Raking your clay tennis court redistributes loose materials, smooths out the court and helps it release excess moisture. Wondering about the best methods for raking your tennis court? Check out these tips. 

1. Rake Regularly

For best results, make sure to rake your tennis court on a regular basis. For a public court, you should rake at least once a day, and for private courts, you should rake after several games have taken place. 

As needed, also rake depending on the moisture levels of the court. Raking dries out the clay in the court so you may need to rake after the area has been watered or after rain.

2. Use the Correct Broom

You should not rake a clay tennis court with a regular broom. Instead, use a tennis court broom, designed specifically for this purpose. Typically, these brooms are wide with very stiff bristles.

3. Drag the Boom Behind You

Don't push the tennis court boom in front of you. Instead, drag the broom behind you — some tennis court brooms even come with harnesses so you can easily attach the broom to yourself and drag it along the court. By dragging the broom, you ensure that you don't get your footprints into the freshly swept areas. 

4. Go From the Outside In

To reduce clay drift toward the fence or the net, you should sweep your tennis court from the outside in. Start at the net in the middle of the court. Move along the net, turn when you reach the sideline of the court, sweep along the baseline, and then continue up the other sideline of the court. When you return back to the net, make another pass just inside the area where you originally swept. 

In other words, you should go in a rectangle in a counterclockwise direction, and you should make increasingly smaller rectangles inside each other until you reach the middle of the court. To speed up the process, have two people help and use one tennis court broom on each side of the court. 

5. Use a Line Sweeper

In addition to a traditional tennis court broom, you should also invest in a line sweeper. This tool is about the width of the lines on the court, and it helps to keep them looking crisp and white. 

Simply, push this sweeper along the lines and go from the net toward the back end of the court. You don't need to be that aggressive with this tool. Simply push hard enough to sweep off the lines. 

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