I am looking at affordable ball machines. The frontrunners are the Tennis Tutor, Lobster Elite, and Silent Partner. The Silent Partner has an advertised top speed of 95mph, the Tutor is 85mph, and the Lobster 80mph. I hit the ball hard and of coarse it tends to come back hard. Speed is important to me, but I can't say exactly how hard I hit - or a top pro hits in terms of mph. Does anyone have any experience with these machines at top speed and heavy spin? I probably wouldn't consider the Silent Partner except for that top speed.
How Important Is Speed On A Ball Machine?
- Thread starter sevens
- Start date
Midlife crisis
Hall of Fame
sevens said:
95 is really quite hard. Most 4.0 players can't get close to 95 when serving. If the ball machine shoots balls from a low'ish position, it may be difficult to get a ball to land in the court at that speed.
The other bad thing is that using the 95 MPH setting is going to be REALLY hard on the balls. The fuzz will be ripped off then very quickly.
I think the maximum speed I've used on a ball machine has been about 65 or 70, and with balls with little fuzz, that's a handful and really hard to practice anything effectively but volleys. Afterwards, the cleanup was hard too. There was probably a three foot semicircle around the front of the ball machine that was fully covered with ball fuzz.
mark rodgers
Rookie
I have a Tennis Tutor 4 plus. From my own experience I've observed that the rated speed is under the most ideal conditions when the battery is new (unless you have AC), the feed wheels are in new condition, and you have no spin on the ball. Take away any of those and the ball speed diminishes. But definitely stay away from machines that are rated below 85mph. You can always slow it down. IMO if you're looking at machines in that price range, any of them would work as far as ball feeding is concerned. Spin capability is important and I sometimes use the oscillation feature as well.
When you buy a new machine it's hard to look down the road but I think you also need to look at parts availability and cost as well as machine longevity. In the three years that I have had my machine I have had to replace the batteries twice, feed wheels twice and the ball hopper motor once. I have also had to replace miscellaneous items like ball hopper flaps and associated external hardware several times. Without good parts availability your machine would be become useless very quickly. I don't know about Lobster or Silent Partner but Sport Tutor (mfg of Tennis Tutor) does a great job of providing parts. Also, the machine is very easy to work on. I have never sent it in for service.
When you buy a new machine it's hard to look down the road but I think you also need to look at parts availability and cost as well as machine longevity. In the three years that I have had my machine I have had to replace the batteries twice, feed wheels twice and the ball hopper motor once. I have also had to replace miscellaneous items like ball hopper flaps and associated external hardware several times. Without good parts availability your machine would be become useless very quickly. I don't know about Lobster or Silent Partner but Sport Tutor (mfg of Tennis Tutor) does a great job of providing parts. Also, the machine is very easy to work on. I have never sent it in for service.
T
tennis_queen
Guest
Well from my experience those tennis companies lie about how fast their machines throws. So when they say it throws at 85mph then thier most likely lying. I am a tennis coach and I have been worked with many different machines. However, you should do dome more research into peoples actual opinions about the machines you mentioned. As for the tennis tutor, you say that it needed a lot of repairs but should a machine need that much, as for its throwing wheels, I here they suck.
Bolivian10s
Rookie
Ball Speed on ball machines
The top speed of any ball machine that is advertised is the ejection speed coming out of the machine and by the time the ball reaches the player, your lookin at around 50-60 MPH tops.
I love my Tennis Tutor Plus Model 4 which I use all the time and I also need to replace some simple parts on my machine, which is no big deal, it doesn't mean something is wrong with it, its just I use the machine all the time, and when you use something for 2 to 3 hours a couple times a week somethings are going to wear and tear normally.
And the throwing wheels don't suck! Why would you say that?
By the way there is a new cool tennis tutor I noticed on their website called the Plus Player and its seems to oscillate and give you different speeds and depths all at the same time and the control panel is all LED digital. SWEEEET!
The top speed of any ball machine that is advertised is the ejection speed coming out of the machine and by the time the ball reaches the player, your lookin at around 50-60 MPH tops.
I love my Tennis Tutor Plus Model 4 which I use all the time and I also need to replace some simple parts on my machine, which is no big deal, it doesn't mean something is wrong with it, its just I use the machine all the time, and when you use something for 2 to 3 hours a couple times a week somethings are going to wear and tear normally.
And the throwing wheels don't suck! Why would you say that?
By the way there is a new cool tennis tutor I noticed on their website called the Plus Player and its seems to oscillate and give you different speeds and depths all at the same time and the control panel is all LED digital. SWEEEET!
tennis_queen said:
TennisDog
Banned
I have a brand new Lobster Elite and I put the radar gun on it. The radar gun captures the fastest speed at any point from the time it leaves the machine. Out of about 20 balls and with the setting at the highest speed of 80 MPH the fastest was 64 MPH. The speed slows down with slice or topspin down to about 55 MPH. A friend has a tennis tutor and it registered 66 MPH on the max setting flat balls. The radar gun is callibrated and accurate to 1/3 MPH.
I dont know what the manufacturerers use to measure speeds on but as confirmed but the radar gun they are way off. It would actually take a huge increase in RPM out of the motor to get another 15-20 MPH out of these machines.
That being said the balls are about as fast as you will see anyone through 4.5 hit so the machines are adequate for pretty much anyone looking to improve their game. Theyre a bit faster than most 3.5 players serve.
I dont think an 10 MPH difference in speeds between manufacturers is going to mean much as they are all off considerably. Buy the machine with the features you need and the price you can afford. Dont worry about the speeds because they are not accurate and on the battery powered models starts to taper off after an hour.
I dont know what the manufacturerers use to measure speeds on but as confirmed but the radar gun they are way off. It would actually take a huge increase in RPM out of the motor to get another 15-20 MPH out of these machines.
That being said the balls are about as fast as you will see anyone through 4.5 hit so the machines are adequate for pretty much anyone looking to improve their game. Theyre a bit faster than most 3.5 players serve.
I dont think an 10 MPH difference in speeds between manufacturers is going to mean much as they are all off considerably. Buy the machine with the features you need and the price you can afford. Dont worry about the speeds because they are not accurate and on the battery powered models starts to taper off after an hour.
