Nadal - Under The Bonnet Of The Clay Court Master

With all the many motoring analogies flying around these days when people are talking about the great tennis players not only of today but in the past, I thought I would take this opportunity to look at a few of the important elements that go to make up the modern clay court genius that is Rafa Nadal.

After his 3 set demolition of the tennis "Rolls Royce" Roger Federer, which left everybody in awe not only about Federer's lack of ability to hurt Nadal but also Nadals untouchable performance, I thought I would wheel Nadal into the "garage", open him up and take a look under the hood to see what we could find.

In The Garage

Ok first impressions are a well proportioned yet streamlined body kit which gives him the ability to generate power yet is aerodynamic enough to get around the track (court) time after time.

But let's put him on a ramp to start our inspection at the bottom. Let's look from the ground up to see what the secret ingredients are to his success.

The first thing to notice is the choice of axle and wheels. He has a wide axle and wider than average tyres with a low profile that enables him to have great traction without sacrificing manoeuvrability. He is of course a 4 wheel drive with independent suspension which is essential for success on "the dirt" of the clay courts.

But what does that mean for you?

Well, because all of the great tennis players are built from the ground up, that is exactly what you need to be paying attention to when looking for clues and tips to improve your game - so start with your feet and how you can improve how they work.

The ability to get to lots of balls in a great position to hit great shots is crucial. Too close or too far from the ball and you will have no power and a lack of control and because Nadal (and you) will have to hit shot after shot, the ability to stay low (for good balance) and come out of your shot under control and move to the next shot (under control) is of the highest priority.

Added to that is the fact that moving on clay is harder because it moves underneath you causing you to slide, so you have to learn how to retain your balance in and out of slides to the ball whilst keeping your footwork in check for maximal position.

This is why Nadal has done, still does and why you should do lots of on and off court drills without hitting balls.

Drills that force you to learn how to remain balanced, move your feet quickly and also to move all over the court to get to balls or cones etc in patterns that are similar to those you may come across when you play.

It doesn't matter whether you do them on clay or not or even if you play on clay or not. Whatever surface you play on, you can improve your play significantly by introducing this type of practise into your routine.

Think of it like learning new words.

If you can increase the amount of words you know and use, then it won't matter what situation you find yourself in as you will have more words at your disposal to cope. This is exactly why small children find it harder to communicate well - they don't have many words to choose from!

It's the same with your footwork & movement. The more you can increase your "movement vocabulary", the more likely you will be to cope with whatever situation presents itself on the court and is why Nadal is a fluent multi-linguistic wizard (so to speak - no pun intended).

So that's it for the bottom of the Nadal-mobile, in the next segment we'll move up to look with a bit more detail at the engine to see what we can learn there.