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 US$2700. Is it worth
it? How much coaching can you buy
with this money. Trips to Europe?
I'll be spending more time in the future with this robot,
but for now here are my impressions.
2 head design, and limited to only 45 degrees of side spin;
this robot is going to have many of the same problems that the TW2000-05 had.
You won't be making pure side spin with this thing.
Only side-top or side-under. You
won't be adjusting this thing instantly if you are practicing serves, going from
one type of side spin to the next (for example, switching from pendulum side
spin serves to backhand side spin serves in an instant like you can on Newgy and
Y&T.)
Also the net is the same as the TW2000-05; which means a
long time setting up and breaking down the robot.
With all these issues, is it worth the money?
Let's examine what it CAN do. The head height is adjustable, from down near table height up
to 1 foot over the table. That's
good. It will make serves seem much
more real.
It has MEGA spin. I
am told this thing can make an underspin short serve so heavy that the ball will
go over the net, turn around and come right back.
That's good.
You can adjust QUANTITY of spin INDEPENDENT of SPEED.
That's a mouthful. No other robot does this.
TW2000-05 tries to do this, with very limited success. But
this is the first robot that can truly give you a slow spinny short serve OR a
fast dead serve. (most robots give short dead serves and fast heavy spin serves
b/c spin and speed cannot be separated).
It has a lot of gimmicks.
Time delay on backspin for "realism," and 99 presets bla bla
bla. This does up to 4 balls to ANY
LOCATION short or long, and you can change the spins (not side spins though,
only underspin or topspin or dead ball) and speeds on any of those balls.
So short heavy underspin to the left followed by a high looping arc to
the right, etc. Very cool. But
that trip to Europe seems like a better idea....
So there you have it, that's the sum of my experiences so
far. Someone said I need to try the
TTMatic line of robots. They said
that these are very good and realistic, especially the "505B".
But I've heard that they use "brushes" not wheels to create the
spin, and that the "brushes" are very expensive and wear-out quickly.
So you are spending upwards of $50 every few months to replace brushes.
O.k., so that's not "very" expensive but I think you get the
point. Anyway, that's second-hand
info I haven't actually tried them myself or seen the brushes wear out myself.
I guess the perfect garage would have both an Amicus and a
Y&T to have the best of both worlds. That
would cost $3600.....
Marco Borrillo
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