Half volley is considered a match winning shot if it is played with perfection and a losing shot if player anything lesser than or near perfect. Perfect eyesight, perfect timing tennis predictions, and racquet work need to go with this stroke for it to result in a triumph. In this shot there is minimal margin of safety; however, the chances of disasters and errors are greatest.

Pick-up as the name speaks is a stroke in which you pick up the ball with the tennis racquet face plainly from the court almost at the same time when the ball bounces from the ground on the strings. This pick-up stroke is best explained as short swing along with a rigid wrist similar to that of a volley with no follow through at all. For this stroke, racquet face moves along the court just having a slight slant right over the ball and directing it towards the court’s net while continue to holding the ball on this low height all the moment. In this pick-up shot too, like all other strokes in the game of tennis, the shot goes from the racquet face and along the short strings with racquet face kept slightly away from the outside of the ball.

Always keep in mind that the half volley is only a defensive shot because this is a stroke that you are enforced to play as if the last choice when you get in no-man’s land with no proper selection of shot. It is a last resort to help you get out from the fearful state without going back at the baseline. Never think about the half volley like a shot from which you can score a point under normal conditions.

A chop shot means a shot where the angle of the racquet back along with the ball’s flight path is more than 45 degrees; however, it can go till 90 degrees (you should keep in mind that racquet back is facing towards the player, and the racquet is moving to rally the ball downward and across the ball’s flight). The action of chop shot can be compared with the action of that of a man who is chopping the wood. The chop stroke in tennis is played with racquet face passing little off the ball’s other side towards outside and down to its side when the curvature and the spin is given from right to left progress using a wrist which is stiff.

In a slice stroke, the 45 degrees angle as said before is reduced a great deal while playing a chop shot; and for this stroke, racquet face may move either from outside or inside the ball based on the movement in which the ball is intended to he hit or played. The shot is primarily a wrist twist or a slap. When skidding break is provided by a slap to the ball, chop makes the ball drag without breaking it off the turf.

For the above two shots, the footwork rules logically remain similar as that of a drive shot. But, dissimilar to the drive, the two shots above originate from short swings with a bit more wrist work; and exclude the need to shift the body weight. For this reason, footwork and body positioning for these two strokes does not assume as much significance as it does for drive shot; and therefore can be ignored easily.

Both the slice and the chop strokes can be used with a benefit for energy conservation and defensive purposes when the rival is at the baseline. These slice and chop strokes will definitely terminate this baseline driving stroke as both these strokes are very difficult to drive when played.

But, these two strokes will not be useful against the volley stroke as they come very slow or very high to lead to any major worry. Still, these are good for soft stroke and drop short strokes near the opponent as he comes to the net. But, till the time you don’t have a good opening, it will be difficult to get the slice or chop stroke past the man at the net.

The drop-stroke is very much like quite soft chop shot with a very sharp angle completely played using the wrist, successful only if it drops in between 3 – 5 ft from the center i. e. net. While playing the drop-stroke too, racquet face moves from ball’s far side while keeping the handle below it and with a precise “wrist-twist”. However, while playing a drop-stroke, keep in mind, that the racquet should never come from your shoulder although the primary dissimilarity between a stop volley and drop stroke is that the drop shot mainly comes from the wrist where as no wrist is involved in playing the stop volley.