AboutJim Leupold Expertise I feel very confident answering any questions regarding technical aspects of the game -
from stroke production to strategy. My strengths, because of my extensive training, is
keeping the game very simple, energy-efficient and effective, eliminating injuries and
mistakes at the same time.
Experience I've been the director of tennis and teaching tennis fulltime for 23 years, 21 at one of the top tennis resorts in the US and the world, the Desert Springs JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, CA. I've traveled to 20 countries around the world, playing and teaching tennis and performing comedic and entertaining tennis shows. I work with Peter Burwash International (PBI), a company which trains professionals for 400 hours before the first lesson can be taught. That's compounded by continuing education, including a mandatory 60-hour annual meeting and 360 educational newsletters from PBI professionals received every year.
Organizations Peter Burwas International (PBI), the world's foremost tennis management company with 90 professionals in 20 countries worldwide
Education/Credentials I received a B.A. in Journalism in 1985.
Awards and Honors * Tennis Magazine's Ten Greatest Tennis Resorts - twice
* Tennis Magazine's 50 Greatest Tennis Resorts - every year since 1990
* TennisResortsonline.com - Always in the Top 75 Resorts in the world - always in top 25 and as high as #3.
* PBI Rookie of the Year runnerup
* PBI Most Improved Professional of the Year
* PBI Professional of the Year
* Desert Springs JW Marriott Resort & Spa's Customer Service Manager of the Year
Expert: Jim Leupold Date: 5/28/2008 Subject: tennis beginner
Question hello sir,
m beginner in tennis and m facing lots of problem in following :
1.backhand shots are getting misplaced
2.i m having lots of unforced error as m applying improper force.
please help me out i will be thankfull to you .
thanking you,
Satyajeet
India
Answer Dear Sayajeet,
Thanks for submitting your questions:
1. Your backhand shots are not getting misplaced...you're misplacing them! Here's the best and worst news about your volleys and groundstrokes: The ball is going to go wherever your strings are pointed when you make contact.
When you're swinging on forehands and backhands, make sure that you're focusing on the most important part of the swing, the middle part - the contact area. The backswing is for power, and the follow-through is for injury prevention. Those parts of the swing might be very different from swing to swing, depending on how fast the ball is coming to you, how fast you want to hit back, where you are on the court, etc.
Begin to focus on the contact area - as you hit your groundstrokes, picture yourself hitting in a long straight line - in whatever direction you want the ball to go. You can play mini-tennis from the service line and hit without any backswing or follow-through, just to get the feel for isolating the most important part of the swing. Then slowly add more backswing and follow through for different shots.
2. The amount of force you give a shot will depend on the size of your swing and how tightly you're holding onto the racquet. The distance the ball will fly is also dependent on whether your racquet face is open (pointing up) or closed (flat or closed down) while you hit. So, just have some fun with it. While you're hitting balls, hold the racquet softly with your bottom 3 fingers and hit the ball softly with a really short swing with an open face. Then close the racquet face inside your hand, grip the racquet a little tighter, take a bigger, faster swing and see what happens to the ball. Hit lobs, drops, short angles, deep shots - mix it up on purpose. If you miss, you miss. Just don't be afraid to experiment.
You'll soon find that just by taking different sized swings, squeezing different amounts and experimenting with different racquet angles that you will begin to have a lot of effect on your groundstrokes. Best of luck.
Jim Leupold
Director of Tennis
Desert Springs, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa
