Wait for it...clay courts for junior development are on the way

I wonder if the rest of the country is seeing the tennis world and specifically the future of US tennis the way I have perceived it the last year or so. To me, it seems as if the country is on the cusp of experiencing a shift in thinking about how we need to develop players. The change of thinking involves using clay courts to develop junior talent.

On the east coast of the US, clay courts have always been part of the makeup of most clubs and most tennis players are familiar with the American, green clay, (which is really a crushed stone) called Har-Tru. This surface facilitates development of a player by providing many different aspects of play that allow a player to develop patience, a variety of shots and strategies, and an understanding of the court and angles to play and win points.

But you know all that already, right? You might, but there are a lot of folks out there who don’t realize how much the type of surface contributes to the type of player you become. If we take the hypothetical example of developing two players; one grows up on clay courts and one grows up on hard courts and all other factors equal, how would the players develop? We may not be able to do this experiment, but I know the clay court player would have a variety of shots and a better sense of balance and movement than our hard court player. How do I know? Because this experiment has been happening since tennis became a world wide sport. Many, if not most of the top players in the world, grew up on clay. If you look at the year end rankings for men since they were kept, 103 made it into the top ten. Of those 103 that made it, 91 of them grew up on clay or spent at least half of their formative years on clay. If you believe that each one of these players received great coaching and had a great desire to win, the surface becomes the variable and an undeniable difference.

I have seen this evidence many times over in the past year. Clay courts are a part of almost every conversation of developing players. At the recent USTA Tennis Teachers Conference, in the opening session with Patrick McEnroe, Darren Cahill, and Brad Gilbert, all three of them mentioned the importance of clay. Other actions such as the hiring of Jose Higueras by the USTA to be in charge of coaching and the statements recorded in various articles all lead to the same fact; clay courts are great for developing talent. One article that explains the trend was in USA Today; it can be found at http://www.usatoday.com/sports/tennis/2008-11-05-USTA-overhaul_N.htm

The best article I have found that explains the concept of developing juniors on clay was published in the Wall Street Journal. That article can be found at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574177702269085642.html

Will the US be able to produce more top players in the future? Will clay courts be a part of that? I hope the answer is yes to both of them. We want to give our players the best chance to compete and learn and clay courts are a big part of that.