u/BallMachineRefund

I only see a couple other threads about this, and I couldn't find an answer. This is supremely annoying.

I basically resorted to just putting my new number in my "about section".

Is there anything else I can do? I thought about switching and switching back, but AI advised against doing that coz could lose history or whatsapp can lock you out!

Thanks for any help or ideas. Obviously there are a lot of people I'd like to know I changed numbers, but I don't want to have to message them to get that across...

A few weeks ago I got a Spinfire 2 to work on volleys at home. Loved it the first few sessions. Did roughly 300+ forehand volleys in an hour (fed about every 4 secs) and about a week later developed wrist pain. pain at end-range flexion, pain pressing on things with my palm. Rested a few days, then tried the same drill left-handed (figured I'd spare the right and still get a workout) - same injury showed up on the left after ~300-350 balls in an hour, this time with some pain near the epicondyle too. Whoops.

For context: I play padel 10-15 hrs/week, 1000+ hours lifetime, played tennis/table tennis growing up. Never had wrist issues from actual matches or human-fed drilling, this seems specific to the machine's pace/volume/repetition pattern (no rest, one shot on repeat, faster and more consistent than any human feeder).

Saw two different physios about it. Consensus: fine to return to normal padel play, no structural damage, but the high-rep single-plane machine-fed pattern was almost certainly the issue; the variety and rest you get in real rallies just isn't there when a machine's firing at you every few seconds for an hour straight. Neither physio could give me a specific "safe" rep count for machine drilling specifically. The general advice was lighten the load, vary shot types, build up gradually.

One idea I'm chewing on: switching the machine's use to mostly bandejas instead of volleys. It's an aerial shot rather than a flat block, so my (possibly totally wrong) logic is that it might load the wrist differently — less repeated end-range flexion under palm pressure, more of a controlled overhead motion. No idea if that holds up or if it's just as bad in a different way.

Before I decide whether to keep the machine or return it, curious from people who use these regularly:

• Do you actually drill volleys at anywhere near this pace/volume, or do you keep sessions much shorter (e.g. sets of 20-30 with rest)?
• Has anyone else gotten wrist/forearm issues from ball machine sessions specifically, as opposed to normal play?
• Is there a feed speed or session length you've found is the ceiling before problems show up?
• Does bandeja practice feel meaningfully lighter on the wrist than volleys for you, or is that wishful thinking?
• Does mixing shot types in general reduce the strain, or is total wrist flexion/extension volume the real driver regardless of variety?

Also, factoring in 10+ min setup/teardown each session, for anyone who's used one long-term, do short "safe" sessions still feel worth it, or does the overhead end up killing the whole point? I'm leaning towards just returning it, but I figured I may as well post here as a last ditch effort to find a reason to keep it. Thanks!!!