Tennis

     Last year when my DS (Dear Son) fell in love with tennis, I started to look for a tennis machine to help him practice on weekends.  Since we're not sure about the duration of his interest, we only want to put in the minimal investment.  After researching and reading lots of reviews, I discovered that the Tennis Twister by Tennis Tutor was actually pretty decent.  For little kids starting out in tennis, the Twister is a good ball machine for a few reasons:

1. It's cheap: I paid $190 and after using it for 6 months, I sold it back on EBAY for $100!
2. Because it's slow, the only way to use it is to place in the middle of the service line.  This turns out to be an advantage.  Most little kids/beginners cannot estimate the speed of the ball so having it on the same side of the net helps them predict where the ball will bounce and hence, concentrate on hitting the stroke consistently.  
3. It's light ... less than 10 lbs.  I could carry it in 1 hand and the other hand carry the balls.

The Sports Tutor (Tennis Tutor) Cube with Oscillation

     This year my DS seems to consistently able to hit the balls from the Twister.  He is still enjoying tennis and loves to go to lessons/practice.  We figure that if he continues it's best to get  a better machine for him to practice in handling faster balls.   I think the machine can help him get better stroke consistency.
     A lot of research narrows down to Tennis Tutor Cube and the Pro Lite ball machines.  I decided on these 2 machines for these reasons:

1.  Reasonable Price.  The price of these machines are around $599-$800.  If we use it and decide to upgrade or not interested in tennis any more, we can still sell it back for 50%.   So the investment is not high.
2. The weight: The Cube is the most compact machine and weighs 24lbs.  The Pro Lite weighs 30 lbs.   I think being petite, I can still handle lifting either machines.
3. Technical Specifications:  both can do oscillations and variable speeds and heights.

     It's tough to decide on which machine so I called the company (www.sportstutor.com) and asked for opinion.  The rep told me if my DS is really serious, I should just bite the bullet and get the Pro Light.  He said a lot of buyers complained about the Cube doesn't have enough speed.  It seems funny to me because if I looked at the spec, the difference in speed is only 10 miles/hr?  But he insisted that the 10 miles is what makes the Pro Lite a better choice.  Not knowing what the extra 10 miles feel like, I cannot argue with him.
     I went on EBAY and search to see what the black market prices are like.  Actually, I saw that sportstutor is also selling on EBAY!  The Cube with Oscillator is sold for $490 with free shipping!   You might think this is a refurbished machine.  But I don't think so.  My feeling is that Sportstutor told me they cannot sell on their website at a lower price than their dealers.  So they have to sell it on EBAY at a lower price.  Anyways, the machine is under warranty for 2 years!
     Now the equation is clear.  After discussing with DH, we agreed that getting the Cube was a better solution.  If DS becomes serious later on, we have to upgrade to a better machine any ways (ie. the one with spins, lobs, etc ... ) So why not again, make the minimal investment?  This machine should last us a few years.  Our experience with the Twister was pretty good so we believe that Tennis Tutor makes decent tennis ball machines.
    While doing research on this, we also decided that we need to get a light cart for me to transport the ball machine and the tennis balls to the court.   I narrowed down to the Magna Cart Flatform Truck (16.8" x 27.9" x 3.7") because it's got really good reviews and it's light (15 lbs).  I ordered it from Walmart for $60 including tax (cheaper than from Amazon).  This cart allows me to lug the tennis machine and the ball basket without straining my back.
     We got the machine a week later on Monday, 3/21/2011.  Unfortunately, it rained the entire week.  It finally stopped raining on Saturday afternoon. As soon as the court dried up, we took the Cube out for a spin.  It actually works better than we expected.  Within a few minutes we quickly discovered that this machine is too strong for DS.  We need to move it to the center of the service line and shoot the ball from there using lower speed (note that if you place it at the baseline, you need to shoot it at higher speed).