Pro Trainer Soccer Ball Machine FAQ's
- How long is the interval between balls
served by the Pro Trainer?
- How long does the on board battery
run the Pro Trainer ball machine?
- Is the Pro Trainer fully portable?
- What size soccer balls does the Pro
Trainer serve?
- How heavy is the Pro Trainer?
- Is there an external battery pack option
for the Pro Trainer?
- What type of balls can it serve to my players?
- Can I train my goal keepers with the Pro Trainer ball
machine?
- How fast does the Pro
Trainer serve at top speeds?
- Can I use the Pro Trainer plugged into
AC instead of battery?
- Do I need to buy an extra battery?
- What kind of soccer
ball should I use with the Pro Trainer?
- Do you sell internationally (outside the US)?
- Will it serve a wet ball?
Sutton Soccer Training
- How long are the training
sessions at Sutton Soccer?
- What kind of skills can be worked on with the Sutton system?
- What ages can train with this system?
A new ball is served every five or ten seconds. There are two
settings for the interval on
the control panel. Five seconds works
best with groups of players in a rotation drill. Ten
seconds works
best with 1-3 players working on the machine. You can set it to
either of
these options or use the remote foot pedal to stop and
start the service of balls.
You can run the machine over two hours on a charge with the on
board battery. If you use the
lower speed settings (3-5 which launches
balls in the 8-15 yard range) you should be able to get
even more
than 2 hours. We often get 3 or more hours at these speeds.
Yes the machine has sturdy wheels on it so you can pull it out
on to any field, put
it in your car and take it where you train,
whether indoors or outdoors. We like
to be creative. If no training
pitch is available then we go to tennis courts, gyms,
parking lots,
or where ever we can get about 20x30 yards of space to set up our
training. The Pro Trainer can go where ever you go.
Yes the machine can serve size four and size five balls with minor
adjustments.
The ramp has a wing nut that adjusts up and down in
order to have the center
of the ball meet the serving wheels dead
center. For size five balls the wong nut
is adjusted down to the
bottom and for size four balls it is brought up to the
top of its
adjustment height.
The machine weighs approximately 50 pounds. It is 34 inches long
when folded
up and 28 inches wide. When the ramp is unfolded it
is about 60 inches long.
It can be loaded and unloaded by one person
and transported to the field in
just about any size vehicle.
Yes you can buy an external battery pack to run the Pro Trainer
for additional time.
This battery pack runs in parallel with the
on board battery. If you are going to use
the external battery
you should use it right from the start when both the on board
and
external batteries are fully charged.
What type of balls can it serve
to my players?
The Pro Trainer can serve crosses, air balls, rolling balls, driven
balls, bouncing
balls from 5 yards to 35 yards in distance. Distance
is determined by wind conditions,
ball inflation, and local field
conditions but with just a bit of tweaking you can set
it to serve
the ball you need.
Absolutely, using the Pro Trainer you can have several goal keepers
working hard
saving all different kinds of shots, defending against
crosses, you name it. They will
get more save opportunities in
a session than they ever have before.
With the speed dial set at 8-10 you will get a ball served at
about 65 mph coming
out of the machine. This is a strong ball but
not one that would overpower youth players.
Yes you can use the machine with AC power instead of the battery
pack. We have
a number of customers who run day long camps, clinics,
or demos and need to run
for long periods of time. Our AC adaptor
is an accessory that can allow you to do
that in your training.
If you have power at your location you simply plug it into the
machine and go.
That depends on your needs. For most customers we would have to
say no
you don't. The machine comes with plenty of on board battery
run time to
meet your needs. However if you plan to run back to
back sessions on a
regular basis and want to make sure you don't
run out then it might be a
good solution for you. However remember
that both the on board and the
external battery packs have to be
fully charged up.
What
kind of soccer ball should I use with the Pro Trainer?
We recommend that you always use a consistent set of soccer balls
with
the Pro Trainer. Same brand, size, cover, and inflation. They
should be inflated
to the same approximate inflation. They need
to be firm but not hard. If balls
are under inflated you will not
get a good serve. We do not recommend any
ball that has the foam
cushion under the cover, slick shiny PVC covers, or heavy
painted
on graphics. Our favorite balls are those that have PU covers,
butyl
bladders for air retention, and are light weight training
style balls.
Yes we sell the Pro Trainer to all corners of the globe. We have
customers
on all of the continents. We have dealers in several
locations such as the
UK, South Africa, Australia who can support
purchase in those locations or
we can sell direct to you if you
are not in one of those areas. We ship the
machines with the appropriate
power connections for your country. The
customer is always responsible
for local duty, import taxes, and VAT if applicable.
International
shipping can run $250 and up for Fed Ex International service
or
customers can arrange for freight transport on their own.
The fact of the matter is that no ball machine that uses wheels
to serve the
ball will serve a wet ball. Whether it si baseball, soccer, tennis
or other sports
this is the case.Some may do a better job with
a slightly wet ball than
others but in the end all ball machines
have trouble with wetness on the ball.
We recommend that you avoid
using the ball machine when there is wet
conditions, unless you
can protect the machine (and the serving wheels) from
getting
wet and you dry off the balls before putting them on the machine.
We
have created wheels that will serve wet ball that include small
patches of stair
tread material embedded into them. These work
but they chew up balls in a
major way. So it is not a practical
solution to sell to customers but it does
allow us to run scheduled
training sessions and camps in slightly wet conditions
for our
customers locally.
We usually run our indoor training sessions in one hour segments.
In that hour
we are able to give players hundreds of effective
and efficient touches on the
ball which is way more than they can
get at a regular outdoor soccer training
session. By giving them
those serves we are able to see real skill development in
an accelerated
time frame. Imagine hitting hundreds of baseballs or tennis balls
with a machine and how that would improve your skill. Well at Sutton
Soccer it
is the same. We give players the chance to succeed over
and over. With focused
training and hundreds of touches players
can't help but improve their core skills.
All types of soccer skills can be worked on at Sutton
Soccer ranging from receiving,
shooting, passing,
headers, goal keeping, and crossing. This machine builds essential
muscle memory that is so critical in sports. The body has to
be comfortable doing the
core skills of the sport and using a
ball machine allows players to gain that crucial
muscle memory
for these skills. We combine great first touch training with
ball
machines and combine that with focused training to give
players more in an hour
than they can get anywhere else.
All ages and skill level can train on this system. The machine
serves both size four
and five balls so ages 8 and up can make
best use of the machine and the training
system. We run sessions
with 14-18 players as well as sessions with two players
working
on the machine. Our adult trainers find that it s a vital tool
in keeping
their skills "tuned up" as well.
