Watch the clips by clicking the video tab for an introduction to the iPlaymate! Please note that the BALL MACHINE IS NOT INCLUDED. The ball machine must be manufacured after 2009. Please call our office at 888-366-4711 for ball machines made after this time.
How does it work?
You can connect your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to your commercial ball machine with bluetooth by purchasing a special receiver box that you hang on the side of your ball machine. The receiver box is called an iPLAYMATE Tennis. After the iPLAYMATE Tennis is installed, you can use the app, "Like My Drill", to work with your ball machine.
Will my current ball machine work?
You can use an iPLAYMATE Tennis on any SMASH, DEUCE, GENIE, or PLAYMATE PC that was produced since 2005. Also, if you have a SLAM or GRAND SLAM that was produced since 2006, your ball machine is also compatible with the iPLAYMATE Tennis. Keep in mind that while your ball machine is compatible, there are some advanced features that will only work on ball machines produced since July 2012.
What are advanced features?
While ball machines going back to 2005 and 2006 are compatible, there are some advanced features that will only work on ball machines produced since July 2012. Those advanced features include:
- 16 shot long drills instead of 8 shot long drills
- Shot count feature. For example, the ball machine can feed 20 balls and automatically stop until you want another 20 balls.
- Advanced random feature that presents a player with specific random shots in the middle of a drill. For example, you can set a few ground strokes and then either a high approach or a low approach at random, followed by a volley. The ground strokes and volley always happen in this drill, but the player will receive either a high approach or low approach type situation in the middle of the drill.
- Balanced random directions. For example, if you set the ball machine to feed to 3 different locations, it will try to balance the overall count of shots that go to each of those locations while still feeding randomly.
- Force a shot to go to a specific direction no matter what. For example, if the ball machine is feeding a drill that provides a random high approach or low approach situation as described above and you decided that no matter what the high approach needed to be on the backhand side for the player, you can force the high approach to always be to the backhand.
- Automatically stop at the end of a drill. Use the remote to start the drill again and the drill stops automatically at the end of the drill. For example, if you have a drill where a player goes from the baseline to the net and he wants the ball machine to wait for him to get back to the ball machine again, this feature will allow the player to start the drill on demand each time through.
- Feed 1 Ball feature allows you to quickly and easily create and customize advanced templates of shots.
