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Two strokes into every tennis match, I remember my backhand is trash. I overgrip the racket, aim horrifically, and am lucky if the ball lands anywhere inside the white lines. It’s a lack of skill that’s stuck through grade school camps, high school doubles, and ongoing sibling rivalries. But now that I’m 30, it's time to do something about it. Tennis is one of the few sports you can play for a lifetime, and I can’t spend the coming decades flailing each time the ball is on the left side of the court.
That's why I eagerly agreed to test the Slinger Slingshot T-One, a portable tennis ball launcher that looks like a rolling duffel bag. Charge it up, plop up to 144 balls in the top, and you can set it to shoot you everything from volleys to my dreaded baseline backhand. For $599—significantly more affordable than most competitors (and a couple of months of tennis lessons)—you can work on the shots you struggle with on your own time, on a public court. For anyone without the time or money to join a tennis club and hire a coach, the Slinger is a great training tool.
The best part about the Slinger is how simple it is to use. The blue and black rolling bag has two large zipper pockets on the front, one to hide the firing mechanism as well as the speed and rate it shoots balls, and the other to hide the ball hopper. On the side, a small zipper hides an angle adjustment lever. (Unscrew, adjust to the angle you want, and retighten the screw.)
There’s a large interior section that's accessible through the top of the bag where you can put a few tennis rackets, and a side sling for an optional telescopic ball grabber (Slinger sells a number of accessories to go along with the bag, but this one is the best). There’s a USB charging port in an upper right pocket for cell phones, and an optional phone mount that latches to the telescopic handle should you want to film your strokes for TikTok or Instagram.
Such smart design and simple, logical functionality make taking all your gear to the court a breeze. Just roll the bag, which has your tennis balls, the launcher, and your racket inside it, to wherever you want to play, unzip it, and you’re off. It weighs 33 pounds, so it's not too difficult to lift it in and out of the trunk of a car.
Setting up the perfect shot for a given exercise takes a little bit of practice, but once you figure out the machine’s settings, they're pretty easy to dial in. The speed and ball-flow knobs on the front of the bag are easy to adjust, and they go from pretty darn slow to pretty darn fast. An included remote, which looks a lot like a car key, allows you to turn it on or off from across the court. There’s a short warm-up time for the machine before it gets going (around 30 seconds).
I typically started practice with the machine near the net but on the same side as me. On low speed and medium ball-feed, it provides some nice, gentle warm-up shots. Once I’m feeling more confident, I wheel the launcher to the other side and set up an angle and speed for a type of shot I’m trying to work on (lately, volleys and that dreaded backhand).
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Slinger sent me a box of about 50 balls to go with the Slinger, which I found to be a pretty great number to throw in the hopper. It rarely misfires, thanks to a smart mechanism inside, and by the time it runs out of balls I'm genuinely tired from practicing that certain type of stroke.
I love the optional ball collection tool. It’s a telescopic cylinder that allows you to point it at balls and collect them inside the tube en masse without bending over. Once the tube is full (about 20 balls), flip it over and empty it into the ball carrier—it's easier than those silly baskets with slots you may have used on courts in the past.
The company also sells an oscillator (and it sent me one as a part of my review package). It twists the bag side to side, around 45 degrees, to mimic the type of shots you might receive against an actual player. To be honest, I hardly used it. I found the Slinger to be most effective when working on repetitions of specific shots. But if you want the motion, it's easy to hook up and use.
When using the Slinger, the speed and angle at which it launches a ball change ever so slightly from ball to ball, so you can’t quite sit in the same spot—a nice simulation of variance. One slight downside is that the launcher has a significant amount of top spin, especially at high speeds, which makes it hard to hit the ball back. It’s not so much more than what I’ve felt from skilled players though, so training on the Slinger won't negatively affect you long-term.
In fact, in my few training sessions with the bag, I'm getting much better. I’ve really improved that backhand, as well as my ball placement when volleying from the net.
I never had the Slingshot T-One die on me because I'm not usually spending hours at the court. The company says you can expect around 3.5 hours of juice, which should be plenty for most people. Once you’re done playing, wheel the bag home and charge it via the included AC cable. (It even comes with adapters for every major type of wall socket on the planet.) I do wish the included cable was longer, though; it’s sometimes hard to find a wall outlet close enough to the front of the bag to charge it. It takes around four hours to recharge fully.
It’s hard to find anything that competes with the Slingshot T-One Launcher for the money. Spinshot makes great launchers, but its most basic model is $849 on Amazon. A Tennis Tutor, another popular launcher, will run you $899. For hundreds cheaper, the slinger accomplishes the same goal, arguably with more functionality, thanks to the accessories.
I’m hoping to hold on to this review unit until the weather starts to change here in Oregon. I’ve rarely had such an effective (and open-scheduled) practice partner, and I’m noticing dramatic improvements to my game with just an hour or two a week. If you’re a public court player looking to up your game, you might want to grab one too.
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