Why do the Americans suck on clay?

[Grigollif1]

I know by personal experience living in Los Angeles that it is almost impossible to find any clay courts around here but, since most U.S players develop their games towards the east coast which I heard, has more adundance of clay. It shouldn't be this hard to find an all court player coming from the U.S. Appart from andy Roddick and Andre agassi who can "occasionally" play good on Clay the rest of the Americans Strink big time on the red dirt. Where are the new Jim couriers?

 

[Grigollif1]

darn sorry! wrong group of discussion....

 

[erik-the-red]

American players have difficulty playing clay-courters on clay. There's a difference between playing a Top 20 ATP player at Houston and a good clay-courter at Monte Carlo. An American player outside the Top 32 might be able to take out that Top 20 at Houston, but he's likely to get mauled at Monte Carlo.

The flip side of the coin is that many pure clay-courters struggle on hard courts and grass.

 

[ThunderServe]

So if Americans sucked on clay i suppose agassi and chang just dont exist.

 

[MackSamuelHustovisics]

American players have difficulty playing clay-courters on clay. There's a difference between playing a Top 20 ATP player at Houston and a good clay-courter at Monte Carlo. An American player outside the Top 32 might be able to take out that Top 20 at Houston, but he's likely to get mauled at Monte Carlo.

The flip side of the coin is that many pure clay-courters struggle on hard courts and grass.

GOOD POINT. I PERSONALLY LOVE CLAY, BUT NOT NECESSARILY PREFER IT OVER GRASS OR HARD COURTS. THE THING IS, FOOTWORK ACCELERATION ISN'T THE MOST EFFICIENT BUT FRICTION FORCE ON MOMENTUM IS REDUCED AT THE SAME TIME SO I FIND THE SLIDING A FACTOR TO USE TO THROW OPPENENTS TIMING OFF BY MAKING SUBTLE POSITIONING OF SHOTS. PLUS I WELCOME PUSHER/ COUNTER BASELINERS THAT TYPICALLY PREFER CLAY. USUALLY WHEN I RALLY WITH BASELINERS THE MATCHUP IS FUN FOR BOTH ENDS. AS FAR AS SERVICE, BACKING OFF FROM THE SONIC BOOMS AND EMPHASIZING PLACEMENT AND SPIN MANIPULATION IS NOT A BAD TACTIC. S/Vers IMO CAN DO WELL ON CLAY. THE IDEAL BREED I THINK OVERALL IN GENERAL FOR ANY TYPE OF COURT WOULD BE A S/V HYBRID. YOU COULD SAY ALL-COURTER BUT I'M THINKING AN A/C THAT SHOWS MORE VOLLEY NET AND NO MAN'S LAND PLAY TO ATTACK (SORT OF LIKE HOW STRONG SMASH MOUTH TEAMS SHOW THEIR RUNNING PLAYS IN FOOTBALL WITHOUT DISGUISING). DO EVERYTHING THAT MASTER FEDERER CAN CAN DO PLUS MORE. IMO, MASTER FED HAS TRULY EXCELLED THE SKILLS OVERALL COMPARED TO ALL THE PLAYERS IN HISTORY THAT I HAVE HEARD OF. THE CHAMP IS CAPABLE OF DEADLIER SERVES BUT ONLY TAKES RISKS ACCORDINGLY WHEN AND IF NECESSARY. HE CAN PLAY NET, POSSESSES ALL THE FUNDAMENTAL SHOTS/ANGLES, HAS GOOD FEETWORK, HAS GOOD INSTINCTS, CAN HOLD AND CONTROL A RALLY, HAS POWER, KNOWS HOW TO PLAY PERCENTAGES, HAS EXCELLENT STRATEGY, ETC.ETC. (A WHOLE NOVEL CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE ROGER FEDERER'S ONE-OF-A-KIND SKILLS). MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH......................THE IDEAL TYPE OF PLAYER IS OBVIOUSLY MASTER FED FOR ANY GIVEN COURT. HE COULD HAVE (SHOULD'VE WOULD'VE MIGHT'VE) BEATEN NADAL AT THE FRENCHY (SLIGHT UNDERESTIMATON OF OPPONENT IMO AS PART OF LOSS FACTOR. LESSON LEARNED AND EXPOSED TO THE WORLD "WHEN YOU PLAY NADAL, NEVER ACT LIKE THE POINT IS OVER!"). TO BE THE MORE IDEAL PLAYER, DO WHAT MASTER FED CAN DO PLUS MORE. BE MORE ATHLETIC (NOT SAYING MASTER FED ISN'T FAST/ATHLETIC BECAUSE HIS ATHLETICISM IS BEYOND ALL PRIOR #1 CHAMPS IMO). I'M NOT SAYING YOU NEED TO BE FAST LIKE NADAL AND CHASE BALLS DOWN BUT RATHER HUNT BALLS DOWN LIKE BLAKE. THAT'S THE QUICKNESS I HAVEN'T NOTICED MUCH IN FED, MAYBE BECAUSE HE MANIPULATES THE OPPONENT SO MUCH THAT HE DOESN'T HAVE SUCH A NEED FOR SPEED?

 

[timmyboy]

HEY, STOP TYPING IN CAPS CUZ IT GET'S REALLY ANNOYING!

well, i think it's because europe has alot more hardcourts than america does. therefore, the half decent european claycourter/allcourter would be better than the average american on clay.

 

[MackSamuelHustovisics]

I know by personal experience living in Los Angeles that it is almost impossible to find any clay courts around here but, since most U.S players develop their games towards the east coast which I heard, has more adundance of clay. It shouldn't be this hard to find an all court player coming from the U.S. Appart from andy Roddick and Andre agassi who can "occasionally" play good on Clay the rest of the Americans Strink big time on the red dirt. Where are the new Jim couriers?

I THINK IT'S JUST COINCIDENTAL OF INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS TO WHAT NATION WINS MORE ON SURFACE TYPES. SOME NATIONS HAVE MORE CLAY COURTS AS THE STANDARD/MAJORITY OVER OTHERS AND SO ITS READILY AVAILABLE TO THEIR CITIZENS. I SAY IT'S COINCIDENTAL BEACUSE YOU COULD HAVE A TOP SPANISH CLAY SPECIALIST FOR EXAMPLE SUDDENLY BECOME A US CITIZEN AND THEN REWORK HIS/HER COMPUTER ATP POINTS REPRESENTING THE USA. PROBABILTY ALONE HAS A FACTOR IN THE OUTCOMES OF NATIONS*NUMBER OR REPRESENTING PLAYERS*NUMBER OF CLAY EVENTS ETC.ETC.

 

[Misiti99]

Good guesses but i'll tell you the real reason why Americans "suck" on clay:

First we have to admit that Americans suck on clay. Agassi, Roddick, Ginepri, Blake, Fish, Bogomolov, and any other American you want to name is not good on clay.

Next, it has nothing to do with not playing on clay. I trained for many years in Florida where every academy spends the majority of time training there players on Har Tru (similar to red clay with dirtier bounced..perhaps a bit faster)

American coaches (ESP the USTA) believe in hitting all forehands..ATTACKING..ATTACKING..ATTACKING. No one breeds a solid baseline game..no one encouranges drop shots..no one encourages a loopy inside forehand heavy ball to your opponents backhand. This is all discouraged. POWER..POWER..and Finish it off with a volley is the mentality of Rick Macci, Gary Kesl, Nick Bolletieri, USTA, Nike Tennis Camps, Evert Academy, Van De Meer, and any other place you want to go in America to train. Americans are good in tennis. We have very good players. But we do not have smart players. We do not have fighters. Hence, we do not have Clay courters. We have powerhouses..many of whom could be on steroids. With big forehands (Blake, Ginepri, Roddick) with big serves (Gimelstob, Roddick)

But we do not have clay courters. We will do just fine @ the US Open and @ WImbledon...but we will not do will at the French. Just accept it for what it is.

However Coria and Ferrero and Massu and Nalbandian refused to accept that. These so called "clay courters" made the final of Wimbledon and the US Open. And Massu went to the rnd of 16 this yr while Coria went to the Quarters.

 

[hit it harder gonzo]

i think as you said above its just hard to train on a caly court, i do live in the east coust and i wouldnt say there is an abundance, they are still very difficult to find. unlike in south america and spain kids here arent brought up playing on clay courts, finding a hard court is just so much easier. a lot of americans also play a very power oriented game like roddick which dosent often translate to clay court success. thats just my opnion on the issue

 

[MackSamuelHustovisics]

QUOTE By TIMMYBOY: HEY, STOP TYPING IN CAPS CUZ IT GET'S REALLY ANNOYING!

well, i think it's because europe has alot more hardcourts than america does. therefore, the half decent european claycourter/allcourter would be better than the average american on clay.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Whoa........... Cut me a break please? Keyboard happened to be locked......didn't feel the need to default it......continued typing post. Does that cause any harm?
Pointing out an annoyance enables others to acknowledge the condition and stating that nuisance with the reflection of the annoyance like "IN-YOUR-FACE-DON'T YOU SEE IT'S ANNOYING-HOW-DOES-IT-FEEL-SO-STOP" adds bold expression. Understandable. From a reasonable perspective, was it the intention in the first place?.....Was the post typed in caps to annoy others for no apparant reason? Sorry

 

[punch]

So you didn't notice halfway through the 2 paragraph post you had? Or you were just too lazy to tap the caps lock button?

 

[RiosTheGenius]

So if Americans sucked on clay i suppose agassi and chang just dont exist.

hey tool. chang and Agassi are not even the .000000000000001% of the US population.

Americans suck on clay for the same reason we south americans suck on grass. there's just no courts to get used to the surfaces.

 

[drjam932]

You know Jim Morrison, he is one the best clay tennis player for united state about three years ago but he just stop play because he just want to spend time with his family and the director of some tennis club in florida. I forget where it is.

 

[stevewcosta]

You know what sucks? Clay.

 

[MackSamuelHustovisics]

..................

 

[MackSamuelHustovisics]

So you didn't notice halfway through the 2 paragraph post you had? Or you were just too lazy to tap the caps lock button?

It doesn't matter, i wasn't going to edit something that I considered irrelevant for that matter. If I started typing in caps and then close to the end realized the caps, I wouldn't change the rest because I'd rather keep everything uniform (yes you can highlight all and change all to lowercase, but like I said, didn't feel the need). It's not important so I don't remember anyways. If you notice the post date, it was a while ago afterall.

 

[MackSamuelHustovisics]

You know what sucks? Clay.

It is messy. I don't mind the surface.

 

[tarheelbornjohn]

Well, I play almost all my outdoor matchs on Har Tru (Clay). Half the indoor matches are Clay and the other are hard courts. I like both of these surfaces in their own rigtht. My 10 year old, who is going to be a good player, plays 90% on Har Tru and has only played winter tournaments on In-door hard court and the spring, summer and fall NTRP are all done on clay that he enters.

 

[Thenatureboy]

The absolute best clay courts I have ever played on is at Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Center in Central Florida. A beautiful New Tennis Club with amazing courts and staff

 

[onehandbh]

Because 420 is legal in the US and the clay they play on gets baked.

 

[TheWizardFromElPalmar]

Americans sucks on every surfaces right now anyway right?

 

[Impetus]

USA is a “small“ country and you can’t expect a small country to produce great players often. Less than 3% of the population has a healthy lifestyle. That’s around 10 million people. Lack of movement and poor nutrition is a big problem for USA.

The competetive level will also suffer because a talented and healthy kid will compete with kids that are not.

Almost No Americans Have a Healthy Lifestyle

Researchers say 97 percent of Americans are failing to meet ideal ‘healthy lifestyle’ criteria that can protect their hearts.

www.healthline.com

The opposite can also happen. In Denmark we have 3 small villages with a total of 2.000 inhabitants. Those villages have a very strong sport culture in especially handball and they have one of the best clubs and several players at the national team.

 

[Olli Jokinen]

QUOTE By TIMMYBOY: HEY, STOP TYPING IN CAPS CUZ IT GET'S REALLY ANNOYING!

well, i think it's because europe has alot more hardcourts than america does. therefore, the half decent european claycourter/allcourter would be better than the average american on clay.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Whoa........... Cut me a break please? Keyboard happened to be locked......didn't feel the need to default it......continued typing post. Does that cause any harm?
Pointing out an annoyance enables others to acknowledge the condition and stating that nuisance with the reflection of the annoyance like "IN-YOUR-FACE-DON'T YOU SEE IT'S ANNOYING-HOW-DOES-IT-FEEL-SO-STOP" adds bold expression. Understandable. From a reasonable perspective, was it the intention in the first place?.....Was the post typed in caps to annoy others for no apparant reason? Sorry

Caps reduce readability significantly. I couldn't be bothered to read it because it annoyed me so much.