Robert J. Lake

‘They treat me like I’m scum’: Social exclusion and established-outsider relations in a British tennis club

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Lawn Tennis Association introduced numerous policies to remove barriers associated with social exclusion in tennis clubs. Ethnographic research was conducted within one club to analyse the incidence of social exclusion, and consider the success of LTA policies in these regards. Findings suggested the club made structural changes to receive LTA funding, such as removing exclusive membership and clothing restrictions, hiring coaches and establishing school–club links, yet its culture remained almost entirely inaccessible to new members. For analysis, Elias and Scotson’s ‘Established-Outsider Relations’ theoretical framework is applied: to discover who was excluded, how and why, and, to set the outcomes of power struggles between members in the wider social and historical contexts of changing LTA policies.

Gender and Etiquette in British Lawn Tennis 1870–1939: A Case Study of ‘Mixed Doubles’

‘Mixed doubles’ was regarded as the most popular type of lawn tennis game for those preferring the ‘social’ aspects to competition. An analysis of behavioural etiquette in mixed doubles from 1870 to 1939 reveals a considerable amount about shifting gender relations in wider British society. Findings are presented from over 50 textbooks and instructional guides on mixed doubles play published throughout this period in order to answer the following questions: What differences are evident in the ways that men and women were instructed to play mixed doubles? How was the often uneasy balance between male competitiveness and chivalry dealt with in the context of play? What can an analysis of changing fashions of female tennis players and associated behavioural etiquette in mixed doubles tell us about shifting gender relations in wider British society, and what role did these developments play within broader feminist movements?

Stigmatized, Marginalized, Celebrated: Developments in Lawn Tennis Coaching, 1870–1939

This paper examines the numerous changes to the role, influence, professional standards and general social status of coaches and the vocation of coaching in lawn tennis, focusing predominantly on the inter-war years. It was during this time, generally, when lawn tennis clubs became more open and democratic in their memberships, and when elite-level tennis came to embrace more profoundly the ethos of professionalism. As such, the recognized value and esteem of coaches at both levels increased, which led to advances in the vocation of coaching practices across the sport. These developments are analysed in the light of wider social processes, most notably the widespread and influential class struggles of the twentieth century, which characterized taken-for-granted assumptions about how sport should be played and who should play it. The debate between amateurs and professionals is at the heart of developments in coaching, and forms the central issue in this paper. This article commences with an investigation of lawn tennis from the 1870s until the First World War, and then goes on to consider areas of progress with regard to coaching and areas of continuing inequality. The period after the Second World War is discussed briefly, when attitudes toward professionalism softened further in all areas, despite the considerable delay in not initiating ‘open tennis’ until 1968. Testimony from players throughout these eras reveals the fundamental importance of coaching to achieving success amid the continued hypocrisy of adopting professional standards under the veil of being an amateur, or in some cases ‘shamateur’.

Real Tennis and the Civilising Process

This article examines the social significance of Real Tennis among the Western European nobility during its heyday of the sixteenth century. Underpinned theoretically by Norbert Eliass seminal empirical work The Civilising Process, this article seeks to identify the societal preconditions for the emergence of Real Tennis, and provide explanations for its diffusion across Western Europe and subsequent boom in popularity among the nobility. A critique is offered of the current body of literature written on Real Tennis, with an aim to address a general lack of focus on the games ‘social’ elements and how their development is linked with structural changes to the game over the centuries. The article then goes on to examine the ways in which Real Tennis became a symbol of prestige and a tool for social mobility among the increasingly status-competitive royal court nobility. Played during royal festivals, the game provided opportunities for nobles to engage in conspicuous consumption through architectural, clothing and gambling displays; having an entourage in accompaniment to the noble players; and, through the style of play and behavioural control, exhibiting self-restraint and foresight. Overall, an attempt is made to apply Eliass theoretical framework to aid our understanding of the development of Real Tennis, a game that has never been characterised by overt ‘violence’ of the kind examined previously by other sociologists employing an Eliasian framework.

The promises and pitfalls of sex integration in sport and physical culture

Scholars working in the academic field of sport studies have long debated the relationship between modern sport and gender (e.g., Hargreaves and Anderson, 2014; Hargreaves, 1994; Lenskyj, 1986; Messner, 2002). Within this body of work, modern sport forms – along with a great diversity of related activities, including dance, fitness training, physical education, etc. – have consistently been shown to carry meanings relative to the structures of gender prevailing in the wider social settings within which they take place, with patterns of participation and consumption clearly mapping onto gendered ideals. However, rather than simply mirroring such social norms, research suggests that many sporting practices were invented or have been purposefully developed in order to train young men and women in socially-approved gender behaviors to begin with (Cahn 1994; Hargreaves 1994; Theberge, 2000). Thus, much of contemporary physical culture finds its roots in the process which scholars describe as the ‘social construction of gender’; in other words, doing sports and other activities in gender-differentiated ways has long been a means of producing and maintaining difference in the lives of men and women, girls and boys.

Social Class, Etiquette and Behavioural Restraint in British Lawn Tennis, 1870–1939

From the 1870s, lawn tennis developed a code of behavioural etiquette demanding on-court self-restraint, which notably influenced the development of particular playing strokes and styles. This paper explores the sports historical development in Britain from 1870 to 1939, with its main aims: to document the changes in behavioural etiquette and playing style; to consider these interdependent developments in the context of shifting class relations in wider British society; and to examine the social and practical functions etiquette served for players. Evidence suggests that prohibitions against certain playing strokes up until the First World War were indicative of class anxiety among the socially aspirational upper middle classes who controlled lawn tennis, as certain playing styles conveyed seemingly an abhorrent ‘working-class’ competitiveness. Greater inclusion for lower-middle-class players during the inter-war years signalled a trend towards adopting a more ‘professional’ mentality, helping to relax behavioural controls in playing style around the world.

'Managing change' in British tennis 1990-2006: unintended outcomes of LTA talent development policies.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) initiated several policies aimed at developing talent in British tennis, chief of which was the transformation of traditional tennis club cultures to make them more open, accessible and performance-oriented. The 1990s also witnessed other changes that influenced the LTA’s overall position: a shift in emphasis from mass to elite-level provision within wider British sport policy, the introduction of new investment opportunities through the National Lottery, the rise of New Labour, a change in LTA leadership and a swell in LTA investment drawn from Wimbledon profits. This article draws upon Norbert Elias’s Game Models theoretical framework to: i) examine some of the talent development policies introduced by the LTA from the early 1990s onwards; ii) analyse the gradual shifting power relations throughout the late 20th century between the LTA and its affiliated tennis clubs, which came to influence the former’s ability to implement policy; iii) uncover problems that the LTA encountered in delivering policy objectives in tennis clubs; and, iv) analyse the overall unintended and undesired outcomes of these policies for the LTA itself, and for British tennis clubs, coaches and players.

‘Sandwich-Men Parade the Streets’: Conceptualizing Regionalism and the North-South Divide in British Lawn Tennis

Abstract The bulk of tennis historiography has tended to project a Southern-centric image of the sport, through descriptions of its clubs and tournaments, its players, and associations. Both the Lawn Tennis Association and the Wimbledon Championships began and have remained bastions of Southern hegemony, but there existed (and continues to exist) a large and active ‘tennis culture’ in the North that has been overlooked. The aim of this paper is to critically explore the notion of a north-south divide in tennis, commencing from the late nineteenth century to the early post-war period. Comparing both northern and southern regions, including Scotland and Wales, it focuses on the emergence of clubs and tournaments, the attitudes, values and behaviours of players and spectators, and the formation of associations. Evidence suggests the existence of a north-south divide, but one that is qualitatively distinct from that experienced in popular team sports; less a reliance on the construction of Northern sporting heroes, with their concomitant representative personalities and characters, and more a focus on the construction of regional stereotypes of clubs, tournaments and players, and the focus on different values, all set in broader historical contexts of rising and waning fortunes of Northern regions in industry and commerce.

‘Guys don’t whale away at the women’: etiquette and gender relations in contemporary mixed-doubles tennis

Abstract This article examines recent developments in etiquette in contemporary mixed-doubles tennis (MDT), to position different behavioural expectations for men/women in the broader context of shifting gender relations. Content analysis of coaching guides published from the 1960–1980s revealed that historically rooted gender distinctions in terms of court positioning, tactics, and playing roles/expectations were reaffirmed, continuing to undermine and marginalize females yet privilege males based on assumed innate differences in physical attributes. Etiquette norms in this era were compared to those found in the early twenty-first century (2000–2010s), through content analysis of online forums/blogs for recreational and elite-level MDT. It was found that while gendered tactics related to court positioning and playing roles were sustained, an important shift in etiquette norms related to chivalry occurred, but was not comprehensively accepted among all players. This development was attributed to third-wave feminist challenges to male chivalry, alongside the burgeoning ‘crisis of masculinity’ that increasingly pushed men towards adopting a ‘hybridized masculinity’ to assuage public critiques of hegemonic/orthodox masculinity in sport.

The ‘Ubiquitous Apostle of International Play’, Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves: The Forgotten Internationalist of Lawn Tennis

Abstract In the context of sustained imperial dominance during the late Victorian era, foreigners perceived British playing styles, methods and approaches to lawn tennis as ‘blueprints’ for aspiring players. Those seeking to learn the game were largely dependent on observing skilled performers, however before the mid-1890s, most of the best British players declined to venture to Australasia and America, perceiving the opposition as inferior and their championships unworthy of their participation. Moreover, while British-trained coaching-professionals – widely considered the world’s best – offered instruction in a small number of clubs, they also rarely ventured outside of Europe. Alongside these barriers, the parochial and ethnocentric Lawn Tennis Association was less than proactive in their approaches to fostering international relations. One man, however, Dr Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves, did more for the internationalization of the sport than anyone else during this period, travelling extensively in America, South Africa and Australasia, demonstrating his skills, offering instruction and advising officials. Consequently, he helped develop the sport’s international character, laying the foundations for the Davis Cup, helping to foster Anglo-Australasian and Anglo-American relations, and hastening the development of foreign players, particularly in Australasia. This paper assesses the notable contributions of a player, coach and diplomat who has been largely ignored.