A11N Pickleball Ball Launcher Review

All links to view and purchase items mentioned in this review are at the bottom of the post!

Overview

I receieved an A11N pickleball launcher to review directly from the company upon me asking them directly.

This launcher is in the $200 range and puts it well below expensive $1000+ models, however there are several in the $150-$200 range.

I chose this as it seemed to have the best features and speed of any of the launchers in this range.

I was definitely not disappointed and love using this ball launcher for drilling by myself now.

The launcher holds 19 balls which is decent but it does go by faster than you think. I highly recommend grabbing the ball track extra pieces which should allow you told a total of about 33-35 balls.

The only downside is the track isn’t sold in Canada so you’ll have to order from the U.S. and when you factor in import fees it cost me around $55. Quite expensive for 4 pieces of plastic but in the grand scheme of things, it’s well worth having as you’ll have more time in between loading and using the launcher.

Speaking of balls, if you’re looking for decent outdoor balls that don’t break the bank, GO Sport 40 balls are recommended – they are fairly similar to the popular Franklin X-40s and significantly cheaper, so ideal for a ball machine.

If you want to spend less time picking up balls, a ball retriever helps a lot – again, expensive for what it is but saves you time and a lot of bending over.

Functions

The launcher itself has a ton of handy functions such as:

  • Swivel base (launcher rotates back and forth while launching balls)
  • 2 Dual speed motors for fast or slow launches – setting 1 high and 1 low causes the ball to curve
  • Adjustable launcher wheels allows you to add slice to the left or the right so the ball spins away from you

All this coupled with the fact that the launcher can launch balls 40-45 km/h makes it s super good sub $1000 ball launcher. Similarly priced launchers only launch balls 15-25 km/h!

Power Options

The launcher can be powered by cord, D batteries or a USB power bank as long as it’s rated for 3A of power outage. I got a 20,000 mAH power bank for about $25 on Amazon and used that exclusively – after 6 or 7 sessions the battery was still around 65% – lots of power left.

Issues

I only had 2 minor issues with this launcher:

  1. On my first use sometimes the launcher would spit out 2 balls. One full speed and the other dribbled out. Not a huge issue but makes the 19 balls go by quicker
  2. Again, on my first use sometimes the last ball would not launch.

I don’t remember having either of these issues after my use. My theory is that the wheels that launch the ball got some plastic grit built up on them and cause the wheels to have a better “grip”. Whether this is by design or a happy accident, whatever works!

Uses

The uses for this are mostly limited to your imagination, but here’s some drills I did:

  • Third shot practice: We could all use this and this drill let’s you hit hundreds of third shots in a short time.
  • Volleys/Blocks: You can attach the launcher to a camera tripod so for this drill I set the ball launcher at the kitchen line on the opposite side of the court (or even close) and put it full power. I practice hitting my blocks down at my “opponents” feet.
  • ATP practice: This one is harder to set up but with a bit of patience you can get the launcher to get the ball in a pretty consistent spot for ATPs. I always drill it as hitting ATPs where I can and just dinking back those I can’t. This helps you recognize balls you can and can’t hit around the post!
  • ERNE practice: Similar set up to the Blocks practice though you can also set it lower and slower and practice hitting ERNEs – this skill is mostly mental – knowing when to try it, so this drill will help your brain be ready for those opportunities.
  • Dink practice: Mostly the same as the ATP practice but a little less precise setup for general dinking practice.
  • Bob Loblaw’s Ball Lob Practice: (that’s an Arrested Development joke for this in the know). Set yourself up at the kitchen and get the launcher to lob over your head near the baseline. Practice running back and doing a good reset!

All of these drills can be modified with the slice settings or curve balls, swivel base and more and of course you can run any drill you can think of!

Final Thoughts

For what this machine can do and how much you can improve your game, it’s well worth the ~ $200 price4 tag and if you ask me, investing in the extra ball track, USB power bank and a tripod are also super helpful.

I saw my third shots and my blocks improve noticeably after just a few sessions with this machine. I keep it in my car and often stop at a local outdoor court to run some drills.

Links

All links go to Amazon – full disclosure these are affiliate links meaning I get a very small commission – it costs you nothing and supports my budding business, so any purchase through these links is appreciated!

A11N Ball Launcher

Extra track for ball launcher – if the usual seller doesn’t have this in stock it may be priced way too high. It should be $45-55 CAD if in stock with the usual supplier.

Go Sports 40 Pickleballs

20,000 mAH USB Power bank with 3A output

Pickleball Retriever

Tripod for mounting launcher

Drills

There’s a meme that goes around showing a huge lineup of people buying a new Pickleball paddle, while there’s a line for skills and coaching that is empty.

Our brains are funny. You might notice when people miss or mishit a shot they look at their paddle as if it’s the paddles fault! Or if it isn’t the paddles fault, maybe the ball is cracked? No? Must have hit a weird spot on the floor, as it couldn’t possibly be us!

I’m guilty of it myself. A new paddle can feel amazing. Like your whole game will change! While a good paddle that suits your style can make a difference, practicing is really the best way to improve your game. I guarantee someone who has a $100 paddle will beat their peers with a $300 paddle if the first person has done drills and practice.

Many people just want to get out and play, and I get that! We want to have fun! There are many drills that can still be a “game” though which will feed your competitive nature.

One is the dink game. Game goes to 7, works exactly like a real game except shots outside the kitchen are “out”. This is a dink only game (you can take the ball out of the air still if you’re not in the kitchen).

Another good one is “7-11” where one player stands at the kitchen line and drives to the other player, who is standing behind the baseline. The goal of the receiving player is to work their way to the kitchen and score a point. The goal of the “serving” player is to prevent this. It’s player with just one half of the court and the server must get 11 points to win, while the receiver only needs 7. This teaches the server to keep players back and the receiver to work their way through the transition zone up to the kitchen.

I always tell people – in a rated game, play the game you know. Even if it’s “wrong” it’s what you’ll perform best at. Unrated/Rec games are a great place to practice. Just remember to tell yourself – it’s about practice, not winning! Otherwise you may forget and fall into old habits.

In order to really drill things into your head, drills (aptly named) are necessary.

For example, my partner and I wanted to practice doing 2 handed backhands, something we could never seem to remember to try while playing.

We drilled for 2 hours, hitting every backhand as a 2 handed backhand. Now, you don’t need to and probably shouldn’t hit every backhand with both hands, but after that, it became automatic to hit 2 handed back hands and strangely enough, my brain seemed to know when to do 2 hands and when to do 1 hand.

There are so many important drills you can do, and I won’t list any more here, but I encourage you to look online yourself and have fun drilling! Spring is just around the corner and going to a free court to drill is a great way to spend your time in the warmer months!

Happy pickling everyone!

Ratings

Ratings are a sensitive topic for some so I want to preface this with a personal note: I am 100% against “rating bullies”. If I show up to a 4.0+ game and there are 3.0 players, I am going to play with you and I’m not going to coach you, snub you, roll my eyes or tell you that you don’t belong. I will also compliment your good shots and tell you “good try” on your misses. I try to look at playing with a weaker player as a challenge, and I hope others extend me the same courtesy when I am the weaker player.

All that being said, ratings are something we use to try to create a competitive, fun atmosphere for all players. So while we shouldn’t bully others, it’s a good idea to know our true rating: we’ll have more fun and so will everyone else!

The Self Rating Problem

Many people rely on self ratings and may feel offended if you suggest their rating is lower than they have self rated. A lot of the time this happens with they play with another player that rates the same as them and they are a similar skill level, so they rate the same as that player – a player who may have over rated themselves. Similarly someone who knows that same player may rate higher because they feel they are a better player, but again, if the player people are comparing to rated high in the first place, a cascade of incorrect self ratings ensues.

You might say to yourself – it doesn’t matter, I play in the group I like and that’s that, and that is your right to do so, but a few problems arise from that for other players.

Imagine a scenario where there’s a session made for 3.5 – 4.0 players. This is a very competitive skill bracket.

Now imagine, someone who either correctly self rates or has a DUPR rating of 3.5 decides to attend this session.

That person may be surprised to find out that range is much wider and players attending are actually anywhere from an under 3.0 rating to a max of 3.5, instead of 3.5 – 4.0 bracket they were expecting.

Several things can happen here from here:

  • That player may feel they are under rated because they win most or all games and change their rating, incorrectly, to 4.0 based on their performance at this “3.5 – 4.0” session
  • That player may decide this group is not for them and attend a 4.0+ group. Unfortunately since most locations are not offering any higher brackets, there’s then a 3.5 player playing against other 3.5 layers that had the same experience, but also against actual 4.0+ players.
  • The result is diminished competitiveness at every level, but especially at the 4.0+ level.

While you personally may not care about having competitive (close) games and say “this is just for fun”, remember that people are different and competitive people are not having fun if they’re beating people 11-0, 11,-1, 11-2, etc.

Why is self rating so unreliable?

It’s my personal opinion that since pickleball gained popularity in our area that anyone that was perceived as “very good” was automatically assumed to be a 4.0 player because that’s “advanced”. The problem is, it’s very likely ANYONE in our area just started playing pickleball and were quickly a true 4.0 player. True 4.0 players are not just good, they’re very good and no one is going to start out at this level even the very athletic as strategy is even more important and strategy takes time to learn.

So my theory holds that people thought 3.0 was just above beginner, 3.5 was intermediate and 4.0 was advanced and we all self rated based on the people playing in our small circles.

The fact is, it’s very wrong. Many beginners or even recreational players are more accurately 2.5-3.0, intermediate likely ranges 3.0 to 3.5 and advanced is more like 3.5-4.5. Above 4.5 is getting close to low level pro ratings.

In fact, if you’ve signed up on Pickleheads you may have noticed they call 3.5+ “Advanced”.

But DUPR is so unreliable!

I hear people say this all the time and while I agree it can be, let’s ask what’s more likely to be a reliable rating? An impartial algorithm based on data or your personal feelings?

It does seem your DUPR can swing one way or the other based on a number of factors but there’s ways to make it more accurate.

If you mostly play fixed partners rated games, I can almost guarantee your rating will be wrong. If your partner is better than you, you will likely have an inflated DUPR rating, if your partner is not as good as you, you will most likely have a deflated DUPR rating.

The best way to combat that is to play rotating partners rated games. I exclusively organize rotating partners and an even number of matches so that everyone plays with everyone twice. That means you will play with the worst player twice and the best player twice. Even if the ratings are fairly spread out, if you’re a good player, your DUPR will improve even if you lose a few games where you were matched with a lower rated player.

Another way to get a reliable DUPR is to ensure you are playing with and against players of a similar rating. The closer, the better.

If you feel like your DUPR is too low, then play against higher rated players and WIN to increase your score faster. But remember, if you go down, you’re likely not as highly rated as you think and should adjust your expectations and work up from there!

I try to think of my DUPR score not as going up or down, but as becoming more accurate.

But I don’t want to play DUPR Games!

Fair enough, not everyone wants to, but for the sake of the people you are playing with, you should try and accurately self rate.

For starters, you can take the Pickleheads Quiz here: https://www.pickleheads.com/guides/pickleball-rating

This quiz seems to provide a much more accurate rating.

You can also trying watching this Youtube video and see what kind of gameplay you should expect at certain levels and be honest to yourself about where you fall in, though on a personal note, this video seems to me to be a bit generous. In my opinion the 4.0 play is closer to 3.5 or 3.75 based on playing with DUPR rated players in that range (and my own DUPR rating).

Lastly, if you don’t want to do rated play but know some people who are DUPR rated around the level you think you are, try to organize some games with them and see how you stack up! If you lose every game you’re likely half to a full point below their rating. If you lose 3/4 of your games, you’re like at least half a point lower than you though. If you lose half of your games, you’re probably a quarter to a half point lower. If you win half, you’re probably around their level, and so on and so on.

If you can’t specifically organize play with those people, you can always look people up on DUPR after you play with them at a Rec game (if they have an account). DUPR is easy to search as it lists people closest to you geographically when searching.

So you might play with someone at a 3.5 – 4.0 session who whollops you and think “they must be a 4.0” only to find out their DUPR is 3.5, the low end of the session rating.

Have fun!

In the end, we’re mostly just trying to have fun and exercise, just remember that some people who are naturally competitive are not having fun if they’re not having fun games with many good rallies each game. So try to be considerate of others and then we all get to enjoy this sport we love as much as possible!

Happy Dinking!