The Slinger Bag is a new type of tennis ball machine that I am glad to review for you.
There has not been much innovation in the tennis ball machine industry in the last decade. It’s great to see an affordable and cleverly designed product like the Slinger Bag show up and offer the tennis community a win-win partnership.
Disclosure: This Slinger Bag review was made possible by the generosity of the Slinger company. They sent me a unit free of charge for reviewing purposes and for my long-term use, for which I am grateful. The opinions in this review are my own.
Features And Pricing Of The Slinger Bag
The main innovation behind the Slinger Bag is combining the functionality of a ball machine with the practicality and portability of a big luggage bag.
The Slinger Bag is easy to maneuver around the court.
The Slinger Bag has the same extension handle as all modern luggage bags, which allows you to roll it behind you on wheels. It is very easy to maneuver around a tennis court that way.
There also are also many other useful and clever pockets that serve various purposes.
Here’s a quick overview of the features:
As you will see later in the review, the Slinger Bag is perfectly adequate for the typical needs of a tennis player who is looking to groove in their strokes or to get a more intensive workout.
There are more advanced tennis ball machines on the market that can hold many more balls and provide you with different spins and variations of feeding, but they also cost way more than the Slinger Bag.
Speaking of pricing, here’s an overview:
The Slinger Bag package I am reviewing is the $675 version with an additional oscillator, a telescopic ball tube and the camera holder.
How To Use The Slinger Bag Ball Machine
The Slinger Bag is very easy to use once you know how to set it up. It takes just three steps to get the ball machine working:
- fill the top compartment with tennis balls
- open the lower compartment where the controls are and attach it with the clip
- power on the ball machine
The lower compartment with the launcher and controls.
After that, you can use the remote control to start and stop the unit and optionally turn on and off the oscillator which rotates the Slinger Bag left and right.
Then you need to experiment with the settings where you can adjust:
- ball speed
- frequency of feeding
- angle
The oscillator does not have any adjustment setting. It simply rotates left and right at a certain preset speed.
The Slinger Bag tennis ball machine works in a very specific way; namely, a mechanism inside the machine pulls a tennis ball in between two spinning rotors and shoots the ball out at a certain point.
That means that every ball is ejected with topspin. The higher you set the speed of the ball, the more topspin it will have.
That can be very challenging for beginning or lower intermediate tennis players as they do not yet have the skill to time heavy topspin balls.
That’s why I wanted to see if I could adjust the Slinger Bag to settings that would allow even a tennis beginner to receive nice balls for grooving in their stroke technique.
a) Beginner settings and ball machine positioning
Because the Slinger Bag mechanism spins the ball at a rate related to the speed at which it shoots the ball, you need to set up a low speed setting in order to get very little topspin.
That means you need to place the Slinger Bag quite close to the net and set up a steeper angle for the balls to travel longer.
Placing the Slinger Bag ball machine close to the net allows you to receive slow balls.
As you saw in the video above, I was able to set up the Slinger Bag just fine to receive very slow balls with very little topspin that would be suitable for tennis beginners.
b) Intermediate (3.0–4.0 NTRP level) settings
Since most tennis players at the recreational level are somewhere between 3.0 and 4.0 on the US NTRP scale, I wanted to find the settings that would work for that level of player.
As you saw in the video, it’s possible to set the Slinger Bag on the opposite baseline and adjust the settings in such a way that you receive realistic balls to your site.
With some experimenting you can find the settings for an intermediate tennis player.
Positioning the ball machine around the baseline is important to give you the same reaction time and the same perception of the ball as it happens in a real tennis rally.
The balls do have some topspin as they bounce of the ground, but it’s quite manageable for the 3.0–4.0 level.
c) Maxed out settings
What happens if you max out both the ball speed and the feed frequency settings?
Then the balls coming off the ground carry quite a lot of topspin, and they come at a frequency that it not realistic.
The topspin is comparable to a 5.5 or higher level player hitting against you.
The frequency is too fast since the Slinger Bag shoots the ball at you before your own shot crosses the opposite baseline.
Perhaps that level of frequency can be used for short-duration super-intensive rallies to exaggerate quick recovery after the shot or to practice reflexes.
Since maxed out settings are too fast for real play, you then know that you can definitely adjust the settings to your level of play with the right speed and frequency of feeding.
Pros And Cons Of The Slinger Bag Ball Machine
Reviewing the Slinger Bag tennis ball machine was a very interesting and positive experience for me.
I’ve been asked many times in the past which tennis ball machine I would recommend, but I never had a good answer.
Most ball machines on the market seemed too expensive based on their main purpose, which is to repeatedly shoot out the same ball so that we can groove in our strokes.
A modern looking and practical tennis ball machine.
The Slinger Bag can do that for an affordable price, and it’s a product that stands out with its design.
For easy reference, I’ve put together a list of the pros and cons of the Slinger Bag.
Pros:
- cleverly designed and very practical
- easy maneuverable around the court
- battery lasts 5 hours
- quiet
- can charge your phone while in use
- can be adjusted to very slow and very fast balls
Cons:
- always shoots the ball out with topspin (no slice, no flat)
- no signal when the container is empty
- gets a bit fuzzy around the launch hole after a session
- the oscillator has no adjustment settings for speed or amount of turning
In summary, the Slinger Bag ball machine does well what it’s supposed to do – and that’s shooting out consistent balls at speeds and heights of your choosing so that you can groove in your stroke technique.
It can also provide you with a good workout if you engage the oscillator.
The official instructional video gives you a quick overview of all the features of the Slinger Bag.
I am glad that something new is happening in the tennis ball machine market as it has been stagnant for quite a while.
The Slinger Bag is an innovative and affordable tennis ball machine that I can gladly recommend to anyone who is looking to improve their stroke technique or get an intensive tennis workout on the days when no tennis buddy is around.
I appreciate your interesting and potentially useful review of the machine, so thanks for that.
However, I view the lack of adjustable spin capacity independent of ejection speed as a major con and I’m also puzzled as to why Slinger took that route as, contrary to the comment that it’s dependent on the speed of the rollers, that’s not actually the case.
The way this type of ball machine works is that balls roll down a chute of some kind and continue into the space between two spinning dished wheels which compress the ball, that kinetic force then being translated into forward movement as the ball exits and rapidly decompresses, shooting the ball with more or less speed through the air. Basically the spinning wheels catch, squeeze the ball between them and let it pop out at speed.
But by then adjusting the relative speed of one wheel to the other the machine can easily impart top spin or slice or send the ball out flat. That is, the energy to drive the ball is distinct from the energy imparting spin.
Of course this requires a separate variable speed motor for each wheel but as the wheels need to spin in opposite directions anyway (looking from, say, the left then the top one clockwise the lower one anti-clockwise) and as the speed can be varied also that’s already the case. As far as I can see the only extra needed is a dual controller to vary the wheel speeds independently and that’s not a great cost at all. Odd!
Hi Alex,
Based on what I learned about Slinger company they have big and long term plans and this is just their first product.
I am sure you could find flaws in the first iPhone. 😉
They plan to develop launchers for other sports and likely keep improving the Slinger Bag or other differently named tennis ball machines.
They are also listed on a stock exchange which suggests a very long term commitment.
Is there a way to buy this in Slovenia?
Hi Niko, I don’t know of a store selling Slinger Bag in Slovenia but follow the link below and you can find out other store locations in Europe:
https://slingerbag.com/shop/
Thank you Tomaz for you review. Me and my friend are ordering one today after seeing your video. Hope it will be a good purchase.
Great, let us know how it works for you!
HI Thomas , do you know if this machine is available to buy it from Italy ?
By the way you are great teacher !!
Thanks, Nunzio!
Follow this link and you’ll see flag of Italy and then you can fill up a form to get in touch with the stores or representatives that sell the machine:
https://slingerbag.com/shop/
I have one. Ordered it when it was a kickstarter project. I like it. Topspin only is indeed a gripe, but for the price I am ok with it. The one other negative, which is really only due to what was intended when it was a kickstarter project, is that it is bigger than what I originally envisioned. It started out as something that you could strap on your back (in fact it still has the backpack connections). No way I could ever strap that on my back! Anyway, I was hoping for something smaller that had wheels that could be strapped to my back. I use it, but I still use my Tennis Twist more often because I can get out the door and to the court faster for a quick practice.
-Bryant
Pozdravljen Tomaž! Kje lahko naročim Slinger Bag v Slovenijo? Po internetu mi ni uspelo zaslediti ponudnika, ki bi pošiljal k nam.
Lp, Niko
Do balls come with each purchase?
The cheapest option does not come with balls, then the next price upgrade includes the balls too.
I would love to see an option to condense the size for transport/use with half the ball capacity
(ie just big enough to accommodate one case of 72 balls when ball well compartment is zipped down to the smaller size… this would also make it more easily transportable and stored in small spaces, and accommodate carrying it in backpack mode of covering uneven terrain or snow getting it to the court.
Also, as a beginner, I’d love the option to narrow the osolatation pattern.
I have had my this machine for just under 2 yrs & yesterday when i went to hit with it ( i have probably only used it approx 15 times) the machine wouldn’t feed any balls, completely charged so i turned it off to check if a ball was stuck (which does happen but not often) & noticed the hardware had come unattached & then I turned the machine over w/the feeder on the ground & all these nuts & bolts fell out. Reached out to Slinger only to be told it is out of the 1yr warranty, even though they extend for three (they say when you purchase it) if you register your machine, which i did, but regardless the quality of the build is less than adequate if all the mechanics literally fall out after so little use
Do not waste your money. Neat innovations but limited options and the ball does not bounce naturally. I played 4 years of college tennis and coached tennis at a club for four years. The machine will be tough for beginners. The path of the ball after the bounce is not natural. I charged it for over 24 hours and the battery started dying after three rounds. Their customer service is horrible. I used it once and asked to return it and they refused to give me my money back since it had been used once. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.