Chapter 1500 Key
When people talk about clay and hard court, they can tell at a glance that there is a world of difference. The entire style, type, and playing method are all obviously different.
Even a layman who knows nothing about tennis can draw conclusions about the differences based on the most basic physical principles by looking at the materials of the two courts.
However, when people talk about grass and hard court, the topic becomes ambiguous and vague. They are similar yet different, seemingly simple yet actually complex.
It’s hard to put it into words.
Of course, there are objective differences. After all, the materials of the courts are different. Just like football, playing on grass is different from playing on concrete.
Among the three types of surfaces, grass has the lowest bounce, the fastest ball speed, the least friction, and the weakest rotation. Overall, this is the fastest surface; but in terms of playing tactics, it is not that much different from hard court. If adjustments must be made, it seems unnecessary to be so serious.
Serve plus forehand, speed plus power, isn't that all there is?
If you think so, you are totally wrong. You can tell you are a layman just by listening to him.
There is no need for advice. Players only need to experience it themselves to know that if the hard court playing style is applied on grass, it will definitely lead to a bad loss. Some players have tried it before - and more than one, one or two of them have been beaten black and blue, and paid the price for their ignorance with one defeat after another.
A little tip:
Grass was once recognized as the fastest court. But now, the indoor hard court at the end of the year has surpassed the grass court and the speed has risen to a higher level. Later, some players even believed that the court speed of the US Open has surpassed the grass court, which has also caused heated discussions among professional players.
So, is it that the ball speed on the grass has slowed down, or is it that the friction of fast hard courts has continued to decrease due to the influence of modern technology, causing the ball speed to increase?
The lesson learned from this tip is that grass is not just about friction and speed.
In fact, taking Wimbledon as an example, the setting up of the venue every year, from grass seeds to cultivation to care, all requires the work of professionals. If the grass seeds are changed, experiments and research are also required; if the length and thickness of the lawn change, it will also affect the shot.
Over the years, the speed of the ball at Wimbledon has been constantly changing, some years it has been faster, some years it has been slower; some years the friction has decreased, causing the soles of the feet to slip, and the number and frequency of players falling have increased, while some years the friction has increased, so that the bouncing rules of the ball have changed relatively.
In other words, the overall performance of hard court is average and stable, with small fluctuations; on clay court, there are variables at all times; and on grass court, it is between the two, or even closer to clay court, because of the grass court, the fluctuation value always exists objectively, and speed is just an appearance.
If we only look at the difference between grass and hard courts based on the difference in ball speed, it is not only biased but also superficial.
So, what is the deal with grass?
What if you don't need to switch your playing style like on clay, but you can't stick to hard courts? Or does Wimbledon have an official guide to explain it? "It looks simple, but it's actually complicated" is the best way to describe grass.
For a long time, considering that the grass court season is only a month long, many players have chosen to be lazy and rely on practice and competition to learn their way around. After all, it's only a month, with two or at most three events. It's really a luxury to spend time specifically training for grass courts.
Those low-ranked players cannot even hire a coach, let alone find a coach specifically for grass courts; but the same is true for many high-ranked players, who often do not train specifically for the grass court season, and it seems that it is enough to rely on their own talent and ability to complete the game.
However, after experiencing painful lessons, the players realized that if they just prepared perfunctorily, then there would be no problem. Grass and hard courts do have many similarities, and there is no need to drastically change their games like on clay. There will be no problem in coping with the first week of Wimbledon.
But if you want to go further, try to break into the second week of Wimbledon, or even compete against top players, then relying on yourself is far from enough.
However, the grass court season is only a month long, and hiring a full-time professional coach to start training would seem like too much of a fuss, and the investment would hardly be proportional to the results.
Later, the top players ranked in the top 50 and top 30 in the world summed up their experience and chose to hire a "special guest coach" in June: this coach would follow them for a short month, be responsible for the grass season, give professional advice on the grass, and make some detail adjustments within their own tactical framework and playing style, hoping to improve their competitiveness at Wimbledon, and then end the cooperation when Wimbledon ends.
This has proven to be both wise and necessary.
So, what is so special about grass? From a purely technical perspective, the difference between grass and hard courts is not as great as one might imagine. The real difference between the two is not in speed or friction, but in:
bounce.
Of course, there are slight differences in speed, friction, force, movement, rotation, etc., but the essential difference lies in the bounce.
On the grass, the height to which a tennis ball bounces after landing is very low, very, very low; from a physical perspective, it can be seen more clearly: assuming that the angle of incidence is the same, the difference in refraction angle will also determine the position of the tennis ball towards the player. Among them, the refraction angle of clay is the largest, followed by hard court, and the smallest is grass.
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That is to say, the same serve/shot may bounce towards the player's shoulders on clay, towards the player's chest on hard court, and directly towards the player's knees to thighs on grass.
In 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 do not need to adapt or adjust to complete the hitting. For this reason, when players encounter Nadal, facing strong topspin, they suddenly have to hit the ball at the shoulder position, and the discomfort is particularly strong.
On clay, although the refraction angle is high, there are more and more hard court players now, and there is basically no rotation when hitting the ball, which cannot fully utilize the characteristics of clay. Therefore, the rebound height often does not reach the shoulder position. Therefore, when adapting to clay, footwork movement is more important than the hitting point.
It is different on grass. When players execute 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 and the faster the speed, the faster the rhythm of the tennis ball hitting the player's knees, and the difficulty of hitting the ball increases sharply.
Similarly, it is precisely because of the low refraction angle that the direct impact of speed, force, and friction is more obvious, and the time for foot movement is compressed. The entire reaction time is compressed, not only the speed of the court is increased, but the direct perception/illusion brought to the players is:
“So fast.”
(End of this chapter)