Rainwater pooling in the backyard—what actually works?

Tried mixing in sand once and yeah, it basically turned into a weird, chunky mess that was even harder to dig through later.

Yeah, adding sand to clay is a trap—made my yard feel like concrete. Honestly, regrading was the only thing that actually moved water away for me. French drains helped a bit, but only after lining the trench with fabric and using gravel. Rain gardens look great, but if you don’t get the soil mix right, they just turn into swamps. Dry wells in clay? Might as well dig a bathtub.