An accomplished engineer and business development professional, Stephen M. Timms serves as vice president of strategic programs for International Golden Group in Abu Dhabi. In this role, he has been responsible for forming strategic international partnerships for the firm. In his time away from work, Stephen M. Timms enjoys playing tennis.

Novice players looking to move up to intermediate level play quickly find out that they are going to have to devote time to developing specific aspects of their game in order to compete. For those looking to advance in their rating level, or even recreational players who want to get better, here are two specific areas where players can improve their game.

A key mistake that many tennis players make when they start becoming more competitive is trying to hit their serves as hard as they can. What one gains in velocity, however, is often lost in accuracy when trying to swing at full speed. More accomplished tennis players tend to hit their shots at about 80 percent of maximum effort, which allows them more consistency and to better place the ball.

Advanced tennis players don’t just worry about making a clean stroke, but rather concentrate on their weight distribution and its relationship to swing velocity. Specifically, good players make sure that their weight is always on the back leg before beginning the stroke, ensuring that the force is transferred through the racket to the ball when they bring their weight to bear on the shot. In this, the driving force of a shot isn’t achieved through the arms, but through the back leg.