This Titan Ace is an impressive tool. I like everything about it. In many ways, I like it better than hitting with my friends.
Before I bought the Titan, I had owned a Lobster. The Lobster did a good job of throwing balls at me, but it only did one thing at a time. Lots of balls to my backhand, or lots of balls to my forehand. Changing the settings for ball height, speed, spin and direction was inconsistent and annoying. Making changes meant bending behind the machine and fiddling with the settings while it was launching a bunch of balls. The way the Titan does it is vastly superior.
The 12 pre-loaded drills are already very good, but I needed to change a few of them to accommodate my strengths, weaknesses, running speed (or slowness), and age (70). For example, I needed to change the “2-Line” drill so that it didn’t pull me quite so wide to either side. Using the app on my iPhone, this took, literally, moments. Changing speeds, ball heights, and spins, and everything has been incredibly easy.
Another drill, the “Forehand Topspin” drill, gave me a feeling for what it must be to try to play against Nadal. Too much spin, too high, and too powerful. Yikes! Fortunately, I could adjust all the settings to make it easier. Who knows: maybe, with practice, I’ll be able to handle the original settings.
Workouts with the Titan, compared to the Lobster, are more intense, more fun, more consistent, and more instructional.
There’s more. I like how I can remove the battery for recharging, rather than having to plug a cable into the machine, the way I had to with my old Lobster. I haven’t really tested the length of the battery’s charge, since I’ve only used it an hour at a time. So far, though, everything is good. The battery itself, by the way, is compatible with the batteries and charger I use for my Ryobi power tools. That’s a pleasant surprise. I’m curious to see how long my Ryobi batteries would last with the ball machine, something that I’m certain the folks at Titan would discourage me from trying.
The “remote”, which is just an on/off switch, does exactly what it is supposed to do. The motors in the machine will cut off when there are no more balls, but sometimes it is necessary to stop the machine early. The remote does it perfectly.
The rolling ball collector cage works perfectly. It holds probably 35 to 40 balls, picks up balls quickly and easily, and empties them in to the machine easily.
There are two, and only two, changes that I’d like to see. The first one, though, Titan tells me is in the works. That is, to be able to add drills to the 12 that come with the app. The second one is about the green LED lights that are on the front of the machine. They can be turned off or on in the settings, I believe, but I would like it if they blinked just before a ball was launched. This might already be possible, I don’t know.
One final thing: I only learned about the Titan ball machines because I had seen a YouTube video by Meike Babel. I had seen a number of her tennis instructional videos, so I was intrigued when she was showing a demo of this machine. She did such a good job that I decided to get one. Big thanks to her.
