TENNIS JOURNEY
Tennis Journey is a website dedicated to the player’s perspective in his/ her development in the game of tennis. On these web pages Jim Bill endeavors to communicate about the process of gaining technical skills and strategic/tactical knowledge. This website relates the story of his personal journey to reach higher skill levels in the game of tennis via his writing on: 1) instructional lessons,
2) conversations on strategy, 3) practice sessions and 4) matches played.
Jim Bill is a 62 year old man who used to play tennis in his youth and into his twenties, but then virtually stopped for the next thirty years. Two and a half years ago Jim fell victim to an addiction with tennis as a result of his son taking some local area recreation tennis lessons. All of a sudden Jim was once again playing tennis, but this time with a specific purpose.
Jim realized there was a challenge and a personal goal left unfulfilled in his life with respect to the game of tennis. When Jim played for the high school tennis team and in some local tennis tournaments in the 60’s he had a habit of choking in matches and losing. He found the mental game very tough. It was this challenge of wanting to master the mental game that drew Jim back into the game at this latter stage in his life.
Private lessons the past two years have propelled Jim forward to reshape his game with modern technique. Fortunately, Jim has had the good fortune to find an excellent coach and mentor in Eldon Wilson. It has been through Eldon’s instruction and encouragement that Jim Bill has steadily been improving and learning to play an all court strategy. Eldon has also encouraged the constant analysis of matches through writing in hopes of stimulating and speeding along the learning process. These are the writings that are presented on this website.
Jim Bill began his journey at an NTRP rating of a high 3.0. Presently he is close to reaching a low 4.0 rating. His long term goal is to possibly reach a 4.5 rating.
It is hoped that other persons who play tennis will find interest in what is being written on these pages and will want to respond. All comments are welcomed.
SOME OTHER INFORMATION
When Jim Bill played tennis in the 60’s and 70’s he used a continental grip on his forehand stroke and hit relatively flat. He presently uses an eastern forehand grip to produce topspin, but is in the process of moving more toward a semi-western grip which will be more versatile and add power to his forehand stroke. He has also modified his 1st serve grip from an eastern backhand grip to a continental grip in order to hit this serve flatter. He uses the eastern backhand grip for his spin and kick serves. The kick or American Twist serve is one that Jim has worked hard on and has successfully added to his repertoire. Jim has also changed from hitting his forehand with a closed stance to a semi-open stance. Another significant change Jim has made is to switch to a two-handed backhand.
*** The players’ names (the opponents in Jim Bill’s matches) mentioned in these writings have been changed to protect the identity of those individuals.