Features Glossary

Feed Control: The feed control found on all Silent Partner machines refers to the speed at which balls are fed to the player. This can be either very slow or rapid fire (one ball right after the other). This can be adjusted to suit your practice plans.

Delayed Feed: A machine that does not have this feature will start shooting balls as soon as it is turned on. Delayed feed means that there is a window of time before it starts shooting so that the player can get to the other side of the net.

Visible alignment fins: These fins are on the machine to make sure when you line up on the baseline that the machine is straight.

Memories: A machine that has memory capabilities allows you to store preferred settings into three different memories. You can, for example, save your preferred settings for practicing the types of shots produced by three different opponents. Or a family can use one memory for Dad, one for Mom and one for little André. Saving settings in memory is easy. You hold the memory button down for 2 seconds, just like when setting stations in a car radio.

Random Oscillator: The random oscillator found on the Edge series machines and Scoop Rival means the machine can rotate side to side, allowing you to groove your groundstrokes as you practice your footwork. You can also use the random oscillator to sharpen your volleys and to chase lobs. Compare this to the all court oscillation in the image below.

Adaptive All Court Oscillation: This advanced feature will feed balls randomly horizontally and vertically, for all-court coverage. The vertical oscillation is "adaptive" because the computer provides the right amount of vertical oscillation for the SPEED and SPIN that you have selected. Adaptiveness works even with very high speeds with flat throws and with top spin. Depending on the speed, spin and feed rates selected, the Adaptive-All-Court feature can provide a practice session worthy of a tour player.

Random (Wide or narrow): This refers to the angle of the feed. Your Silent Partner can be set to feed on a wide or narrow angle across the court.

Adaptive Vertical Oscillation: This means that the range of oscillation varies as you change the speed and spin.

Two Line Feed: This means the machine feeds balls down two lines similar to a pro feeding balls to two students. You can create two lines in any of 10 possible locations on the court, and you can introduce pauses between ball deliveries if you wish.

Select-A-Drill: This feature allows you to create your own infinite variety of drills by pressing the balls in the Position Selector in the sequence you want. You can even introduce pauses in the sequence. The drill sequence is then played back, with pauses, in exactly the order you have entered it. Sequences repeat automatically after the last ball in the sequence is thrown.

Match Play: The SMART provides three Presets that simulate points that you would play during a match. In all cases, the machine starts a sequence of shots with a short ball in the deuce or ad side, followed by a series of shots that replicate real match rallies. The difference between the three presets is in the length of the rally, the amount of spin on the ball, and the rest interval between points. Short points with relatively flat ball delivery, could you be playing on grass at Wimbledon? That's the idea for Preset 1. More spin and longer rallies? Could that be the hard courts of the US Open? Go ahead, the Smart encourages you to dream. Long grueling rallies loaded with topspin? Voilà Paris! But if you find that the speed, feed rate or spin stored in a preset does not suit you, go ahead and change them by storing your preferred values in the Preset.