them all. “I'll put him on with Meehan. You get twenty fish for fighting Willle Meehan and I want to tell you that this punk of yours is in for one aweet whaling. Of course, you'll take him.” Guarantees a Victory. “Take {8 right and guarantes to| whip him. I've got a great fighter, | the next heavyweight champlon of the world, Tl atart the ballyhoo go- | ing and we'll make is a great fight. Remeinber, I guarantes to whip Mee- | centage, I was to get twenty bhucks flat. I shot a wire to Dempsey and told him to hop the next train out of Salt Lake City. I wasn't we sure that I'd ever ses or hear of him after sending the thirty on that hurry touch, But in he walks one day, in the | middle of the greatest baliyheo | fight ever got. The name Dempaey, | “Jack Dempsey,” seemed to fire in- | terest and wa sosn found ourselves | arm and arm with a “sell-out” pros pect, When Dempeey arrived, 1 took him ' it after a time. KEARNS. HEN T got Dempsey’s letter from Salt Lake telling about the kill- | ing of his voung brother and his being up against it one way $30 together he had requested and 1 never was happier than rater along on first orts. rick for me, and I decided that here e next world champion, aver to Oakland to have him fed by the greatest Irish cook in = land, my own mother! She to: < a |liking to Dempsey right off the reel, | |and he was -her pet from then on When he commenced to get some home cooking into him, he began to fill ont and take on weight. You could see him grow overnight. I had a little gymnasium rigged up at my mother’s place and 1 put Marty Far- rell to work on Dempsev. Marty was a great boxer, one of the claverest I've ever known. Experts have wondered where Dempsey got his weaving and bobbing style. Marty Farrell is th answer! He taught him every mov of the style that won a world title for Dempsey. It was that ‘weaving that licked Willard. Farrell was a great teacher and Dempsey a perfect sponge when it came to absorbing instructions. Shows Speedy Improvement, T began to like Dempsey for his knaek of picking things up as quickly as they were told him and because of the fact that he never forgot what he had been told—at least not in the um. Besides Farrel, I got Red Watson, Jimmy Duffy and several others to box with him and he im- proved steadily. He seemed to have stuff in the workouts, but I was ;onderlng how he would go in the ng. Gradually 1 had coached him out of his old style into the new, weaving, bobbing method. When he first put up his hands he was one of the old stand-up-stralght boys: you meck me and I'll sock you. T knew all about the stupldity of this style and drummed It into Dempsey, He had been stopping them with his pan. Norten had broken hissnose and gave him the little pug beak that the doctors had to make ever in Helly- wood. 1 began to work on a left heek for him, He was strietly a right- hander, regardless of statements that recently appeared under Dempsey’s signature, T put the use of the left hook to werds and music for him. morning, noon and night, He didn't get a rest on that subject. 1 had been a good left-hooker myself, and learned all about it from Dal Hawkins, the best with that punch that ever lived. Was a Free Hitter. Dempsey’s fault, being a free hitter, was to fall back on that right. That's In two weeks 1 had him forgetting that he ever jad a right. From a right-hand fighte® who ILLIONS of White Owl smokers enthusiastically acclaim the use of tobacco "from the sweetest-tasting crop in years as the supreme achievement in cigar value. They are now finding extra satisfaction through the recent tax reduction which enables us to give but, now, at 3 for 20 cents. up | the HARTFORD. Rock Isfand, 1 Lake City (10). ¢ Palum, Salt Lmil Paluso defeated Ruby Bradley I voke, Erwin Bige, Omaha, knocked omt Joe Tivlye Philadelphia (1), s MILWAUKE: waukee. beat I Joey Sangor, Mil ry Lenard, Chicago (10). Moran Bentz outpointed Bills | Besch (4). Jackie Nichols defeatad Don David, Chicazo (6). | INDIANAPOLIS.—Roy Wallace, In dianapolis. outpointed Tommy Burns Detroit (19). Ray Hahn, Indianapolis | beat. Pat Daly, Cincinnati (10, DENVER. — “One - Step” Watsgn, Omaha, middleweight, knocked gut Sig Zakshevsky of Milwaukee, Wis ). Jack Kane, Chicago, lizhtwelght. won a decision’ over.Jack Hurley-rl Tulsa " was more wrestler. than fighter '1 groomed him until he had a perfect)s timed left, and he began to knock eadh sparring partner endto with thét After a week or 5o of home cook | and careful coaching. he was a diff ent Dempsey. He was perfecting te {weaving stvle until even Farrgll [ collan't lay a glove on him. He was taking on weight and his open-air life had brought new color to his faces Having perfected his boxing from the weaving inside of it, I began fo pound into Dempsey’s head the i {portance of shortening his_punches. He was still inclined to swing a litMe | too much. We spent hours sherten | ing up on his punches. We practiced with the left until it was nearer per- fection. He had plenty of steam be- | hind it and I showed him fw roll wvith hie blows s6 as to.get the whole weight. of his body into them. te bright pupil. (Covrright, 1926.) ROSENBERG TO BATTLE | MIDGET SMITH TONIGHT CLEVELAND, July 28 (#).—Char}ie | Rosenberg, world bantamweight chaf- | plon, meets Midget Smith, Chicagoe, jn |a 10.round decision bout, one of three 10-rounders on an all-star card ‘t Taylor - bowl tonight, % As the men have agreed to weight in at 122 pounds, Rosenberg’s title will not be at stake. Eddies Shea, Chicage, meets All toewn John Leonard and K. O, Kaplan, New York, will mix wih Larry Estridge, former negro middle- weight champion, HERMAN HAS TONSILITIS; BOUT WITH CHAPMAN OFF NEW YORK, July 28.—An attack of toneilitis and grip yesterday forced | Babe Herman, Freeport featherweight, to cancel his bout with Red Chapman of Boston, and as a result the boxing | show which was to have taken place | last night at the Queensbero Stadum, Long Island City, was called off. - OBTAINS FIGHT PERMITS; MARLBORO, Md., July Match- maker Heinie Miller of the Kenil- worth arena has been granted permits to stage boxing contests during . Au- | gust and September. —_— | Fatat in fighting, ana he began to ree | RADIATORS, FENDERS | BODIES MADE _AND REPAIRED | NEW RADIATORS FOR AUTOS WITTSTATT'S R. & F.