June 24, 2015
Getting to Know: Lele Forood, Stanford University Head Women’s Tennis Coach
Lele Forood was the 2003 National Coach of the Year and has led the team to 6 National Championship Team Titles. She is a four-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year, and former All-American Stanford player ranked in the world's top 40 in singles and doubles. We sat down with Coach Forood recently to chat about her experience with camps.
How many years have you been directing camp?
This will be my 15th year of directing Nike camp at Stanford! I also worked on the staff here for a few years as well!! It’s always great to meet new campers and really fun to see returning campers year after year grow up in front of our eyes and develop their tennis games!
Favorite camp drill and why?
Well I run the ball machine courts every year and I love the repetition factor of improving a stroke on the machines. The machines have really changed over the 15 years with the ability to change each shot now. We always love to finish each rotation with the “scramble” drill which is the machine on “random” and each camper trying to cover the court and hit all of the shots back safely. It’s always everyone’s most fun drill!!
Why did you get in to coaching?
I started teaching tennis at 15 when I got to work at Frank Brennan’s Tennis camp in Pennsylvania. He was/is my coach growing up and my boss for 12 years at Stanford. He taught me so much about playing and about coaching and I always loved to teach people how to play and improve, even when they were older than me in my early years!!
What’s in your bag?
I use the Wilson Blade, which I love!!!! I am not particular to strings really. I am currently playing in the Nike Zoom Cage 2 shoes, which are really great!
I always have bubble gum (Bubblicious, which I chew when we are playing Stanford matches), kind of like a baseball manager does!!!!
You can be heard saying ….
MANAGE YOUR GAME. THIS IS WHAT I TELL MY TEAM AS WELL!!!!!
If you could “borrow” one stroke from a current pro player, who would it be and why?
Fed’s backhand or forehand for that matter!! Serena’s serve for sure
Go-to Nike product/gear?
The “soccer sandals” with Velcro top are my go to’s off the court.
Come join the fun and getter better this summer at Stanford University! For more information, click here https://www.ussportscamps.com/tennis/nike/stanford-university-nike-tennis-camp-lele-forood