Pace is the next requisite. It comes to some extent with sheer repetition; but it must also be increased purposely. It must precede endurance and strength. For my own games I begin with no implement at all, so as to preserve freedom; then I use a handle; then the racket. I put speed and freedom and ease next after correctness.
Endurance can almost be left to take care of itself. The oftener one does an exercise correctly and attentively, the less easily tired the muscles will be.
Only one must not practise to excess. Before great fatigue or even before great boredom, the exercise should be stopped or changed. During the interval the newly-learnt movements will be more completely “assimilated.” When the joints are well freed, the movements should be not only fast but also full—that is, complete in both directions, so as to empty out the capillaries of the muscles and allow fresh blood to flow in.
For the sake of economy of energy the unused parts should be loose and relaxed, not tight and tense.
Exercises done thus, with a brisk snap, and a staccatoed 1´—2´, or—for a forward-stroke—oút—báck, are far more valuable than the dull strength-and-strain grinding of many so-called physical culture schools.
These extensions of the muscles should be not simply made and then lost; they should be held for a second or two. This holding of the extreme limit of reach will be a wonderful help for batting, bowling, and fielding. Notice the full extensions in photographs.
The balance is to be recovered promptly or else not lost appreciably.
The different simple movements, thoroughly mastered, should be combined in twos, and then in threes, the complexity being increased gradually, but without the decrease either of correctness or of promptitude.
Strength—the power to lift or push or sustain heavy weights—is to come last of all. The wrist needs considerable strength, but it must not get that strength till after it has speed. Any strain that cramps one and makes one slow is undesirable for the mind as well as for the body.
Faults should be detected by another, or by means of comparison between photographs of experts and one’s self in a looking-glass. Having detected the fault, correct it by concentrating the mind on the part concerned, and then exaggerating the opposite fault. Thus, if you are inclined to send catches in the slips, you are probably playing away to the left rather than straight at the ball. Find out which part of your mechanism is wrong; perhaps the left foot may be moving too much to the left. If so, then correct that by moving it purposely too much to the right. Find the error, and find the reason why it is an error.