April 6, 2008

Review: Playmate Ace Basic Ball Machine

My tennis game is admittedly a little rusty these days, so I decided what better way to work it out than on a ball machine. So I tried out the Playmate Ace Ball Machine. I won't go into detail about my poor physical conditioning, but suffice its to say its not good. But you want to hear the skinny on the machine, so here you go.

The Playmate Ace is a pretty large machine, it holds 200+ balls depending on how many you want to stuff in there. If you're using this by yourself, which I was, this means about 10-15 minutes of hitting at a steady pace non-stop. I stopped before the hopper ran out.

You can set the spin from flat to topspin to backspin, control the elevation, and you can oscillate the shots. I found the oscillation to be a bit inconsistent, but I suppose if its truly random that's to be expected. I would have personally rather had a more balanced ratio of forehands to backhands, mine seemed to be very heavy on the backhand.

You can also adjust the ball frequency and speed. It took some getting used to to balance the spin, speed and elevation to get it just where I wanted it. Full disclosure: I used this at public courts and the remote control was missing. The remote would have made this much more easily managed. However, overall its quite easy to operate, and its relatively light (a little under 100 lbs).

This is a solid machine for teaching pros and tennis facilities, and it offers nearly all the intervals, directions, elevations, and trajectories you will need. And with a few minor complaints, it worked very well for me.

Playmate Ball Machines
Playmate Ace Ball Machine
Playmate Genie Ball Machine
Playmate Portable Ball Machine
Playmate Serve Lift
Playmate Smash Ball Machine

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