"All Who Are Stars in One Sport Can Excel in Any Other Except Football," Says Bill Tilden

"Any man who is a star in one sport with practice can become an exceptionally good player in any game except football," said William Tilden in a CRIMSON interview yesterday. "Every sport requires a certain handling of the body and instinct which an athlete can soon learn to acquire. Football, however, also requires a rugged physique which is not necessary in games like tennis, squash, and baseball."

"Big Bill" chats with a smoothness and correctness of speech seldom found among people of the sporting world. As one hears him discuss the masters of music and their newly acquired ideas of rhythm, which he uses to explain the tennis stroke, one can not help gaining the feeling that Tilden has travelled extensively and possesses wide information.

"Speaking of tennis," he continued, "every man has a blind spot. You may not believe it, but Johnston's was a low forehand drive which showed up when he became tired." A blind spot, as Tilden explains it, is a mechanical defect probably acquired when one is learning the game and is never corrected, however hard the player attempts to do so. The reporter asked him if he had a weak point in his game.

"Yes, I have one, but I'm not going to say what it is," said Big Bill laughing. "After all, Vines and Cochet are around."

As for principle of good tennis, Tilden believes the first rule is never give your opponent the shot he likes to play. As a rule in tennis, the man who depends upon headwork will defeat a man who plays by natural instinct alone. When his game is off, he has another resource to fall back upon, whereas the natural athlete has not."

Strangely enough, Tilden does not believe that a man must be at the peak of condition to get the best results. In fact, in his own case the records of his matches show that he has played better when he was not feeling well. As he explains it, he concentrates much better when he is not in the best of health, because he is attempting to finish the match as soon as possible.

"The fastest game in the world, and one of the most interesting is Pelota, the Spanish game," contends Big Bill. "My gawd! Do they sling that ball! If it ever hit anyone it would kill him," he exclaimed. "No, I don't play it," he added. "It is usually all fixed before the game starts."