every player's command. These are the framework of your game. Yet
no house is complete with framework alone. There are certain
trimmings, ornaments, and decorations necessary. There are the
luxuries of modern improvements, and tennis boasts of such
improvements in the modern game.

Among the luxuries, some say the eccentricities, of the modern
game one finds (1) the chop stroke, (2) the slice stroke (a close
relative), (3) the drop shot, (4) the half-volley or "trap" shot.

All these shots have their use. None should be considered a stock
shot.



CHAPTER V. CHOP, HALF VOLLEY, AND COURT POSITION

I am called at times a chop-stroke player. I SELDOM CHOP. My
stroke is a slice.

A chop stroke is a shot where the angle towards the player and
behind the racquet, made by the line of flight of the ball, and
the racquet travelling down across it, is greater than 45 degrees
and may be 90 degrees. The racquet face passes slightly OUTSIDE
the ball and down the side, chopping it, as a man chops wood. The
spin and curve is from right to left. It is made with a stiff
wrist. Irving C. Wright, brother of the famous Beals, is a true
chop player, while Beals himself, being a left- hander, chopped
from the left court and sliced from the right.