Are Ball Machines & Backboards Obsolete?

Racquet makers aren’t the only ones who are having fun with new technology these days.

Ball machine makers now have throwing devices that are portable, can serve, feature more knobs and buttons than the space shuttle and have ball retrieval systems that let students keep hitting without having to pick up balls. Once-deafening backboards are now silent and feature a variety of angles and cosmetics.

But the recent flood of sport science information seems to indicate that, since tennis is a game of typically short rallies, the traditional method of “grooving” strokes by hitting hundreds and hundreds of balls in concentrated practice sessions may actually do more harm than good.

Using ball machines and backboards as they have been traditionally used – – hitting until your arm is ready to fall off – – violates what we now know about how tennis strokes are learned and perfected. However, this is not the fault of the ball machine or the backboard – – it is their improper use that hurts the player, not the teaching aid.

A proper understanding of two sports sciences, physiology and motor learning, can help teachers and players use ball machines and walls as effective learning and practice aids.

Physiology
Point time statistics compiled at Grand Slam tournaments, including the French Open (played on the slowest surface, clay) bear out the fact that most points last less than 10 seconds. Even so-called “long” points in tennis matches last less than 30 seconds. This means that physiologically, then, tennis is an anaerobic sport.

When muscles are repeatedly used, such as in a sport like jogging or cycling, a chemical called lactic acid is produced. Lactic acid is a cause of muscle fatigue. Since tennis points last fewer than the 30 seconds it takes for an activity to become primarily lactic, tennis is alactic.

Therefore, tennis training should be conducted in conditions that are primarily anaerobic-alactic.

When considering all of this information, it should be obvious to coaches that tennis players should simulate match-like time conditions when learning a new stroke or practicing by working in bouts of less than 30 seconds.

Motor Learning
Practicing a forehand against a backboard or ball machines for many minutes at high intensity makes this practice technique a lactic activity, so why practice this way? The answer, old timers say, is that only this repeated drilling “grooves” strokes. But is this true?

Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as “muscle memory.” Your muscles do not have a brain, and therefore cannot remember or memorize anything. Your brain, however, can remember and store specific movement patterns; the goal of an athlete, whether a beginner of a champion, is to let his or her brain know which muscle movements are the most effective and to get the brain to send this message to the muscles each time you request it.

Think of perfecting motor skills as if you are compiling a photo album. Each time you correctly execute a stroke, you want your brain to take a snapshot of that correct muscle movement and put it in its tennis photo album. Your objective is to fill that photo album with enough correct snapshots so that when you think “forehand,” your brain goes to its album of “photos” and is able to send the message to your muscles that generates a successful groundstroke.

This is done via the central nervous system and results in motor learning and coordination. When your central nervous system and muscles are fatigued, they begin to make compensations and vary the habit pattern you had been trying to imprint.

Hitting tennis balls over and over again without sufficient breaks not only produces the negative physiological effects mentioned earlier, but also impairs the response of the central nervous system, which, as explained earlier, is responsible for “grooving” strokes.

Therefore, when you hit non-stop, the brain begins to compile a “photo album” of forehands hit under negative physical conditions which are not present during a tennis match. Remember, you are looking for your brain to compile a database of correct strokes, so the quality of each stroke is more important than simply hitting a given quantity of strokes.

When you hit 100 balls with no break and at maximum intensity, you will probably hit the first 10-15 with optimal efficiency, but the last 85-90 with decreased results. Which do you think your brain will remember, the first 10 or those last 90?

It is critical to hit those 100 balls in order to learn and perfect strokes, but it is more efficient to hit those 100 balls in 10 sets of 10, rather than all at one time.

Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

So how can ball machines and backboards, used traditionally to hit hundreds of balls in a row, be used to improve tennis skills? If you follow the German model of the three phases of skill improvement: learning, practicing and training, the ball machine and wall can be used at least a bit more effectively during each stage.

Learning
The concept of 50% “overlearning” is a good guideline when learning a new stroke. An example of overlearning would be a student working on topspin with her coach and needing to hit about 50 balls before the coach says, “That’s it. You’ve got it!” At that point, the student should hit about 25 more balls correctly in order to form the desired habit pattern for that skill before changing the drill. Hitting more than 25 balls may actually cause negative learning.

Early on, when students are learning a new skill, they need a consistent feed in order to eliminate variables that may hamper success. The goal at this stage is success, so that the student does not become frustrated with the sport. Ball machines can help here.

Another advantage of ball machines is that they allow the teacher to stand on the same side of the net with the student and provide more immediate, hands-on help.

Some ball machines are now capable of providing a variety of spins, speed and placement which require students to react to a more realistic rally simulation. Teachers should not become overly reliant on the ball machine or even a hopper, however, because it is critical that students learn to track and judge balls coming off an opponent’s racquet.

Practice
In the practice stage, you’re not learning something new: you’re practicing something you’ve recently learned. The student attempts to become comfortable and confident with the new stroke. One way to use ball machines and walls in a realistic way at this stage is to practice a variety of shots during your workout, rather than practicing only one stroke at a time. Mix in approach shots and volleys with both forehand and backhand groundstrokes. You will be using different muscles each time you switch shots, reducing the chance of muscle fatigue.

Since you are not hitting the same stroke over and over, you must concentrate harder on those strokes you do hit. When hitting 100 forehands in a row, it’s easy to get lazy with a bunch of them. When hitting only 10 forehands, you must take each seriously.

Taking a break to serve a hopper of balls might be a good idea, as well. Serving basket after basket of balls at maximum intensity will cause the same problems as hitting hundreds of groundstrokes without realistic breaks.

According to motor learning research cited in the late Vic Braden’s video, “Motor Learning,” working on one stroke with the same feed improves short-term learning; however variable or random practice produces better long-term retention and retrieval of a skill. Examples of random practice include the practice methods oabove, or working on the same stroke while receiving different types of feeds, or using a backboard.

Another way to get maximum gains from ball machines and the wall is to practice with less than maximum physical effort. This does not mean a decrease in mental intensity, but rather, working on control, placement, spin and depth as opposed to power and speed only. Practicing at a more measured pace will allow you to hit for more than just the 30 second-limit recommended during a maximum-intensity workout.

Many ball machines allow you to adjust the time between balls fed. Try to simulate ball flight times to the rhythm of a match – – a ball should not leave a machine until the ball you have just hit has passed the machine. While some ball machines claim to throw balls at speeds of up to 85 miles per hour, set your machine at a realistic speed for your student’s ability level.

Training
In the training phase, players are simulating matchplay pressure and working on their shots and overall game, as opposed to just their strokes. They are working on playing skills instead of simply hitting skills (or, shots instead of strokes).

Many teachers and coaches use long, tiring drills in the training stage to promote mental toughness, but it is not necessary to interfere with a player’s strokes or physical condition to improve his psychological skills, says applied sport researcher, Dr. Jim Loehr.

While Dr. Loehr supports the use of ball machines and the wall for developing strokes and conditioning, Dr. Loehr believes that mental toughness training is also best conducted in conditions that simulate match play, and that over-training only leads to a decrease in performance.

“Training to the point of exhaustion not only results in compensatory motor movements and a disintegration of stroke skills, but also undermines a player’s confidence when she can’t do what you’re asking of her,” says Loehr. “This is why many competitive players come to hate the game and burn out,” he says.

Even during “long” points, neither player expects the point to go that many strokes, points out Dr. Loehr, with offense and defense changing sides throughout the point as each players tries to end the point. Good players do not “settle in” and wait out their opponent — each one is working to finish the point.

If a coach or player wants to use a ball machine or wall to get a good workout, it is best to do it to improve conditioning. This is one of the main areas where machines can benefit a player. A hard workout will affect conditioning and mental toughness more than it will affect strokes if done during the training stage, since players are not learning or practicing a new skill as they would be in the other two stages of improvement, says Dr. Woods.

Athletes should begin each workout well rested and should simulate the work/rest ratio of a tennis match, including short breaks to simulate between point times, as well as longer breaks every 10 minutes to approximate match side switchovers.

Dr. Loehr concurs, adding that short-interval training helps to increase aerobic capacity because the recovery process in tennis is aerobic. Using ball machines to improve a player’s aerobic conditioning should be done in the preparation phase of a periodization plan, he says.

Dr. Loehr recommends working at maximum intensity for 15-20 shots against a wall or a ball machine, then taking a between-point break to recover. Walk around as you would after a point, then go at it again. This type of workout helps build stamina.

According to Dr. Loehr, training for long, high-intensity points can be beneficial because the longer a point lasts, the higher an athlete’s arousal and heart rate becomes. The player who can best control his feet, hands, heart rate and overall body coordination under this type of stress is most likely to win the long points.

“If you never train when your heart rate is high, you can’t control your body when that happens during a match,” says Dr. Loehr.

This type of training must be done very carefully and should be done during the correct phase of an athlete’s periodization plan, says Dr. Loehr, who adds that even training for “long” points should be conducted under conditions that approximate match times (bouts of less than 30 seconds).

Summary
Old-timers may argue that champions like Connors and Kramer and King spent countless hours on the courts grooving their strokes in grueling workouts. While this may be true, they were training using the best information available to coaches and players of their day, and were training under conditions similar to their opponents.

As today’s coaches and players apply scientific information to tennis, those players who train using obsolete methods will be left behind. Many coaches still believe that since some points do last for more than 30 seconds, athletes must be trained for those points, not only physically, but mentally as well.

By practicing with shorter, appropriate work/rest ratios, however, your body will have the increased capacity to keep up with your mental determination — a player may have the will, but he also needs the wheels. Braden points out that even players like Kramer and Connors worked mostly in environments that simulated match-play (random practice) rather than drilling with hoppers or ball machines.

Ball machines and backboards have been an integral part of a tennis player’s development for many decades. They provide athletes an economical way to improve their game, a way to practice when they can’t find a partner and as a way to improve conditioning.

Using these teaching and learning aids can continue to be an effective way for players to sharpen their games for many more decades as long as coaches and students use them correctly.