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I've used it 4 times already for heavy 11u practices (batting practice, pop ups, grounders) and so far so good. Hopefully it continues to do the job.
Bought this to use in our backyard batting cage and for fielding practice with my 8 and 10 year olds. Decided to go with this over a more traditional machine because my kids are still young enough that we don't need to worry about curveballs or crazy fast pitches and I really liked the idea of it being so portable. It has turned out to be a perfect choice for our needs. Setting up and breaking down is so easy and, because it's battery operated, I can take it to any park without needing a power supply. We also bought the auto feeder and it has been great to free up a lot of my time from having to throw balls for their batting practice. Since I have two ball players, this was really starting to take a lot of time, not to mention the fact that the machine gives them much better pitches than I can. My husband takes it to team practices as well and the kids love it.
We have a 35' cage in our basement with a hittrax system. I got the Zooka because my son was having a hard time with timing his load and the velocity of pitching in his first season of kid pitch. I remembered "how hard" it was to hit balls from a machine without an arm and figured with this three-beep and light system that it would force him to have to load on time every time in order to hit. I was right! Both of us had a real hard time getting our timing down the first time we tried it and were late every time, just like my son was in the real games. After a couple sessions, he had it completely dialed in and I could see him doing the exact same thing in his games. Loading when the pitchers hand separates from the glove. He got his first hits in live game action after we had worked a few days with this. Now, when I try to pitch to him myself he says "dad, why even have the pitching machine if we're not going to use it?" ... we use real baseballs and they scatter all over the strike zone, much more efficiently and safely than I can. It's forced him to expand his strike zone just like he would at 8U level and get his barrel to the ball. He was so used to where my balls usually go that he was just being too selective in game. We can turn up the speed faster than he would be comfortable with me throwing to him, knowing he won't get hit by the machine. So we've been able to simulate the best pitchers he'll be facing without worrying about dad hitting him with an errant pitch. It's been a baseball-life saver for us. Can't recommend the Zooka enough!
As described. This machine really changed my practice sessions with my son...for both hitting and fielding. Less wasted time of me trying to throw accurately or at the right speed.
This thing is no joke. I have been missing out all of these years while coaching, this thing is hands down a gamechanger.
