Hard Court vs Clay Court

Many of the great players came from the American hard courts. Often this was due to their learning to play an attacking game. The true and fast bounces combined with the firm footing allowed for building powerful groundstrokes and serves as well as point ending volleys and

One strategy on hard courts is to hit deep groundstrokes until you get a short ball which you hit deep and follow to the net where you can end the point with an angled volley.

Another is to serve and move forward looking for a ball to volley. Another is to attack your opponent’s short shot either by hitting a winner or moving in toward the net.

In the past North Americans played on hard courts (asphalt or cement) whereas Europeans and South Americans played on clay. There are clay courts in the U.S. But they are usually green and very different from the red clay/ The red clay is very dusty and slippery.

The biggest problem for hard court players is stopping on a clay court. On a hard court when you want to stop you plant your outside foot and you will stop moving to the side or you plant both feet and you stop moving forward. In both cases on a red clay court you will slide before coming to a stop. The reason for stopping is to change direction. On a clay court if you want to stop, hit the ball, then move to the center, you must slide to a stop first. This takes a lot of practice. If you are serving and volleying, you may as well forget about the split step and run to where you think the receiver is returning the ball.

Another problem is the bad bounces. Every time you slide you leave a hole in the clay.When the ball hits the hole the ball bounces funny. An experienced clay court player will smooth it out before the next point.