Is It Better To Grow Up Playing On Clay Courts?

Ah, clay court tennis!

There's nothing like it -- the incredible passing shots from deep in the court, the great drop shots, the huge topspin groundies. All of it together makes for the most exciting and elegant tennis. The French Open is definitely my favourite tournament of the year.

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to play in Chile on beautiful, slow, red clay courts.

What impressed me the most was the beautiful, flowing strokes of some of the young kids. I realized then that growing up on clay leads to the development of heavy top spin strokes, a good kick serve, and usually a good drop shot as well.

Of course, hard court players often have a flatter first serve, better approach shots, especially the backhand slice, and far better volleys. It's an effective game but it lacks the elegance of clay court tennis played on the slowest red clay like in Paris at the French Open.

So, I pose the following question. If you were the director of a national Tennis association in charge of developing the next generation of players, would you choose to train them on clay courts or hard courts? Let's assume that both are available.

For myself, I'd rather see the kids develop on clay with solid groundies, good tactics, good patience, and great footwork.

Later, I'd work with the most promising to develop a big first serve and some volleys.

What about you? Clay court tennis or hard courts?

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Clay Courts or Hard Courts, Here's A Tennis Ebook Guaranteed To Improve Your Tennis Results guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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Nadal's Lefty Inside Out Topspin Forehand

Watch Out For Rafael Nadal's Lefty Inside Out Topspin Forehand At The French Open

The tennis world is abuzz with excitement now that Roger Federer has beaten Rafael Nadal on clay --finally. And, just on the eve of the ultimate clay court tournament -- the French Open!

All the Federer fans were shivering with exctasy as they watched Rog take apart Nadal 6-0 in the third last week in Hamburg.

But, I'm warning all Fed fans right now -- Beware of Nadal's lefty inside out forehand.

You see, Rafa hadn't lost in three years on clay --that's unbelievable when you think about it. And, when you haven't lost in three years, you start to think that you don't have to do anything special. Just play high percentage tennis and you're bound to win.

Nadal's version of high percentage tennis is to hit heavily topspinned crosscourt forehands to his righty opponents. Well, after three years of getting their hats handed to them, guys are starting to figure Rafa out and they're overplaying his favorite shot. They're anticipating the crosscourt forehand, moving in, taking it early , and returning hard and flat. This pattern is giving Nadal a lot of trouble.

Davydenko almost beat him recently, Hewitt almost beat him, and Federer did beat him.

Well, I'm here to tell you not to get too cocky. Nadal is about to unleash his inside out forehand.

The beauty of Nadal's inside out forehand is that it makes righties ( like Federer, Davydenko, and Hewitt) have to cover the forehand side of the court. They can't cheat as much to the backhand side since at any moment Nadal can unleash that lethal lefty inside out forehand stroke.

Then, when he's pulled them wide to the forehand side, he can pummel them with his crosscourt topspin forehand to their backhand corner. They won't be able to hit it on the rise anymore and then they'll be at Nadal's mercy.

So, look out for Nadal's inside out lefty topspin forehand at the French Open starting tomorrow --the world's greatest clay court tournament.

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Forget About Tennis Lessons, Here's A Tennis Ebook Guaranteed To Improve Your Tennis Results guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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Tennis Tips That Helped Roger Federer Against Nadal

I'll bet any amount of money that Roger Federer was watching the semi-final match between Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal. And, As Hewitt played Nadal surprisingly well, you have to believe that Fed picked up a tennis tip or two to use in the final.

What Tennis Tips Did Fed Pick Up?

Believe it or not, Nadal is starting to become predictable and a lot easier to play against. In the last two weeks he's beaten Davydenko 6-4 in the third, Hewitt 7-5 in the third, and lost yesterday to Fed.

So, we have to ask what tips have the guys picked up.

Well, in my opinion, they're all anticipating that almost every Nadal forehand is going to be crosscourt. And, they know that a lot of Nadal's forehands land short.

They also know that if they let the ball bounce high they won't beat Nadal. So, all the guys are taking the ball very early and flattening it out. As a result they're either hitting clean winners or keeping Nadal on the defensive.

Not only are they winning more points but they're reducing the wear and tear on their bodies by playing further inside the court and having to move less.

Does Nadal have a counterattacking option? Of course he does and I'll give him my unsolicited tennis tips tomorrow.

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies A Tennis Tips Coaching Ebook Guaranteed To Improve Your Tennis Results guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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Federer's Looking For A New Tennis Coach

Any tennis coaches out there looking for a new gig?

While the tennis world might think that Roger Federer is panicking in firing his coach Tony Roche, I think it's creates the greatest opportunity of his career.

Rog hired Roche as his tennis coach because he wanted to improve his attack game and his volleys. And Roche came through big-time. Rog has dominated on hard courts and grass in the last three years.

But Federer is now struggling on clay. And, like many greats in the past like Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, and Boris Becker, Federer is now realizing that clay is a different animal.

My belief is that Federer may have the talent to win on clay but he doesn't have the tactics to compete against great dirtballers like Rafael Nadal.

You can read some of my previous posts about what strategy I would advise Rog to follow if I were his tennis coach.

If Fed is really smart he'll hire a world class clay court tennis coach. And I emphasize clay court tennis coach. maybe someone like Jose Higuera who coached Jim Courier to 2 French Open titles.

Let's go Rog -- If Tiger Woods can switch coaches and revamp his game in mid-career so can you. Get that clay court tennis coach.

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies A Tennis Coaching Ebook Guaranteed To Improve Your Tennis Results guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.

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Winning Tennis At The Interclub Level

It never ceases to amaze me how many tennis matches can be turned from losses into victories by recognizing patterns and matchups and changing things around to take advantage.

Of course, this is the basis of my whole theory of smart tennis and, if you're interested in learning more, then you can click on the image of my tennis book for more info.

Recently, my Sunday night doubles team has been in the league playoffs. My partner and I are playing first doubles. We've won two consecutive matches where we've lost the first set, won a close second, and then blown out the other team in the third set.

Last week we were playing a team that seemed pretty solid. They both had good serves and good returns. In particular, their deuce court returner had a very good two handed backhand return that he could hit inside out. We serve him down the middle and to his body in the first set and he kept hitting good returns.

Their ad side returner was a tall guy with a huge forehand. We obviously tried to get to his backhand but he was running around everything to hit his forehand.

And, since he was tall with good range, he could cover the down the middle serve when we tried to fool him.

We lost the first set and were struggling to hold serve.

To begin the second set I decided to make a few strategic changes. I decided to serve the deuce court returner wide to his firehand with my kick slice serve. This serve slices out wide but also has some topspin so that it bounces high.

The guy could not handle it. He kept ripping the return hard but couldn't keep the ball in play. Whereas on his backhand he took the ball early before it bounced high, on the forehand he let it get up too high and then didn't have the technique to generate enough topspin to keep the ball in play.

He gave us no trouble the rest of the match.

On the ad side, I decided to stand as far wide as I could and to turn my back even further away from the net in my starting serving position. I was determined to get the ball wide to the returner's backhand even if I gave up some disguise and some ability to go down the middle.

Well, this worked like a charm too. I told my partner what was working and he went to the same strategy.

They never made any counter adjustments and we cruised 6-1 in the third.

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies A Tennis Ebook All About Tennis Strategy guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level.

Plus, I've edited some pages on my web site about tennis strategy
tennis mental toughness
tennis playing tips to improve your game

tennis tactics and singles strategies to improve your game
how to play winning tennis

Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.

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