You may be wondering why people are buying pickleball machines and what the purpose of them are. Pickleball machines are for people who want to level up their game and get fed balls to help them master specific shots.
There are times where you need to drill but have conflicting schedules with your pickleball friends and drilling partners. You can still do wall drills to practice certain things like dinking and fast hands.
But there are certain areas where doing wall drills fall short. It’s harder to practice 3rd shot drops, cross court dinking, and set 6 ball sequences where you are able to mimic a live scenario on the court.
Overview of the SpinShot Ball Machine Review
The SpinShot pickleball machine is one of the most popular pickleball machines in the market. The reason why is because players can improve their game through premade drills, customizable drills and spin variations. The purpose of a Spinshot pickleball machine is to help players improve without a partner.
You can place the machine at any location in the court to practice specific shots. The Spinshot can help you with every shot. Whether you want to practice drives, dinking, volleys, or returns.
Spinshot Ball Machine Key Features and Specifications
- Adjustable speed, spin control, and trajectory settings
- Design aspects: portability, ease of use, battery life, and durability
The Spinshot pickleball machine comes with an internal and external battery, charger, and powers manual. Here are some of the key feature and specs:
Dimensions
Height 20’ /50cm
Length 18’ / 45 cm
Width 12’ / 30 cm
Weight
40/lb /18 kg
44lb /20 kg with battery
Internal battery 1000 balls 2-3 hours
Standard conflation – charge battery into machine
External battery 1000 balls, 2-3 hours
Battery sits outside machine
Mains power – no limit on playtime
Connect power cable to power source
Hybrid – mains power battery – no limit on playtime
Accessories – dust cover
Remote watch – Want to start/stop machine
How the SpinShot Enhances Pickleball Training
The Spinshot pickleball machine helps people simulate real world scenarios with drilling.
A drill is a sequence of balls delivered by the machine and used to practice a specific shot, or combo of shots
For example, a pickleball drill might be a ground stroke, a transition shot followed by 3 dinks, then a volley to finish. You can create any drill combination you like.
These drills are highly beneficial for a beginner player looking to improve their 3rd shot drops to get reps in or even an advanced player looking to perfect their drop and drop it right above the net so it’s unattackable for opponents.
Step-by-Step Setup and Operation
The Spinshot pickleball machine comes in one unit so it’s really easy to initially set it up. It comes with a dolly for your convenience to roll into the park.
To configure the drilling settings, download the Drill Maker app. The app will populate with 12 pre-made drills. You can edit the app to create the customizable drills.
To edit the custom drills, press and hold the drill and you can adjust the horn, speed, spin, height, and feed.
The SpinShot pickleball machine has horizontal oscillation so you can practice your forehand and backhand shots. This machine also has vertical oscillation to move the ball up and down. There’s a lot of spin options. From flat to topspin to backspin. The timing per feed starts from 2 seconds and goes to 10 seconds per ball.
Spinshot Ball Machine Training Drills and Routines
D1: Deep Serve BH (backhand)
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves behind the baseline, in the middle of the backhand service box. Notice all balls should land in different areas in the service box.
This drill is designed to return service from the backhand side of the court.
D2: Deep Serve FH (forehand)
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves behind the baseline, in the middle of the forehand service box. Notice all balls should land in different areas in the service box.
This drill is designed to return service from the forehand side of the court.
D3: Narrow Backspin Return
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves in the center of the court, behind the baseline. The balls should land just to the right and left of the center court.
This drill is designed to work on your backhand and forehand, when returning backspins.
D4: Narrow Topspin Return
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves in the center of the court, behind the baseline. The balls should land just to the right and left of the center court. This drill is designed to work on your backhand and forehand, when returning topspin.
D5: Deep Forehand / Backhand
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves in the center of the court, behind the baseline. This is designed to work on your forehand and backhand shots. The balls are pushed farther away from the center of the court. This drill will make you cover more of the court when hitting your returns.
D6: 3rd Shot Drop
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves in the middle of the court, behind the baseline. The ball should land to the right and left of Center Court. The ball is a softer deeper shot. The drill is designed to work on 3rd Drop Shots to forehand and backhand returns.
D7: Backhand Sequence
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves behind the baseline, in the middle of the backhand service box. Notice all balls should land in different areas on the backhand side of the court.
The drill is designed to return serve, approach the net, and hit an overhead from the backhand side of the court.
Ball 1 returns a deep serve and approaches the net.
Ball 2 prepare for a return of a drive behind from the kitchen line
Ball 3 prepare for a dink return
Ball 4 prepare for a dink return
Ball 5 prepare for a drive return
Ball 6 prepare for an overhead
5 seconds delay and then the drill repeats
D8: Forehand Sequence
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves behind the baseline, in the middle of the forehand service box. Notice all balls should land in different areas on the forehand side of the court.
The drill is designed to return a serve, approach the net, and hit an overhead from the forehand side of the court.
Ball 1 returns a deep serve and approaches the net.
Ball 2 prepare for a return of a drive behind from the kitchen line
Ball 3 prepare for a dink return
Ball 4 prepare for a dink return
Ball 5 prepare for a drive return
Ball 6 prepare for an overhead
5 seconds delay and then the drill repeats
D9: Overhead
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves in the center of the court, behind the kitchen line.
The balls should land random lobs over the heads of players.
This drill is designed to work strictly on overhead shots.
D10: Random Dinking
Machine Position: Center of court behind baseline
Drill Description: The player should position themselves in the center of the court, behind the kitchen line. The balls should land randomly close too or inside the kitchen area .
This drill is designed to work on returns of the 3rd drop shot or kitchen dinking.
D11: Cross Court Dinking
Machine Position: The outside edge of the court, near the kitchen line.
Drill Description: The player should position themselves crosscourt of the machine, behind the kitchen line. The balls should land in different kitchen areas This drill is designed to work solely on crosscourt kitchen dinking.
D12: Random Kitchen Dinking
Machine Position: Anywhere behind the kitchen line.
Drill Description: The player should position themselves behind the kitchen line and facing the machine. The balls should land in different kitchen areas.
This drill is designed to work solely on kitchen dinking.
Testimonial from a Professional Pickleball Player
John Cincola, a professional pickleball player says that he uses the SpinShot because he often has a tough time finding time to drill due to teaching pickleball and playing games
Sometimes he doesn’t have the time to coordinate finding a drill partner. He has a Youtube video where he goes over the top 5 drills that he does when he drills with the SpinShot Pickleball Machine. He goes over dinking cross court, drops, volleys, resets, and more in this video.
Comparison with Other Pickleball Machines
There are a couple of amazing features that come with the SpinShot pickleball machine. The first is that compared to a lot of other machines, it comes with pre-made drills and drills that you can customize to work on your weak spots.
If you don’t feel like bringing your phone to the courts, then you can buy the watch as an add on and adjust the drilling from there. The Spinshot also comes with an internal and external battery. So you can use the Spinshot in a hybrid sense to conserve battery.
If you have a court that has a power cable, you can connect it without having to use and charge the battery. The horizontal and vertical oscillation is also a great feature. You can practice your backhands and forehands with this feature.
The key features that the Spinshot has compared to other machines is you can select the drills that you want to work on from the machine or watch. Other popular ball machines like TitanOne and ERNE do not have this feature.
Conclusion: Assessing the Value of the SpinShot Ball Machine
I believe the Spinshot ball machine is overall a great machine for all types of players. The ability to have premade drills, customize drills, oscillation, a watch to configure the settings are all amazing features to this machine.
I think the only drawback for me would be the price as it starts at $2,139. If you’re a complete beginner, I wouldn’t recommend this machine. I would suggest hitting against a wall and drilling with a partner.
But, if you’re an intermediate/advanced player looking to break out of your current level and become a batter pickleball player, I’d highly suggest the SpinShot pickleball machine.