Ping Pong Robots

A robot never cancels, never tires and never gets bored of the same drill. It feeds ball after ball at the pace and spin you choose, so you can groove a stroke until it holds up under pressure rather than only in a friendly rally with a patient partner. The drill you keep avoiding is usually the one that needs the reps most.

Twenty focused minutes against a machine beats an hour of loose back-and-forth. Set the spin and the placement, repeat the shot until it runs on instinct, then change it and start again. Set one up once and the practice-partner problem quietly disappears for good.