If you do not happen to have steel-pointed shoes with you, and are called upon to play in the wet, it is a good plan to wear a pair of men’s thick shooting stockings or socks over your tennis shoes.  It is wonderful what a firm grip they give without in any way impeding your movements.

I find, after having tried nearly every sort of shoe for tennis, that the simple white gymnasium shoe suits me best.  Most players use a proper tennis shoe or boot with a thick sole.  I have tried these, but find they make me much slower in court and are not as comfortable as the “gym” shoe.  Some people say the thicker sole is less tiring to the feet, but I find I am much less foot-weary after a match when playing in the thin shoe—­there is less weight to carry about.  Of course thin soles soon wear through, but then they have the advantage of being very cheap.  I pay half a crown a pair for mine, and one can have several pairs in use and can always replace them without any great expense.

I think it is best, if you can, to play without any hat at all.  There is not the bother of keeping it on, and it is much cooler.  Nor is it easy to find a suitable hat for lawn tennis.  A girl’s hair is generally a good safeguard against sunstroke.  A long warm coat is a very necessary article of wearing apparel, especially for girls who are playing in tournaments.  It should be put on immediately after a strenuous match, however hot the day.  There is the great danger when overheated of contracting a chill.  The coat should be of a thick warm material—­blanket is very popular and serviceable—­and it should reach to the end of your skirt, if not beyond.

I do not think it is wise to wear bracelets when playing unless they are plain and tight to the wrist.  Although you might not think it, ornaments, however small, can and do get in your way.  I remember one match that was entirely lost because of the presence of a gold curb bracelet with a small dangling chain attached.  Putting up her hand to adjust a hairpin, the owner did not know that the chain had caught on to her fringe-net, and, bringing her hand down quickly, the fringe-net and most of the hairpins were dragged from her hair.  The result was that the player, who might easily have left the court and fixed up her hair again firmly, adjusted it as best she could, her hair blowing about in all directions.  In between every stroke she had to clutch wildly at stray portions that blew across her face and into her eyes.  This diversion naturally upset her game, and I think that was the last time she wore a bracelet in court.

Training for match play is rather a difficult subject for me to write about, for I have never gone in for proper “training.”  The great secret is to keep perennially fit.  Remember that an important match is a great strain, a challenging test of stamina.  To come through the ordeal successfully you must be in a good condition of health.  If you are not, you ought not to be playing.  Personally