5 ways to master clay courts

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, tennis to clay

Apologies, friends, for the rain delay in this week’s newsletter. I am back in Germany and the shock of being home brought me to my knees with a cold so vicious I had to delay Finite Jest by a day. Hardened by years of playing and pausing in London’s “unfortunate weather” (use posh British accent) or Miami’s sudden storm clouds I just made a pot of ginger/lemon tea, wallowed in self-pity and called it a rain delay.

Clay court season is upon us, tennis fanatics of the world! Just because the pro tour is changing surfaces doesn’t mean you have to as well but this is possibly the closest you can feel to the mindset of a real professional: Having a nervous breakdown after assuming you hit a winner but realising we are on clay and nobody hits a winner until permitted. Hey, we can have it all. Even the mindsets of the best in the world.

clay has spoken

If you want to avoid poor Caesar’s fate when it comes to clay as quoted by Shakespeare in Hamlet: “Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, (…)” then I have you covered. Here are the 5 essential virtues you will need to make this obstinate surface work for you. From somebody who has grown up on it and to this day is trying to get the red stains out of their socks.

Technique

When it comes to technique the most important thing on clay is spin. Usually a foreign concept to me, even I would train for weeks before the red dirt season to get a bit more rotation on my groundstrokes. The simplest way to get more rotation on it is to drop the hand just before you hit the ball and then accelerate the wrist to the utmost of your ability up and through. If you only go up the ball will die and land short and you are toast. If you only go through the ball will be flat and land short and you are toast. Spin gives depth and depth pushes the opponent back behind the baseline. Because it is so much harder to hit a winner on clay, you have to position your opponent more accurately on the other side to make some space for those elusive winners. The further back they are, the more angles open up.

clay + right arm muscle = success

One great exercise to improve both spin and depth is to tie a rope about a meter or 3 to 4 feet above the net and when you you go through the motions - warm ups, cross courts, rallies - your task is to hit every single ball above the rope. If you fail to do so, I would suggest you sprint to the net and back because another thing that is a requisite for triumphing on clay is…

Fitness

Ah yes, fitness, my old friend, long time no see. Once we were sisters and now you’ve abandoned me like I was just another broad with a racquet. I don’t need you. I have new friends now. Their names are wine and Netflix and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The baseline rallies will be longer, the sliding is harder than you’d think and you will have fewer free points on serve. So, get your trainers on and head to the woods. Imagine an axe murderer is chasing you and then run, Forrest, run. If your imagination is lacking you can also do the following. On the treadmill or, you know, in the woods: 5 minutes easy warm-up run, then 8 rounds of a 30 second sprint (whatever feels like a sprint to you, go easy on yourself in the beginning) followed by a 30 second walk or slow run. After the 8 rounds, take a two minute break, and then do it again. The goal is to be able to do 3 times of 10 rounds if you’re playing best-of-3, each round simulating a set. It’s not accurate science but part of what fitness does is give you confidence that you can outlast anybody. And if you can master the treadmill, you can master Brad from the public courts. Trust me.

Another important part of the body on clay are the adductors. You will be sliding on most of your shots and if you don’t want to slide straight into the fence and end up with a nice square pattern on your face, you better start working those adductors NOW. They hold the slide, and they also help push you out of the corner and back to the middle of the court (amongst other muscle groups obviously, this is not golf). Lie on your side on the floor and lift your lower leg up and lower it back down just hovering above your mat 10 times, once up on the 10th rep hold for 30 seconds, then do it again. Try as many as you can muster. The rest is up to the gods.

be right back, currently sprinting in the woods

Strategy

Brutal force will not cut it on the clay courts, you will need to use your brain. I know it sounds daunting: Brain? In sports? Come on! But even though you play tennis to switch it off, you will need it. You need it to scan the entire geometry of the court, you need it to gauge where your opponent is, and you need to build and execute a strategy that will win you points. Not all points, but most of them. It may be harder to hit winners on clay but it also gives you more time to observe the situation and make sounder decisions. All is well that ends well! Watch a lot of tennis matches that have good analysts on them to understand strategy and how to build a point. I recommend Jim Courier and Lindsay Davenport, for example.

Utilising the entire geometry of the court means: Implementing drop shots (move your body through the shot to help it go over the net, soft hands), aiming for angles to open space on the other side (short cross courts are your best friend on clay) and don’t forget that if you attempt a serve and volley your opponent has more time to find a spot to pass you on clay. If you try all this and it’s failing because there’s too much chaos and intent in your head for you to properly execute, there’s only one thing to remember. Depth. It’s only a letter away from death and that’s how it will feel like for Brad from the public courts when he plays you the next time on clay. You will win a lot of matches on this surface if you can pair depth with…

Patience

There are people that are patient and there are people that are me. If I can learn to play on clay and be patient, so can you! That’s the good news. The bad news is: Patience is a complicated skill to acquire. If you have kids, I think you’re okay. But if you’re like me, a single canoe floating on an endless ocean of possibility and short attention span, chances are your patience runs thin. Do not despair!

Work out your patience by traveling a lot. Try not to get angry at people wearing track suits on planes or people pushing their elbow on your side of the seat or people standing directly at the baggage claim belt (the worst). Work out your patience by driving your car strictly during rush hour only. Your task is to not yell or punch the driving wheel.

If you’re looking for a more sustainable solution, try walking down 5th Avenue in New York just before Christmas. That’s the final boss. When they said if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere they had 5th Avenue before Christmas in mind.

Remember the time when the guy you went on a date with didn’t call for 5 weeks and you still gave him the benefit of the doubt? Exactly. Clay deserves the same amount of that benefit you gave him. Good luck!

this is the face you’ll have on clay if you follow all my tips

Giving up

If you tried it all and nothing worked, if you left your heart and your lung at the net post and Brad still beat you, there’s only one last thing you can do: Give up and move on to grass court season. Don’t beat yourself up over it. It happens to the best of us. Boris Becker never won Roland Garros. Pete Sampras never won Roland Garros. Even king Roger Federer needed Robin Soderling to tackle Rafa’s water bottles to be able to master the red dirt. It can defeat the best of us. Here are other things you can do with clay in case you decided it’s just not for you:

Pottery

Cement

Water filters.

I hope this helps. For more questions regarding clay courts I trustily refer you to the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy.

Things that make me happy:

I’m back home and that makes me tremendously happy although I do miss New York already. Don’t wait up, old wife. I’ll be back soon!

Things that make me unhappy:

I’ve been watching White Lotus like all the other self-respecting individuals with access to Max but just a couple of days before the final episode I have left the US and will have to wait until I’m back to watch it. This will be me in the next few weeks trying to avoid spoilers on the Internet:

I hope this finds you well and in the right headspace for clay court season, whether it is to play in it or watch it. I sure am ready for it. May you read a good book this week, maybe something with a fantastical being in it! I will see you soon.

Yours truly, Andrea