Gamma Ball Hopper EZ Travel Cart

As a former traveling tennis professional, I appreciate products that are compact, quick to set up, and durable. The ball basket is probably the most used and necessary piece of court equipment a tennis professional will have, and I’ve used many different styles over the past decade. The Gamma Ball Hopper EZ Travel Cart is a very simple and common design used by many big name tennis brands, however the Gamma version packs a few unique features that make it the absolute best option when it comes to a portable ball basket.

The design is simple in that it’s a two piece construction. The ball bag sits on top of a folding metal frame. I used four separate bags, all of which containing the four progression tennis balls. I would swap the bag out depending on the age of my upcoming lesson. What sets the Gamma apart from the many other similar metal frames is that it contains a cross brace that the bag sits on top. All of the other brands are missing that brace, so the bag sits suspended in the middle, leading to a huge sag in the bag and an eventual tear in the bag’s bottom seam.

The cross brace also creates great rigidity in the very top-heavy ball basket. The design of the basket is not ideal for use on clay because of the very small diameter wheels getting caught on any tiny bump in the court and toppling over. But on hard courts this basket really shines. If you keep your wheel bearings clean this basket will last you a very long time.

The second feature that is unique to this design is that it doesn’t require a pull pin mechanism that locks the basket in either a folded or unfolded position. I’ve never needed the basket to stay locked and the pull pin feature has only clogged and gotten stuck in my experience.

The fold up basket design is the best mobile ball basket I’ve used in my travel teaching career, and the Gamma Ball Hopper EZ Travel Cart is the best of those designs. You’ll find this basket available through a bunch of online retailers, unfortunately not from Tennis Warehouse. I purchased mine through Holabird sports for $159.99.

From a recent presentation at the USTA GA Community Tennis Development workshop. The topic was Growing Tennis by Engaging Diverse Markets – Introducing a 5-Step Engagement Model designed to help create an outreach strategy to attract new people to the game.

Step 1 that we need to do is to “Define your goalunderstand your market”. In this area you will conduct demographic research to fully understand your audience/ customers to engage your community.

Step 2 is to “Find a Local Partner” You will identify and Team up with influential individuals, groups, and/or organizations that are already recognized and respected. Seek partners that have a connection to the audience.

Step 3 “Formalize your plan and develop activation ele- ments for your Launch”. The key components may include: Strategy, action steps, Roles and responsibilities, tracking and progress evaluation.

Step 4 is “Execute and have fun”. Stay focused on turning your ideas/plans into action, so you can eventually achieve your goal.

Step 5” Track, Monitor, course correct and Share”. Involve implementation team (and partners) with identifying potential causes of obstacles and creative solutions to keep moving towards your goals.

If you want further information regarding different engagement guides please go to usta.com or contact Allan Jensen @ 404-483-6591 or jensen@sta.usta.com for more information. Information taken from USTA Engagement Guides.