Your Strokes: Todd Haydon Serve

Can you see the two universal problems?

This month we take a look at Todd Haydon’s serve, using a piece of video which Todd sent in along with a question. He’d read some of the other Your Stroke pieces that advocated a more circular backswing, such as the analysis of tour player Paul Goldstein (Click Here) or of his fellow subscriber, John Daly (Click Here.)

Should he, Todd asked, try to open up his wind up more on the model of a player like Mark Philippoussis? And the answer is yes. Because as the video shows, he has major problems with his racket position at various points in the swing.

In fact Todd’s video is such a perfect example of the two most common problems with the serve in club tennis, I decided to use it for Your Strokes. I see these exact problems when I do clinics in the Bay Area and around the country — even in the one I did for English coaches last year at Wimbledon. Even though we’ve addressed these issues before, they are so widespread and hold back so many players, I think it’s worth taking a fresh look.

Two universal problems: an incomplete…