Will Hamilton

Some Advanced Concepts when Learning How to Play Tennis

When learning how to play tennis, some factors outside your control can affect the style of game you develop.

When learning how to play tennis, the surface you spend most of the time playing on can affect what kind of player you turn into.  That is because the tennis ball bounces differently from surface to surface.

There are three major tennis court surfaces: clay, hard, and grass.  I’m going to ignore grass because players rarely “grow up” on that surface.

Clay courts are the slowest type of tennis court.  They are, of course, made out of clay.  This makes it a clay court softer than a hard court, which is essentially made out of concrete.  The soft clay slows the ball down significantly when it bounces.  Also, because the ball “digs into” the clay a little bit when it lands, it bounces higher up than it would on a hard surface.

Hard courts are typically made out of concrete and some other materials (there are several types of hard courts).  They are faster than clay courts because the surface is slicker and the ball doesn’t dig in when it bounces.  This latter fact means the ball doesn’t bounce quite as high on a hard court.

This is somewhat of a simplification, but based on the discussion above you can safely assume the following: clay means slower ball, higher bounce; hard means faster ball, lower bounce.

Now how, exactly, can learning how to play tennis on one surface or the other influence your style of play?  Because clay courts slow the ball down and cause it to sit up (bounce up) more, that surface rewards consistency over aggression.  It is normally harder to hit a winner on a clay court than any other surface because it takes more power to get the ball by your opponent.  That means that players who learn to play tennis on clay will probably develop a “baseliner’s game.”  They will stand several feet behind the baseline and keep the ball in, waiting for their opponent to make a mistake.

For comparison’s sake, on a hard court the ball maintains its speed better when it bounces.  That makes it easier to get the ball by your opponent.  It also means you won’t be able to get to as many balls as you would on a clay court.  Therefore, keeping the ball in, at a high level of play, is typically not enough.  You need to be aggressive – take it to your opponent, so to speak.

There are other considerations relating to the surface that affect how your game might develop.  However, the factors mentioned above are the major ones.  It may be worth spending a little extra time thinking about what surface you want to learn how to play tennis on.  That being said, if you work hard to develop all the shots, you should be able to transition from one surface to another relatively easily.  In other words, learn to play defense and offense.

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