Clay Court Tennis

Right then.......what's with Clay Court Tennis?

I don't like watching it and I can't imagine any player likes slipping and sliding around on it.

It also looks dangerous......like you could easily pick up an injury.

Do the players like it?

Is Andy any good on it? Who is the best?

What is the appeal of a clay surface as opposed to other surfaces.

These might sound like dumb questions but I'm trying to learn more about the sport so as to enhance my enjoyment of watching it.

thanks

Solerina

Many players like playing on clay, especially those from Spain, and a lot of tennis fans enjoy the clay court season (even if they are not from Spain ).
The best on clay would probably be, though I'm not so sure, but very likely... Rafael Nadal.

And I have a feeling that Nadal and Djokovic particularly like sliding around on clay. Djokovic likes it so much, he does it on the hard surface, too.

As for Murray, let's just say there's room for improvement.

Where is the appeal? In long exciting rallies and dirty socks.

Actually Sol, the clay is quite forgiving to the muscles because of the slide. Its not something you want to slide tackle on, or fall over into but it does give the ankles a nice rest from the hard courts. Its also a good transitional surface to go from Hard to Grass, especially as there is a short space of time between the Clay and the Grass seasons. A few years ago, (quite a few) it was all grass, except the FO, then the USO went to clay for 3 yrs 75/77 ??, but it looks as if the slam surfaces are now the traditional ones they will always use.

I played on clay a few times, the bounce is completely different to grass or hard court and you have to be very careful with your setup when playing a shot, its very easy to stand either too far away or too close, as the ball just doesnt seem to be where it should be. Plus you havent got the springboard effect of changing your direction that you have on Hard or Grass.

Up to the mid 70's, it was the S. Americans that used to come over and win all the trophies and it was a bit of a laugh for them, they specialised on the surface and ran rings around most players who didnt have the experience. That changed when Borg came along. He won the FO + Wimbledon titles 3 times in 78/79/80, which is considered the most difficult two to win in a row.

Green wrote:

As for Murray, let's just say there's room for improvement.

Where is the appeal? In long exciting rallies and dirty socks.

Thanks Green

I hate seeing the players socks getting dirty..........I find it distracting lol.

Yes.....last time I watched Andy on clay he looked far from happy.
I felt sorry for him and, from what I can remember, he seemed to be slipping about rather out of control, with that and seeing his socks getting so dirty it's no wonder I don't like Clay tennis lol

Solerina

Thanks very much Jubbahey.........interesting stuff.

I shall watch Roland Garros, this year, with renewed interest.
I can't possibly see Andy winning his first Slam title there tho'.......what do you think?

I think it must have been one of your posts that someone bumped up for me on MTL.
Have you ever played tennis professionally or been a coach?......you seem to know an awful lot about it.

Hope you're going to stick around on 606v2

Solerina

Played professionally ? I wish, its just a lot of stuff I picked up from 606 and other forums and playing the game as good as I could, which was not good enough most times.

I've had the luxury of playing on all surfaces and my fav is grass.

Clay is good for building up your stamina, I think it is the most demanding of surfaces to play on.

Jubbahey wrote:Played professionally ? I wish, its just a lot of stuff I picked up from 606 and other forums and playing the game as good as I could, which was not good enough most times.

Lol............that's spoiled my illusion.

Playing tennis has never appealed to me.......and in any case I'd hate to do an activity that was so asymmetrical.......it must cause physical problems because of it.


Solerina

I think most sport is asymmetrical if it is reactionary. By which I mean, a sport where the reaction to an opposing players shot is determined by the position off the ball which is moving, unlike snooker, golf etc, where the ball is stationary and the player has time to line up the shot.

Yes, I suppose you could say injuries can/will/might happen, but only if you are unfit or not loose or your muscles are cold (or you're old like me), but if you play within your limits, you shouldn't get too many injuries, or severe ones like the pro's.

I did get tennis elbow once, but that was skimming stones on a beach in Southern Ireland (there were thousands of perfectly flat stones just waiting to be skimmed) and it was the most painful injury I have ever had.

Jubbahey wrote:

I did get tennis elbow once, but that was skimming stones on a beach in Southern Ireland (there were thousands of perfectly flat stones just waiting to be skimmed) and it was the most painful injury I have ever had.

Thanks Jubbahey..............what is it with blokes and skimming stones? lol

Yes.....tennis elbow hurts! I've got a permanently painful elbow which I just have to live with.......I'm hoping it will eventually get better on its own......I've been told to look into steroid injections but I've heard they can make it a whole lot worse.

Solerina

Is it joint or tendon damage Sol ?

I love watching the clay court season, its something completely different, a bit like wimbledon, there are a few players who only ever seem to play well at these specific events as they specialise on the surface.

davidl1061 wrote:I love watching the clay court season, its something completely different, a bit like wimbledon, there are a few players who only ever seem to play well at these specific events as they specialise on the surface.

Hi David,

I didn't realize there was a Clay Court ' season'...........I've got an awful lot to learn about tennis.......it's a very difficult sport to get into when you know as little about it as I do.

The points system gets me........it is soooo complicated to work out......I remember a discussion on the Andy Murray forum......a few of them were having trouble working out Andy's ranking........i.e was he going up or down?
Crumbs... if they couldn't work the points out I decided I'd got no chance lol.

Surely the ranking/points system in tennis is over complicated.......or maybe I'm just thick lol


Solerina

Jubbahey wrote:Is it joint or tendon damage Sol ?

Hi Jubbahey

It's tendon I would have thought........isn't that what tennis elbow is?........ tendonitis.

Do you know anything about this sort of thing then? Is it likely to get better without treatment?

I've had it for about 18 months.

Solerina

Tendonitis is treatable. If you didnt use your arm for a month, at all, and had it in a splint and plaster mould, then maybe it would heal.

For a tennis player, Tennis elbow is chronic, meaning it will never go away, but it is treatable to the extent of alleviating enough pain to make it usable. Same with Nadals knees, only he has had a new treament on them which seems to have "healed" them better than previous treatments.

For you, I would strongly advise going to an approved osteopath, one that you know through contacts is kosher, and he/she will vigorously massage the tendon, it may hurt a little, but the purpose is to generate the healing properties of the body and stimulate repair. Tennis elbow is the separation of the tendon (just a small portion) from the bone, it is normally one of the tendons that keeps the elbow together across the top half of the joint.

For you it is not chronic, unless you leave it too long and keep injuring the same tendon in the same place.

Seriously, get down to your local osteopath, my tennis elbow was so painful, I couldn't lift my arm above my waist and at night it was not comfortable. After my first visit, the pain subsided, there was still soreness but not the excruciating pain. Second visit a week later and again, pain gone with less soreness.

Two weeks later I was fine and it has not bothered me since.

Although I'm a lot more careful now.

Thank you so much for the advice Jubbahey.

Does it have to be an Osteopath?

You see I've been looking for a good Sports Massage Therapist to go to, for ages now, and I think I've found one.
He does Trigger Point Therapy too, do you know what that is and would it help my elbow? I know of him through some friends who run a Natural Healing Centre in my home town ( here on Button Moon lol). I feel he's to be trusted.....but if it has to be an osteopath then I'll start looking.

The thing that worries me most about seeking professional help is that they will probably tell me to stop weight training, I love weight training......it's like a drug, anyone who loves it as much as I do would agree.
Amazingly I can cope with my elbow pain while doing it, some lifting doesn't hurt at all, and I don't think it's making it worse.
Too long on this computer makes it worse, I really try to limit my time on here.

It helps if I massage the area myself, really digging my fingers in, I only do that when it's bad.

A friend at my gym had tennis elbow, she was sent for an MRI scan, the MRI scan cured the tennis elbow!
I suppose it acted like magnet therapy or,maybe, it was just a coincidence.

There's loads of clips on youtube for elbow massage, I've actually subscribed to some of them lol.....I regularly get a new one in my inbox.

Rolling your forum over something is a good one, sort of DIY Myofascial release.....not many people have heard of this therapy.

Getting someone to stand on your arm as you lay on the floor wasn't the best advice, from youtube , as I found out, ouch lol.

Anyway I've taken this thread way off topic so I'd better shut up about my elbow......I'll just say that it used to be so bad that I'd dread going to sleep at night because it would take me about ten minutes to straighten my arm when I woke up. Thankfully it hasn't been that bad for ages.

Thanks again for the advice.......I really appreciate it : )

Solerina

Does it have to be an Osteopath ?

I can only go from my own experience.

The only thing I will say is that the Healing Centre should be able to give you good advice on what course of treatment would be best, my osteopath is part of the Living Centre group and I only learnt from my first visit to him that Osteopaths are more concerned with muscles than bones, yes they can set bones, but most injuries are muscular or tendon, but they obviously need to know how muscles etc connect and work with the skeleton.

Good luck with it though, hope you get it sorted.

PS, digging your fingers in is not bad, its what the osteopath would do, but it does hurt more when someone else does it! :crying:

Is it really off-topic.......I'm sure some of this is useful information to somebody, somewhere. And it is "TENNIS" elbow after all.

Jubbahey wrote:
Good luck with it though, hope you get it sorted.

Thanks Jubbahey : )

Solerina

Jubbahey wrote:Is it really off-topic.......I'm sure some of this is useful information to somebody, somewhere. And it is "TENNIS" elbow after all.

Yes....and it is my thread lol.


Solerina