How wet is too wet to play?

HughJars

HughJars

Banned
When do you decide that its not worthwhile going down the courts to play cos of the rain?

Am scheduled to play tonight, but its been raining off and on all day. Im desperate to play, but the hardcourts will be at least be partially wet.

Im pretty sure the artificial courts will be unplayable and too slippery.

When do you decide thats its too wet to play? Anyone play on wet hardcourts?
 
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HughJars said:
When do you decide that its not worthwhile going down the courts to play cos of the rain?

Am scheduled to play tonight, but its been raining off and on all day. Im desperate to play, but the hardcourts will be at least be partially wet.

Im pretty sure the artificial courts will be unplayable and too slippery.

When do you decide thats its too wet to play? Anyone play on wet hardcourts?
Click to expand...
It rains a lot here in south florida during the hurricane season. But each rain is usually short enough that, with the aid of squeegies and rolling sponges and the sun, the (hard) courts are ready for play again in a fairly short time.

Ready for play means a dry court surface with absolutely no puddles on it. Otherwise it just isn't safe, and to risk injury playing on a wet hard court (even just a little bit wet, whatever that refers to) is never necessary, imo.
 
If the lines are slippery or there are puddles, it's too wet. I will play in mist until a stomp on the line results in a sliding food.
 
During warm-up if I feel any slipping, and the weather does not look like it is changing for the better, I rather not play. Slipping during warm-up means high potential for serious slippage during a match, and it's not worth an injury IMO.
 
Look for puddles on the streets, or wet pavement on the roads. If the roads near the court dried up, you can safely assume the courts are dry enough also.

Tennis courts get extremely hot during the day, can evaporate tons of water, and can absorb a decent amount of water as well. You can also use the elevation, pitch, and surface quality of the court to predict whether or not it had time to dry. I high court, with a flat properly pitched surface will dry extremely quickly.

If you get to the court, and there are no puddles, but it looks wet, just test for slickness. If you slip at all when testing the surface, don't play a competitive match. Friendly rallies, and hitting balls is probably okay.
 
When tennis balls get wet, they loose some of their response as they dry. So, as soon as the court becomes even slightly wet, I stop. With that said, I have some tools to make puddles dry faster, so I tend to play even when people wait for courts to dry on their own.
 
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easy answer.....

when footing becomes slippery or the balls start picking up too much water and get heavy...don't play.
 
HughJars said:
When do you decide that its not worthwhile going down the courts to play cos of the rain?

Am scheduled to play tonight, but its been raining off and on all day. Im desperate to play, but the hardcourts will be at least be partially wet.

Im pretty sure the artificial courts will be unplayable and too slippery.

When do you decide thats its too wet to play? Anyone play on wet hardcourts?
Click to expand...
Snow and sleet excepted when I was a kid I used to play regardless of conditions, wind, rain, 100 degrees, nothing would stop me. :)
 
If you can't find a spot on the court surface where you can place a quarter and not have any of its sides touching a wet spot, then its too wet to play.
 
Play through anything I've played in hail before, definitely don't advise that though. I'd say as soon as you slip on a split step to stop. If you can't move without slipping about 2 feet stop, no point in injuring yourself
 
Once I played with my friend while it was raining hard.
It was not a match so it didn't matter but we were rallying so well so we didn't want to stop. The court has pool of water and the ball was drenched but it was still bouncing.
So, all I can say is you can play as long as the ball bounce and don't rush to get the ball. Watch your steps carefully.
 
Magic of tennis said:
Once I played with my friend while it was raining hard.
It was not a match so it didn't matter but we were rallying so well so we didn't want to stop. The court has pool of water and the ball was drenched but it was still bouncing.
So, all I can say is you can play as long as the ball bounce and don't rush to get the ball. Watch your steps carefully.
Click to expand...
Lol, it is a great way to practice your heavy ball.
 
Hmm. So we ended up playing last night. Turns out it rained everywhere but in the suburb where the courts were, and everything was dry.

We got to one game all in the first set, I played a shot that pushed my mate off the court a bit, but in getting it back he badly sprained his ankle! So early night in the end. And this was in a brand new pair of Nike Zooms (same as Federer wore for the FO) that I got for him for his recent 30th birthday!
 
I played with a buddy one time when the weather was nice. Then it started to rain, really rain, but we were too into the match to stop, so we kept on playing. The storm passed and we kept playing all the way until the court dried. It was fun. We went from light fluffy balls, to water logged balls that hit with the right amount of spin could get in your opponent's eye, to light and fluffy again. I don't remember the score, but I do remember having a lot of fun that day.
 
Why would you want to play when the surface is wet? That messes up the ball and increases the chance of injury if you take a misstep. Don't forget it ruins natural gut!
 
Overdrive said:
Why would you want to play when the surface is wet? That messes up the ball and increases the chance of injury if you take a misstep. Don't forget it ruins natural gut!
Click to expand...

Playing when it is wet forces you to rethink things. Are you going to chase down a shot when you're pulled off the court? Probably not. Are you going to use more spin, more angles and perhaps better tactics? Yep. I've found short angled shots, even drop shots on a wet court can win easy points. Usually your opponent doesn't want to risk injury either so they don't track them down. It's a good time to develop your game and come up with a plan B.
 
thehustler said:
Playing when it is wet forces you to rethink things. Are you going to chase down a shot when you're pulled off the court? Probably not. Are you going to use more spin, more angles and perhaps better tactics? Yep. I've found short angled shots, even drop shots on a wet court can win easy points. Usually your opponent doesn't want to risk injury either so they don't track them down. It's a good time to develop your game and come up with a plan B.
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Got to be young.
 
HughJars said:
Hmm. So we ended up playing last night. Turns out it rained everywhere but in the suburb where the courts were, and everything was dry.

We got to one game all in the first set, I played a shot that pushed my mate off the court a bit, but in getting it back he badly sprained his ankle! So early night in the end. And this was in a brand new pair of Nike Zooms (same as Federer wore for the FO) that I got for him for his recent 30th birthday!
Click to expand...

Ronaldo said:
Got to be young.
Click to expand...

And trim and not fat. How are things in Rio? Still enjoying your food?
 
HughJars said:
When do you decide that its not worthwhile going down the courts to play cos of the rain?

Am scheduled to play tonight, but its been raining off and on all day. Im desperate to play, but the hardcourts will be at least be partially wet.

Im pretty sure the artificial courts will be unplayable and too slippery.

When do you decide thats its too wet to play? Anyone play on wet hardcourts?
Click to expand...

i think you should set an easier indicator. let the weather.com people decide. if it's over 80% rain the next day, cancel the match. that way it's not your fault.

i would not mess with injuries on the court. your best friend can tear his/her meniscus.
 
With artificial clay which is becoming the main club surface in the U.K. it’s more a question of when is it too dry to play. They play fine in all but the hardest rain but I find them slippery when bone dry.
 
HughJars said:
When do you decide that its not worthwhile going down the courts to play cos of the rain?

Am scheduled to play tonight, but its been raining off and on all day. Im desperate to play, but the hardcourts will be at least be partially wet.

Im pretty sure the artificial courts will be unplayable and too slippery.

When do you decide thats its too wet to play? Anyone play on wet hardcourts?
Click to expand...


I don't play matches on wet courts, but don't mind practicing strokes or volley work. Just gotta shuffle feet to stay stable, and I like the ball gets heavier for the practice as well. Plus, easy to see how much topspin you get whent he water is pinwheeling off the ball :giggle:
 
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