Patent attributes
This invention, called Serve Assist, is an electro-mechanical ball machine for practicing the tennis serve. It helps a tennis student to practice serves by consistently dropping the ball in the desired location. It operates in one of two modes, an Auto-feed mode in which it drops the balls in the magazine via an overhead ball release canister at regular intervals or in an Auto-sense mode where the ball is released by the detection of the student's rising tossing arm. The invention also marks the desired height of contact on the dropping ball with a laser and provides visual feedback if the ball is being struck lower than optimum. It aids the student by developing a kinetic and visual memory of the correct ball toss position and point of contact.
