LOBSTER Sports – The Pickle Two Pickleball Machine – Full-Featured – Adjustable Topspin & Backspin – 2-Line Oscillation – Battery Powered – Portable – Lightweight 42 lb

Why it's worth it

This battery-powered launcher fires balls up to 60 mph with topspin or backspin, oscillates across the court, and runs four to six hours per charge. For a player with no one to drill with on a Tuesday morning, it changes what practice looks like.

Pickleball improvement stalls in a specific way. You can play games forever and still have a shaky backhand dink, because games never repeat the shot you're bad at. A machine does. It'll feed the same third-shot drop two hundred times while your recipient fixes one thing, then switch to lobs when they're ready.

The feature list is what separates a real ball machine from a toy. Speed runs from a gentle feed up to 60 mph, elevation goes from flat drives to 50-degree lobs, and the two-line drill alternates between preset spots so they have to move their feet. Random oscillation keeps them honest. A ten-function remote means no jogging back between drills.

From our review of 6 gifts for pickleball players

What we like

• +Pickleball improvement stalls in a specific way
• +The feature list is what separates a real ball machine from a toy
• +Portability is what makes it usable
• +This is a gift for one specific person: someone past the beginner stage who plays several times a week and complains about not…

What to know

• –The hopper doesn't hold what it claims
• –Build quality reports are mixed