(1) Agree, but at the same time, that's not necessarily all bad. The inconsistent throws keep you on your toes, and in fact, mimic the inconsistency you would encounter from playing a real opponent.
Copey, it did cross my mind that inconsistent throw may not necessarily be a bad thing if you want your ball machine to mix it up. However, there are more negatives to using flat balls than the issue of inconsistent throw. First of all, and most importantly, you just don't want to hit with flat balls, period. They feel too soft, and if you have to change your pace to adjust to flat balls and their softness, you'll mess up your stroke when you play with non-flat balls against a real opponent. Secondly, if they have different degrees of flatness, you can't even learn how to place flat balls consistently yourself, because how you hit a completely flat ball is different than how you hit a semi-flat ball to place them to a same spot. Thirdly, they don't bounce the same anymore when they're flat, so now you not only have to adjust to their softness and pace, you also have to adjust to their bounce. It's just bad to play with flat balls, period. Machine or no machine. It's so much more about YOU not wanting to hit flat balls than about how the machine shoots flat balls at you.
Next, most people use the ball machine for the purpose of drilling their strokes. So being able to expect the ball machine to deliver balls at the pace and location that you want is much more important than having the machine "mix it up" for you. How would you like it if you're drilling for baseline shots that is supposed to have high pace and lots of top spin and landing deep near the baseline, only to have balls that barely make it across the net, or don't even make it over the net, or balls that overshoot the baseline?
If I really want the machine to mix balls up for me depth wise, I'd buy a machine that can do random vertical oscillation, and even combine it with random horizontal oscillation. Or a machine pre-programmed for simulated play. After all, the whole point is I want to have control of the machine and instead of the machine having control over me.
(2) I purchased a can of 3 Tretorns when I bought my machine just to see if I'd like them. My reasoning was I didn't want to commit $300 to stocking my machine with balls I potentially wouldn't like (but more importantly, my students might not like), so I "sampled" a few of them first. I personally didn't mind them, but they are noticeably different (heavier, harder). You could get used to it, but there would definitely be an adjustment period from Tretorns to balls you would use when playing in a match. I don't think it's a major issue, but it's a factor to consider. Anyway, I opted it not to get them because none of the kids liked them.
For sure it's a smart idea to sample a few of them first to see if you like them before spending money on them. And I agree that the Tretorn MicroX feels harder to hit than regular balls. But I don't necessarily think that they are heavier than regular balls. After all, they're regulation size and weight and bounce, and are approved for match play by the ITF. They may feel heavier only because they feel harder than other balls. But have you actually tried to weigh them to see if they're really heavier than regular balls (so much so that they're outside the regulation weight?)
As for the harder feel, of course if someone could make a pressureless ball that feels more like a regular ball, they'd put Tretorn out of business. I'd be the first in line to buy them. Nobody likes the harder feel of it, but people accept that it's not a perfect world and that it's one of the trade-offs of using a pressureless ball. And like you said, it's something you can learn to live with if you have to in order to gain the other advantages a pressureless ball offers when using with a ball machine.
In an ideal world, if money (and environmental factor) were no object, people would use fresh (non-flat) regular balls for ball machines just the same as they use for live play. But can you afford to open up hundreds of brand new balls every week (or every few days) to feed to your ball machines when your previous batch of balls go flat? That's where pressureless balls have its place for use in ball machines, so people can reuse them much longer than regular balls and save money.
Finally, I was surprised at how fast the fuzz on the Tretorns wore off. Maybe the three I got were flawed or something, but in a short period of time (2 months or so) you couldn't read the name on the ball at all, and a great deal of the outer coating was worn. Maybe it's from the kind of throwing wheels that are in my machine - not sure, but I had them mixed in with 150 Dunlops (which were very much in tact physically), so it's not like they were being sent through more often than the other balls. Sure, they bounced ok, but they were pretty ugly lol.
Yeah, but aren't your same 150 Dunlops (which I assume are regular balls) completely flat well before the 2 months of use in your ball machine while the Tretorn still bounce and feel better (albeit a little harder, but still better)? Maybe the felt on your regular Dunlops last longer because after they go flat (very soon because the wheels do squeeze the heck out of them each time), they flex and slip through the wheels more easily and therefore their felt escape the punishment the firmer Tretorn has to endure through the wheels?
I'd rather hit with balder Tretorn balls that still bounce properly and feel firm like a fresh ball than a Dunlop that looks brand new but is completely flat and dead. My Tretorn may looks bald but at least it's "alive".
(3) I can't say I completely agree here. I think it comes down to what you want, and to some extent, what you can or want to afford. I opted to forego the Tretorns because (1) my students didn't care for them, (2) I wasn't impressed by how fast they wore. Yes, the Tretorns are definitely more cost effective in the long run, but I don't mind the expense of replacing them with balls that are also used in match play. Unlike most, I like the random inconsistent throws now and then. The kids hate it, but that's because they don't know any better lol.
I'm a little confused by what you're saying here, because on the one hand, you say you like to use dead flat balls for inconsistent throw from your machine. But on the other hand, you said you don't mind the expense of using fresh balls ("good enough for match play") in your machine.
If you're using dead flat regular balls to feed your ball machine just to get the random inconsistent throw to keep your kids on their toes, then you're doing them a disservice because you're essentially teaching them how to play tennis with dead flat balls.
If you regularly and consistently feed fresh balls only (good enough for match play) to your machine for your kids, then good for you, because that's the perfect scenario if money were no object. If you teach a lot of kids every day and can cycle through a lot of fresh balls quickly anyway BEFORE they go flat, then you're lucky you have an ideal situation where you can reuse the same fresh balls in your machine, and I would have done the same thing.
So no, I definitely don't think you're "defeating the purpose" of buying a ball machine by using pressurized balls instead of Tretorns - not even a little.
All and all I think the Tretorns are a good deal, but I wouldn't say they're for everyone or that it's "the standard" for ball machine use.
I never said that using the Tretorn MicroX is better than using regular pressurised FRESH balls in a ball machine. My whole point about why pressureless balls is better compared to regular pressurized balls for a ball machine is because they never go flat and regular pressurized balls do.
So yes, you're defeating the purpose of spending over a thousand dollars for a ball machine if you use FLAT pressurized balls on it.
The typical audience I'm speaking to here is an individual player who's planning to use a ball machine a few times a week and (I assume) can't afford to keep buying hundreds of brand new fresh pressurized balls every few times they use their machine. So the debate is not pressureless vs newly FRESH pressurized balls. The debate is pressureless vs FLAT pressurized balls.
The way I figure it,
even if you have to replace the balls every several months, tennis is still a heck of a lot cheaper than golf.
Again, you totally confuse me here because on the one hand, you said you "don't mind the expense of replacing them with balls that are also used in match play", which I assume you mean FRESH, LIVE, NOT FLAT pressurized balls.
But then you also said you like to mix in DEAD/FLAT pressurized ball because you want inconsistent throw.
And now you're saying you're replacing your balls (assuming pressurized) every several months. Aren't your pressurized balls ("THAT ARE ALSO USED IN MATCH PLAY") completely dead already before you replace them after several months? Unless you have a way to keep them fresh even after several months (which is a totally different scenario we're not discussing here)
So which is it that you're using for your kids? Fresh balls or flat balls? Or a mix??? Or are you using flat balls for match play and replace them every several months?
