Practicing with a TT robot

We won't tell them but it might be too late already.

Thank you Alois and Jeff,

For talked about robot's on the Pingskills blog. Short and sweet, I was expecting a little more about the subject. Alois, you did mention what I said here, that robot's can't replicate the human reaction. But what I really wanted to know was if you or Jeff have ever played against a robot? Also, as you might know, robot's have come a long way since they first came out. With programmable interface for topspin, backspin, sidespin, frequency, and oscillation.

This makes them more useful for practicing drill's. Mine has a wireless remote that I can program 3 different particular setting's. When I want to practice different types of spins and or how many balls I want to launch at me (frequency) up to 90 balls a minute can get pretty fun!!! It is a lot like having someone serving you multi-ball, but you can adjust all of a above mentioned with the wireless remote while you are practicing.

Trust me, you can build up a good sweat when you have 90 balls a minute coming at you with different spins and oscillating balls all over the table!!! After a couple of hours of doing this, then going to a practice partner. I really notice a difference in the way I play against them!!!

I guess what I'll do with the other 2 robot's I have is to see if my club could use them. 

Thanks again, you guys are the best!!!

Alois and Jeff, and all the Pingskills members of course.

Well, here I go again. When I received my robot it came with little plastic target's. They are the same shape as the robot but much smaller and very in size. So last night I put them in different places on the table and tried to hit them. What fun that is, not only can I practice my drills but now with the targets I can use them to help me with ball placement!!! I have read about putting some sort of targets on the table before but never tried it. So Pingskills members get some targets and put them on the other side of the table and try and hit them!!! Its more fun than you might think!!!

Nice one Steve.  I used some target today for one of the training sessions and the young kids loved them too.

Interesting, this robot is sold in Europe as Joola TT-Buddy (or TT-Buddy Pro). I wonder what made the marketing people thing of such a change ?

One thing that bothers me a bit is the difference between new and old balls. We play matches and practice with polyballs, while the robot in our club is loaded with the old ones. Can it be detrimental to the main game to practice a lot with the old balls?

Ilia,

I'm pretty sure that most robots can use thepolyballs. I know mine can and use them all the time with no problems.

Josef,

Joola is the importer of the IPONG robot. Even though it says designed in the USA they are made in China and imported through out different parts of the world. But you are right the Joola TT-Buddy is called the IPONG Original and the TT-Buddy Pro is called the IPONG Pro here in the US. The one I have is Joolas newest version of the IPONG robot's called the IPONG Master V300 which has new and improved mechanisms. I have used and own 2 of the IPONG Originals and think it the V300 is way better than the Originals. Because of the new improvements which makes a big difference, plus it has a wireless remote that just makes it much easier to use. With the wireless remote you can change your topspin and or backspin while practicing and you can save your preferred settings.

Now remember that these IPONG robots are not the best, but for the money I don't think you can go wrong with them. I know a lot of people say that the IPONG robots are not any good, but Joola told me they made a lot of improvements before I bought mine. And I guess they are right because I have not had any problems with the ones I have. Plus, who has $500 to $2000 dollars to spend on a TT robot when you can get a IPONG robot for under $100 buck's!!! Unless you run a TT club of course!!! LoL;-) 

>I'm pretty sure that most robots can use thepolyballs. I know mine can and use them all the time with no problems.

That's true, but I'm a little bit concerned whether at this stage it makes sense to buy a huge pack of polyballs given the current quality concerns (especially for the low grade balls).

Ilia,

I don't think we have to worry too much about the polyball versus celluloid at this point. Especially when we are just "Practicing" with a robot. I think that when we are practicing with a robot we are mainly working on our return of the ball with whatever spins we decide to program and foot work. Its when we are actually playing a real game of TT to see the benefits of the robot. I'm with you about the polyball issue currently being of bad quality and only time will tell if the TT ball manufacturers will start making them better. I play and practice with both poly and celluloid balls and prefer the celluloid balls over the polyballs. And like I said, I wouldn't go out and buy a bunch of the polyballs right now with the quality issue and the inflated price over celluloid balls. Just not worth it right now in my opinion!!! The only reason I have some polyball balls is that they were giving them away at my club for us to try out, so I grabbed a few. LoL ;-) 

I own a iPong V300 for 3 months now and it's definitely worth the money.  I could only come to a club on the weekends so it's a great way for me to supplement my practice during the week.  I used the following modes a lot : 5070, 5080 for top spin counter loops and blocking, I also use it to practice FH and BH footwork.  The 5580 mode oscillates ball placement left/right and allows me to practice connecting FH and BH strokes. Even though the robot is capable of producing underspin, I don't find it is very useful as it's far from what human can produce during plays, you will end up practicing the wrong kind of strokes to counteract the heavy underspin produced by the robot.