Titan Ball Machines

[WilsonBlade98]

Do I really want to hit the ball back into a moving container? It seems like fun but is it good to practice hitting the ball back to my opponent?

When I rally with a human practice partner to practice my stroke technique, I generally want them to hit the ball back towards me so I can focus on my split step, taking a step or two or three, and then hit my stroke with intent, as opposed my partner trying to make me run the width/length of the court to make my shot. Maybe I practice hitting my shots back at my partner, maybe I practice making them move or they try to make me move.

Using the Acemate does not mean you are trying to hit the ball back at it, that’s not the point as I see it. With the Acemate, I hit the shot I want and it will (within limits) move to my shot, then as it catches the ball it ejects a ball, with timing like a human player. The Acemate app appears to allow me to define an area it will return my ball into, and that area can be small or large. So I can set a drill up so I move a lot or I move less.

To face completely random shots would mean a player isn’t dictating the point and is at the mercy of their opponent. That is, they’re going to lose the match because they have no idea how to construct a point

I agree. I do not think that the Acemate currently simulates match play nor is it intended to completely simulate a skilled human tennis player. I do think it could offer training advantages above and beyond my Titan Ace ball machine, which can only feed me balls from a fixed position. That’s good for certain kinds of practice, but deficient for other types of training like I get with a human practice partner.

Whether Acemate will ever progress to being able to simulate a skilled player constructing a point I can’t say, but with its two cameras and computer processor I would not rule that out. It’s programmable and the software can be updated remotely. I can even envision that at some point in the future, if Acemate develops software that is much more capable than the current programming and that therefore requires a more powerful processor, and they could offer a hardware upgrade that would support those increased capabilities.

My Titan One machine will never be able to act like a human practice partner. The Acemate, Tennix, and soon probably others are taking us into a new era of tennis training, particularly for people who have difficulty finding willing, and sufficiently skilled, human practice partners. I find that most players I know aren’t interested in practicing, they just want to play games/matches. They never take lessons, they rarely or never practice, and as a result they don’t improve. I’m sure they have fun and enjoy their time on the court, that’s great for them, but I want to get better. And obviously, everyone reading and/or posting in this thread is as well, that’s why they have and/or want a ball machine; for practicing.

 

[Nostradamus]

See the post I quoted below. Titan did announce a new product several months ago, a platform that you could place the machine on so that it would deliver balls from higher up, sort of simulating a serve. But at the moment that product is not shown on the Titan website. I don’t know if they actually shipped it. @ryohazuki222 did you receive yours?



As far as I know the Titan app does not have that capability. I wish it did.

holy smokes why is this so expensive ?

Service Platform​

$699.00

 

[Nostradamus]

When I rally with a human practice partner to practice my stroke technique, I generally want them to hit the ball back towards me so I can focus on my split step, taking a step or two or three, and then hit my stroke with intent, as opposed my partner trying to make me run the width/length of the court to make my shot. Maybe I practice hitting my shots back at my partner, maybe I practice making them move or they try to make me move.

Using the Acemate does not mean you are trying to hit the ball back at it, that’s not the point as I see it. With the Acemate, I hit the shot I want and it will (within limits) move to my shot, then as it catches the ball it ejects a ball, with timing like a human player. The Acemate app appears to allow me to define an area it will return my ball into, and that area can be small or large. So I can set a drill up so I move a lot or I move less.


I agree. I do not think that the Acemate currently simulates match play nor is it intended to completely simulate a skilled human tennis player. I do think it could offer training advantages above and beyond my Titan Ace ball machine, which can only feed me balls from a fixed position. That’s good for certain kinds of practice, but deficient for other types of training like I get with a human practice partner.

Whether Acemate will ever progress to being able to simulate a skilled player constructing a point I can’t say, but with its two cameras and computer processor I would not rule that out. It’s programmable and the software can be updated remotely. I can even envision that at some point in the future, if Acemate develops software that is much more capable than the current programming and that therefore requires a more powerful processor, and they could offer a hardware upgrade that would support those increased capabilities.

My Titan One machine will never be able to act like a human practice partner. The Acemate, Tennix, and soon probably others are taking us into a new era of tennis training, particularly for people who have difficulty finding willing, and sufficiently skilled, human practice partners. I find that most players I know aren’t interested in practicing, they just want to play games/matches. They never take lessons, they rarely or never practice, and as a result they don’t improve. I’m sure they have fun and enjoy their time on the court, that’s great for them, but I want to get better. And obviously, everyone reading and/or posting in this thread is as well, that’s why they have and/or want a ball machine; for practicing.

 

[Nostradamus]

 

[Nostradamus]

is this also good match time ball ?

 

[Nostradamus]

is this alot faster than using the ball basket ?? is so i am buying one. i waste so much time pickiing up ball after Proton machine

 

[prometheus0102]

is this alot faster than using the ball basket ?? is so i am buying one. i waste so much time pickiing up ball after Proton machine

I got a non Titan branded one, and it is amazing. I have no complaints and it is a lot faster picking up balls, and what is more is that it also shakes off the dust/leaves/fuzz that accumulates on the courts I play. On another note, good lord, consolidate your posts, lol it took up so much of the pages.

@WilsonBlade98

sigh, wish they had more randomization options, even if they only bring it up to the spinfire app level, that would be amazing

 

[Nostradamus]

I got a non Titan branded one, and it is amazing. I have no complaints and it is a lot faster picking up balls, and what is more is that it also shakes off the dust/leaves/fuzz that accumulates on the courts I play. On another note, good lord, consolidate your posts, lol it took up so much of the pages.

@WilsonBlade98

sigh, wish they had more randomization options, even if they only bring it up to the spinfire app level, that would be amazing

where did you buy that ball picker upper ? i am assuming it was cheaper than Titan brand one ?

 

[ryohazuki222]

See the post I quoted below. Titan did announce a new product several months ago, a platform that you could place the machine on so that it would deliver balls from higher up, sort of simulating a serve. But at the moment that product is not shown on the Titan website. I don’t know if they actually shipped it. @ryohazuki222 did you receive yours?



As far as I know the Titan app does not have that capability. I wish it did.

I got it. Looks cool. Been too busy to actually get it on court though.

Re: random. Yes sort of it can be done. Was more complicated than I realized. Also… agree with above about random.


I built a cross court randomized 4 ball feed pattern that shoots all crosscourt but randomizes where exactly it goes. This as actually way more realistic than just shooting to the same place.

I then have another drill for the short cross court ball to approach on.

I then have crosscourt balls randomized for about 3 shots for volleys. Ie.. I know it’s going cross court but don’t exactly know where crosscourt.

I then have a lob.

You have to build that all separately as 4 drills. Then create a mega drill out of it.

there’s no reason I could randomize the crosscourt to be more back and forth before an approach shot.

The problem is they still haven’t fixed “impossible settings” so it takes a good amount of iterations to figure out what’s reasonable for the machine to accomplish.

That drill is probably the coolest one by far I have set of the machine. Only built it because I’m playing doubles for the first time in forever and I forgot how to get to the net.

Also, I don’t think there IS a good way to share that.

If someone wants to catch me up on the easiest ways to post pics here, I can screenshot from my phone if people want to see how it’s set up. It’s a bunch of screenshots needed.

 

[WilsonBlade98]

is this alot faster than using the ball basket ?

Yes. I like mine very much. Well designed, sturdy, and extremely useful

 

[WilsonBlade98]

holy smokes why is this so expensive ?

Service Platform​

$699.00

It’s not just a static stand. There is a geared mechanism attached to a crank handle that is used to raise the platform, and the stand structure has to be strong and stable enough so that when the ball is ejected the stand doesn’t move too much and effect the trajectory of the ball.

I don’t see how that stand comes close to replicating the height of the ball at impact when a player serves, which I estimate would typically be 9 or 10 ft.

 

[ryohazuki222]

.

I don’t see how that stand comes close to replicating the height of the ball at impact when a player serves, which I estimate would typically be 9 or 10 ft.

Yes - but this is where maybe I think differently because I used to coach?

In addition to what you said, the ball machine doesn’t shoot balls fast enough to similar serves from the baseline.

But if you’re taking lessons from a good coach; often they are serving from 3/4 court or service line depending what you’re working on.

What I anticipate this CAN do (ie why I bought it) is I can move it around somewhere between service line and net to shoot balls out at top speed to “cheat” a faster, more realistic serve trajectory.

Keep in mind that it has wheels on it so pretty easy to move around.

(This is also why it’s so hard to share drills imo…. Because I move the machine around a lot; just like when I used to teach I wouldn’t just feed from the same spot.)

 

[dak95_00]

@ryohazuki222

Have you figured out how to save a drill as a QR code? It’s supposed to be possible.

 

[ryohazuki222]

@ryohazuki222

Have you figured out how to save a drill as a QR code? It’s supposed to be possible.

You just swipe and hit share. But it’s just an image of the QR code.

Would be easier to give me a link and I could just post a link here.

But that’s just the settings…. There’s some tribal knowledge in knowing where to put the machine that’s specific to me, which is why my drills are less shareable. Would make more sense to take a picture of the machine placement. And then also share the drill.

But you need the instructions of what the drill is doing.

I think it’s safe to say Titan isn’t seeing enough competition to push more software releases out. They should’ve open sourced it and let coaches make some money off of selling their drills all packed up or something.

 

[dak95_00]

You just swipe and hit share. But it’s just an image of the QR code.

Would be easier to give me a link and I could just post a link here.

But that’s just the settings…. There’s some tribal knowledge in knowing where to put the machine that’s specific to me, which is why my drills are less shareable. Would make more sense to take a picture of the machine placement. And then also share the drill.

But you need the instructions of what the drill is doing.

I think it’s safe to say Titan isn’t seeing enough competition to push more software releases out. They should’ve open sourced it and let coaches make some money off of selling their drills all packed up or something.

Thank you for the swipe explanation! I got it!

I understand what you’re saying about machine placement. I move mine around too. But there is a place to write a description for the drill AND couldn’t WE name the position by listing the placement to the best of our ability?

For example, I see 13 bubbles for ball landing placements. Couldn’t we roughly name those such as in soccer?

1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13

Wouldn’t this be a good enough example of how to “describe” the machine placement?

For example, machine placement is 6 and here’s the QR code.

 

[prometheus0102]

where did you buy that ball picker upper ? i am assuming it was cheaper than Titan brand one ?

I bought mine from the jungle website. Slightly different "shape" as it is bent at the end, but used it recently and it worked great

 

[prometheus0102]

You just swipe and hit share. But it’s just an image of the QR code.

Would be easier to give me a link and I could just post a link here.

But that’s just the settings…. There’s some tribal knowledge in knowing where to put the machine that’s specific to me, which is why my drills are less shareable. Would make more sense to take a picture of the machine placement. And then also share the drill.

But you need the instructions of what the drill is doing.

I think it’s safe to say Titan isn’t seeing enough competition to push more software releases out. They should’ve open sourced it and let coaches make some money off of selling their drills all packed up or something.

Hmmm, I see the problem. Let me play around and see what is the easiest way to upload. Alternatively, to make it as simple as possible for you, happy to have you email them to me, and I will deal with the hassle of posting them to this thread, with credit to you . Appreciate your help

 

[lunch_enjoyer]

I just placed an order for the titan one, remote, 120 balls, the ball collector and 6AH battery. There was a coupon code "2025" which saved me $349.80 CAD

Super excited! I will post some updates once I've received and tested the machine.

 

[ryohazuki222]

So far liking the repairability of this machine. Unf, I think one of my “hole in one” forehands hit a plug on the logic board just right and rendered it broken with alarm 4 next time I tried to use it.

Titan service responded lightning fast. Sending me a replacement logic board. Should be here tomorrow. But now gave me the chance to take this thing apart. Pretty straightforward.

Hopefully I can’t put it back together…

 

[Voyager25]

I just placed an order for the titan one, remote, 120 balls, the ball collector and 6AH battery. There was a coupon code "2025" which saved me $349.80 CAD

Super excited! I will post some updates once I've received and tested the machine.

Hi. Have you received your machine?
Just ordered one too and curious how long it takes to get delivered to Canada. Thank you.

 

[lunch_enjoyer]

Hi. Have you received your machine?
Just ordered one too and curious how long it takes to get delivered to Canada. Thank you.

Yes I received everything except the balls and collector as they are back ordered apparently.

The machine was shipped the day after I placed the order and it was delivered 5 days later.

I’ve only been able to get it out for an hour so far but first impressions are great..

 

[Voyager25]

Yes I received everything except the balls and collector as they are back ordered apparently.

The machine was shipped the day after I placed the order and it was delivered 5 days later.

I’ve only been able to get it out for an hour so far but first impressions are great..

Thanks so much.
Which province are you in?

Was the firmware up to date?

 

[WilsonBlade98]

So far liking the repairability of this machine. Unf, I think one of my “hole in one” forehands hit a plug on the logic board just right and rendered it broken with alarm 4 next time I tried to use it.

Titan service responded lightning fast.

Agreed. I got great support when I had to replace the extendable handle on my machine. And the replacement process was easy.

 

[Voyager25]

Agreed. I got great support when I had to replace the extendable handle on my machine. And the replacement process was easy.

May I ask what was wrong with the handle?

 

[lunch_enjoyer]

Thanks so much.
Which province are you in?

Was the firmware up to date?

Looks like my machine is running firmware version 7.3.3DB1313

 

[Voyager25]

Looks like my machine is running firmware version 7.3.3DB1313

Based on the Titan app latest is 7.3.7

 

[z00]

Does anyone have issues using lob drill in Titan? My machine works for others drills fine, but for lob it stops after 4 balls.

I have lob drill set as :
height 50, speed 10 (48mph) speed, feed 5 (3 sec), spin 0.

Titan has released a fix.

 

[ryohazuki222]

Machine is back alive! Replaced the board. Support is great. Pretty easy to work on.

Missed it while it was out.

 

[WilsonBlade98]

May I ask what was wrong with the handle?

One of the two tiny screws in the handle fell out and I couldn’t find it. Then, before I realized I should tape the side of the handle with the missing screw, the chrome metal shaft got disconnected inside the shaft inside the machine that it moves up and down in. I could not figure out how to get it reconnected, discussed with Titan Support and they said they would sell me replacement handle assembly. They linked to a video that explained how to install the new handle assembly, and it was pretty easy.

RECOMMENDATION: periodically check the two tiny screws in the handle and make sure they aren’t backing out. I check mine every few weeks and tighten them as needed.

 

[ryohazuki222]

One of the two tiny screws in the handle fell out and I couldn’t find it. Then, before I realized I should tape the side of the handle with the missing screw, the chrome metal shaft got disconnected inside the shaft inside the machine that it moves up and down in. I could not figure out how to get it reconnected, discussed with Titan Support and they said they would sell me replacement handle assembly. They linked to a video that explained how to install the new handle assembly, and it was pretty easy.

RECOMMENDATION: periodically check the two tiny screws in the handle and make sure they aren’t backing out. I check mine every few weeks and tighten them as needed.

Where are they? Was just thinking about this the other day.

 

[WilsonBlade98]

Where are they? Was just thinking about this the other day.

One on each side of the black plastic handle. They are very small and it’s easy not to notice if they get loose.