Eye-hand coordination is an essential tennis skill. The equipment manufacturer SKLZ has a new device on the market that is great for off-court training of that ability. The reactive catch trainer is essentially a foam triangle with a color coded ball at the end of each prong. The training objective is to throw the device in the air and catch a specific color of ball. It is harder than it sounds.
The challenge can be kicked up a notch by tossing the device back and forth with a partner who calls out one of the colors as it is already in the air. Another way to ramp up the intensity is to have the partner impart fast angular rotation on the trainer. The Trophy Husband demonstrated that technique in the YouTube video embedded at the end of this post.
Working with a reactive catch trainer doesn’t take a lot of space and can be used in a variety of off-court settings such as a gym, garage, or a backyard. It is also useful for warm up when courts aren’t readily available. I really like the reactive trainer for that purpose because it wakes up both the body and the mind.
The reactive catch trainer is a good device for any tennis player to add to their training arsenal. It is very effective for sharpening eye-hand coordination as well as a warm up mechanism.
 | SKLZ Reactive Catch Trainer |
Look like you were practicing for tennis and Troy was practicing for softball 😉 (non dominant hand eye catching for Troy)