Real tennis is the original racket sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended. I used to play this at school and it beats the hell out of lawn tennis! Henry VIII loved the game and he played regularly at Hampton Court. His second wife Anne Boleyn was watching a game of real tennis at Hampton Court when she was arrested. It is also claimed that Henry was playing real tennis when news was brought to him of her execution.
Real Tennis the rackets are wooden and oddly shaped, and the balls are hand-made and don't bounce as much as lawn tennis balls. There is no standard design for a Real Tennis court, but the following video gives a 3D overview of a typical Real Tennis court:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nz1MifEEfg Some courts that are built on the coast have holes in the walls - if the ball is hit through them it will end up in the sea!
The rules are far more complex than those in lawn tennis and you can hit the ball off any surface - wall, roof (called a penthouse), buttress (tambour). You can only serve from one side. The receiving player must get the ball to double bounce on the serving side if he wishes to serve. This is called a 'chase'. The value of the chase is determined by where the second bounce lands - a player aims to get the second bounce as close to the end of the court as possible. At the end of a game, if the receiving player has secured a chase the players will swap ends and he will have a chance to defend his chase by serving. In order to win the point the receiving player must get the second bounce to land behind the chase line. There are also a number of galleries around the court - hitting the ball into some of these galleries will win you the point, others will give you a chase. For more detail see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_tennis#Manner_of_playhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_tennis
5 Comments
loorissays...Seems intresting, funnier than the horrible modern tennis, but this video is boring.
gwaansays...It's a game that is never televised so it's hard finding footage of it - but some of the shots in this clip are really quite good!
dagsays...Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)
Interesting, I have heard of this - but thought it was played on grass. Kind of gives you an idea how badminton evolved.
jonnysays...*blocked
siftbotsays...This video has been flagged as having an embed that is Region Blocked to not function in certain geographical locations - declared blocked by jonny.
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