By Andrew Liszewski
Horribly uninspired product name aside, the (ugh) iPong Table Tennis Trainer doesn’t just randomly blast you with a constant barrage of 110 ping pong balls. Not at all. Thanks to a spinning wheel somewhere inside the belly of the beast it’s actually able to put 3 different types of spin on the ball which are selectable through a dial. “Underspin (where the bottom of the ball rotates away from the player, requiring a chopping stroke to return); Topspin (where the top of the ball rotates away from the player); and a challenging Heavy Topspin (high rpm rotation that must be returned with a controlled downward stroke).”
It’s also configurable to deliver anywhere from 12 to 70 balls per minute if you’re looking to practice at either the ‘friend’s basement’ or ‘Olympic’ levels. I’d also say it’s a handy tool for practicing alone, but I think I’d still like to have someone else there, just to pick up the 110 scattered ping pong balls of course. $149.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.
