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Zoota
English

How Zoota works

What happens between pressing record and seeing your velocity, and what each pitch then gives you.

Sample
The app's sample session in Zoota's 3D world, from where the phone stands.

Set up in four steps

  1. Step 1: Set the phone behind the mound

    Put the phone on a tripod behind the rubber, at about head height, facing home plate, in portrait. The rubber and the whole plate need to be in the picture.

  2. Step 2: Mark the plate

    Tap the plate's two front corners, and the rubber's corners if you can see them. The phone's level sensor does the rest, and the app draws the strike zone so you can check it sits over the plate.

  3. Step 3: Throw

    Record and pitch. Each pitch is read as it reaches the plate: speed first, then movement, spin and where it crossed.

  4. Step 4: Review the session

    The summary groups pitches by type, maps every location, plots the movement and replays the flights in 3D in a ballpark. Sessions stay on the phone, and a coach you link with sees them in the portal.

Filming for the first time? Read the filming tips.

What every pitch measures

Zoota's 3D world

Zoota's 3D world from above the pitcher's arm: each sample pitch leaving the hand, the camera swinging slowly around the release points.

From the hand

  • Velocity

    Read in km/h

    Release speed, in km/h and mph, and the speed left when the ball reaches the plate.

    From the ball's track through the frames, fitted from release to the plate.

  • Release

    Read in m

    Release height, how far to the side, and extension in front of the rubber.

    From the start of the track. Extension is measured from the ball's size near release when it can be, and assumed otherwise.

Zoota's 3D world

Every sample pitch's flight in Zoota's 3D world, side on from the hand to the plate, the camera swinging slowly.

In flight

  • Movement

    Read in in

    Vertical and horizontal break caused by spin alone, with gravity taken out.

    From the curve of the fitted flight. Shown in centimetres and inches.

  • Spin

    Read in rpm

    Active spin, in rpm: the part of the spin that moves the ball.

    Measured from the seams when they are visible near release. Otherwise estimated from the movement and marked as an estimate.

  • Spin axis

    The direction of the break as a clock time, seen from the pitcher.

    From the measured spin, or from the direction of the movement.

Zoota's 3D world

The sample session from above the third-base side in Zoota's 3D world, each flight coloured by its pitch type.

By pitch type

  • Pitch type

    Fastball, sinker, cutter, slider, sweeper, curveball, changeup or splitter.

    Classified against the session's own fastball. You can change any pitch's type.

  • Approach and flight

    Read in deg

    How steeply and from which side the ball arrives, and its flight time.

    From the end of the fitted track.

Zoota's 3D world

Where each sample pitch crossed the plate, seen from behind it against the strike zone in Zoota's 3D world.

At the plate

  • Location

    Where the pitch crossed the front of the plate, and whether it was in the zone.

    Against an adult default zone, 0.47 to 1.05 m above the plate and a ball's width either side of it.

Video of every pitch

On Pro every pitch is saved to video, so the throw behind each number can be watched again, and every session is kept.

Fastball · Velocity

142.3km/h

Spin
2,214 rpm
IVB
16.8 in
Zone
In zone
Sample

Also in the app: clubs, with boards that rank velocity and sessions across your club.

Every pitch, rebuilt in 3D

The app's sample session, sixteen pitches coloured by type. Drag to look around, and switch between the catcher's, the pitcher's and the side view.

Sample

What the numbers mean

Velocity
Kilometres per hour at release. The English pages put miles per hour beside it.
Movement
Inches. Vertical is positive upward; horizontal is positive toward third base, a right-hander's arm side.
Spin
Revolutions per minute of active spin.
Spin axis
A clock face as the pitcher sees it: 12:00 is straight up and 3:00 points toward third base.
Release
Metres. Height is from the ground, side is from the line between the rubber and the plate, positive toward third base.
Approach angles
Degrees at the front of the plate. Vertical is negative as the ball drops in; horizontal is positive toward third base.

Filming tips

Home plate18.44 mRubberPhone on a tripodabout head height, in portrait

Frame rate

60 frames a second or more. 4K at 60 is best. At 30 frames a second many pitches cannot be read.

A still phone

A tripod, not a hand or a fence. If the camera moves, the app asks you to mark the plate again.

Light

Daylight or a well-lit bullpen. The ball has to stand out from what is behind it.

The whole arm

Keep the throwing arm in the picture: the release is where the reading starts.

From your library

A clip filmed from behind the mound can be analysed later: mark the plate on a frame and every pitch is measured.