When choosing a tennis ball machine these are the things you should consider:
- You should verify that it is battery operated if you will need to use it without electric supply. Also check how long the battery lasts when it is fully charged.
- If you need a portable ball machine you should verify that the ball machine weighs less and that it will be easy to move around. The size would be important too since a more compact ball machine will be more portable.
- You should check if the ball machine offers topspin and backspin.
- You should check if the ball machine offers enough elevation to practice lobs and smashes.
- You should check the top speed that the ball machine feeds balls at.
- You should check if it has horizontal oscillation, which means that the ball machine will feed balls side to side on the court. Another thing to consider would be if it feeds balls randomly and also if it offers to feed balls at commonly used settings - narrow, medium and wide.
- You should check if the ball machine has vertical oscillation, which means that the ball machine will feed balls at different trajectories and they will come at different depths on the court.
- You should check if the ball machine has triple oscillation which combines horizontal oscillation and vertical oscillation to feed balls all over the court. This is an important feature to simulate match play.
- For advanced ball machine features check if it offers fully random oscillation, which means balls are tossed throughout the entire court mixing up ball speed, spin, trajectory and oscillation. This is an important feature to simulate match play even more.
- For advanced ball machine features you should check if it comes with pre-loaded drills along with fully random oscillation.
- For advanced ball machine features another thing you should check is if it lets you save your own drills along with fully random oscillation.
