Machine Decision Feeds
Why this drill
With the machine on random oscillation, the drill stops being about the stroke and starts being about the choice: drive the sitter, drop the deep one, and know which is which before the bounce. It's third-shot judgment with a feeder that never telegraphs.
Setup
Machine at the opposite kitchen line on random oscillation (or the widest two-line setting yours has), medium pace, feeds landing between mid-court and the baseline on your side. You start at the baseline center.
The drill
Play each feed on a read with one rule: deep or low balls get a third-shot drop, short or high balls get a drive — and call your choice out loud before the bounce ("drop!" / "drive!"). Twenty feeds per set. Score only correct decisions well executed: a beautiful drive off a ball you should have dropped is zero. Fourteen of twenty is strong. Between sets, review the misses — most players discover they drive too much when tired and drop too much when nervous, and the machine's indifference makes the pattern impossible to argue with.
One thought to take on court
Call it before the bounce — a decision made at contact is a guess wearing a costume.