I recently watched some of the best girls in the country play in a junior tournament. One thing I noticed was that none of the girls adjusted their game to the surface which was clay. They played as if they were on hard court, they were not sliding into the shot like they are suposed to, did not use the angles, the drop shot or play a more patient and sophisticated game that is required when you step on a clay court.

The reason is that most tournaments in the U.S. are on hard and most coaches don't really know how to move or play on clay themselves. It didn't really matter because they (the girls) were all playing the same hard court-type game anyway. I had a feeling that any mediocre European player who grew up on red clay would have been able to win against those highly-ranked girls.

Kids are reluctant to learn the new stuff, such as what it takes to play well on different surfaces, but i find that  the effort will pay off later on in their careers.