When people mention clay and hard courts, they can tell they are completely different at first glance. The entire style, type, and playing style are all obviously different.
Even a layman who knows nothing about tennis can draw different conclusions from the most basic physical principles by looking at the materials of the two courts.
However, when people mention grass and hard ground, they are somewhat ambiguous, somewhat similar yet different, seemingly simple but actually complex.
It’s hard to describe in one word.
Of course, the differences exist objectively. After all, the materials of the stadium are still different. Just like football, playing on grass is different from playing on concrete——
Among the three types of venues, grass has the lowest bounce, the fastest ball speed, the least friction, and the weakest spin. Overall, this is the fastest venue; but in terms of play and tactics, it is not that different from hard courts.
No, if we must talk about adjustments, there seems to be no need to be so solemn about it.
Serve plus forehand, speed plus power, isn’t that what it’s all about?
If you think so, you are totally wrong. You will know that you are a layman as soon as you hear it.
No advice is needed, all the players need to experience for themselves is to know that if the hard court playing method is applied to the grass, they will definitely lose miserably. Players have already tried the method before and after them - and more than one, one or two fell to the ground with bruises and swollen faces.
Pay for your ignorance with every loss.
A little tip:
Once upon a time, grass was recognized as the venue with the fastest ball speed; but now, at the end of the year, indoor hard courts have completely overtaken grass, and the speed has risen to a higher level; later, some players even believed that the speed of the ball at the US Open has exceeded that of grass, which also caused
Hot discussion among professional players——
So, has the ball speed on grass slowed down, or has the friction on fast hard surfaces continued to decrease under the influence of modern technology, causing the ball speed to increase?
The knowledge this prompt brings is:
Grass isn't just about friction and speed.
In fact, taking Wimbledon as an example, the setting up of the venue every year, from grass seed to cultivation to care, all requires professional work. If the grass seed is changed, experiments and research are also required; if the length and thickness of the lawn
Changes will also have an impact on batting.
Over the years, Wimbledon's own ball speed has also been changing, some years it is faster, some years it is slower; some years the friction decreases, causing slippage on the soles of the feet, and the number and frequency of players falling increases, and some years the friction increases.
As a result, the bounce rules of batting have changed relatively.
In other words, on hard courts, the overall performance is stable on average with small fluctuations; on red soil, there are variables all the time; and on grass, it is somewhere in between, even closer to red soil. Because of the lawn, the fluctuation value is always the same.
Objective existence, speed is just an appearance.
If we only look at the difference between grass and hard surfaces based on the difference in ball speed, it is not only biased, but also superficial.
So, what’s going on with the grass?
What should I do if I don’t need to switch my playing style like clay court, but I can’t continue to stick to the hard court playing style?
Or does Wimbledon have an official guide to explain it?
"It seems simple but is actually complex", this is the best way to describe grass.
For a long time, considering that the grassland season is only a short month, many players choose to be lazy and rely on practice and competition. Anyway, it is only one month, usually two events, and at most three events. If you spend time specifically on grassland
Starting training is really a bit of a luxury.
Those low-ranking players cannot even hire a coach, let alone find a coach specifically for grass; but the same is true for many high-ranking players, who often do not train specifically for the grass season and rely on their own talents and abilities to complete the game. It seems that
It's enough.
However, after experiencing painful lessons, players realized that if they just prepared to muddle along, then there would be no problem. Grass and hard courts do have many similarities, and they do not need to drastically change their games like clay courts to deal with the No. 1 player in Wimbledon.
There are no problems at all during the weekly tournament.
But if you want to go further, try to break into the second week of Wimbledon, or even compete with top players, then relying on yourself is far from enough.
However, the grassland season only lasts for one month, and hiring a full-time professional coach to carry out training seems too labor-intensive, and it is difficult to be directly proportional to the investment and harvest.
Later, the top 50 and 30 top players in the world summed up their experience and chose to hire a "special guest coach" in June:
The coach followed him for a short period of one month and was responsible for the grass court season, giving professional advice on grass and making some detailed adjustments within his own tactical framework and playing style, hoping to improve his competitiveness at Wimbledon.
Then Wimbledon ends and the cooperation ends.
Facts have proved that this is wise and also very necessary.
So, what is the special thing about grass?
From a purely technical analysis, the difference between grass and hard ground is indeed not as different as imagined. The real difference between the two is not speed or friction, but -
bounce.
Of course, there are slight differences in details such as speed, friction, force, movement, rotation, etc., but the essential difference is still in the bounce.
On the grass, the height of the rebound of a tennis ball is very low, very, very low; from a physical perspective, you can see it more clearly:
Assuming that under the same incident angle, the difference in refraction angle will also determine the position of the tennis ball rushing to the player. Among them, the refraction angle is the largest on clay, followed by hard ground, and the smallest on grass.
In other words, the same serve/hit may bounce towards the player's shoulders on clay; on hard courts, it may bounce towards the player's chest; on grass, it may bounce directly towards the player's knees to thighs.
Position rebound.
Among the basic technical movements of tennis, the most comfortable position for forehand and backhand hitting is from the chest to the waist. It is conceivable that hard courts are the most comfortable and simplest for players, and they often can be completed without adaptation.
Hitting the ball; also because of this, when a player encounters Nadal, faced with strong topspin, he suddenly has to hit the ball at the shoulder position, and the discomfort is particularly strong.
On clay, despite the high refraction angle, there are now more and more hard-court players. There is basically no rotation when hitting the ball, and the characteristics of clay cannot be fully utilized. Therefore, the rebound height often does not reach the shoulder position. So when adapting to clay,
Footwork is more important than hitting point.
Grass is different. When players implement hard-court tactics and pursue power and speed, the impact of the court is very direct, and the refraction angle is very low. At the same time, the greater the power, the faster the speed, and the rhythm of the tennis ball hitting the player's knee is
The faster you go, the harder it becomes to hit the ball.
Similarly, it is precisely because of the low refraction angle that the direct impact of speed, power, and friction is more obvious, and the time of foot movement is compressed, and the entire reaction time is compressed. It is not just an increase in court speed, but also the final effect it brings to the players.