Ball Machine Practice

​Set the ball machine on the side of the court, not in the middle of the court. Most of the time in tennis you are hitting the ball cross court, both in singles and doubles.


Best Singles Practice!

Place the machine in the deuce court firing the ball to your deuce court forehand where you can hit cross court or up the line! Be sure to practice your proper recovery position on the court so you are not camping out in the corner expecting the shot.

The machine is firing the ball to your forehand. You can change the direction of your shot at will. You can also have the machine shoot up the line from the deuce court, you then can hit your backhand crosscourt or back up the line. By selecting the change direction feature on the machine you can run to forehand or backhand.

Move the machine to other corner and repeat these plays, plus you can run around your backhand and hit inside and outside shots! There's a lot going on there! A lefty would be reverse of the righty set ups but all the shots would be the same.

You have now practiced hitting from both corners in both directions. You have returned the direction of the ball and changed direction of the ball from both sides. This is tennis! Standing in the middle of the court just hitting balls is not real tennis!

Think about how much stamina you can gain form this. If you go with a friend you can take turns at say at 10-12 balls each while the other player hits the ball on the other side of the net to the opposite corner from where you are playing. In 30 minutes you can have a serious training session.

Best Doubles Practice

Place the machine in the deuce court and have it fire to your deuce side. You practice forehands or backhands cross court or down the line. Practice the same drill from the ad court. You have now practiced both forehands and backhands from both sides of the court while hitting you shots cross court and/or down the ally. That's real doubles options, You can also have the machine vary the direction slightly to the corner with the change feed option, but much easier than a singles workout, because in doubles you don't typically run from ally to ally hitting shots.

​Enjoy you ball machine practice and train with a purpose. My next post on the machine will be net play drills.