If you have decided to become your son or daughter’s little league coach, it’s important to come prepared to your team’s first practice with all the equipment you will need to help develop your players into a successful squad. The most important tool, you will find, will come in the form of a Zooka pitching machine. With a Zooka pitching machine, you can run batting practice without tiring out your arm, and you can run defensive drills to hone your team’s skills in the field. Here are two models that you may want to consider:
ZS720
The ZS720 Zooka pitching machine is battery operated and can be set up in minutes. It comes with a 12 volt rechargeable battery that, when fully charged (which takes about 10 hours), can throw 800 pitches at 40 mph or 700 pitches at 50 mph before needing to be recharged. It is built within a polycarbonate outer housing unit and has an 1/8 inch thick steel chassis. It can throw pitches from 10 – 50 mph, and it has a digital speed reading to ensure accuracy.
The ZS720 was designed to throw real baseball, dimple balls, or tennis balls, however tennis balls can come out of the machine at 70 mph, so kids should be careful when practicing with that type of ball. The elevation of the pitches can also be adjusted from 2 – 80 degrees to work on popups and line-drives defensively.
ZS740
The ZS740 Zooka pitching machine is similar to the ZS720, expect that it has been developed for older players. The ZS740 is also operated by a 12 volt rechargeable battery; however, it has the ability to throw pitches up to 70 mph. On a fully charged battery, the ZS740 can throw up to 500 pitches at 70 mph. Another feature of this Zooka pitching machine is that is has computer controlled change-ups. This will allow older developing hitters to learn to adjust to the pitch as it is released instead of just assuming you will be getting a fastball.
The ZS740 also features a taller tripod on which the machine is stationed. This will create a more realistic sense of where the pitcher’s release point of the baseball will be as players grow and get taller. Like the ZS720, the ZS740 is designed to throw real baseball, dimple balls, or tennis balls. However, with its more powerful design, tennis balls can be thrown at over 90 mph, so safety is a major concern.
