Announcement, Baseball, Featured, Softball
How SmartParks Change Everything
- by Chris O'Dowd, CEO of WIN Reality
WIN Reality's CEO, Chris O'Dowd, shares how SmartPark will change the game by capturing over 125 live performance metrics, including pitch velocity, spin rate, movement profiles, bat speed, swing mechanics, ball flight data, and more.
Baseball, Featured, Training
The Best Baseball Drills for 7-8 Year Olds
For older hitters, click here for the best drills to help 9-10 year olds. Click here for an overview of WIN Reality’s age-by-age curriculum. One of the most critical stages in a hitter’s skill development occurs at 7-8 years old. At this age, hitters begin to build the athleticism and hand-eye coordination that will carry them through their athletic careers. Most young players don’t require detailed coaching; rather, they need consistent repetition in practice sessions and the chance to problem-solve and self-correct on their own. This approach allows them to develop natural instincts, self-awareness, and refine their skills over time.
Baseball, Featured, Softball, Training
See How You Stack Up: Average Exit Velo by Age
Training
WIN Reality Training Tracks
When it comes to learning how to get better at the plate, there are an overwhelming number of options to choose from. Players and parents can feel like they’re drowning in a sea of information, unsure of what’s truly important and what’s just surface-level filler. A simple Google search returns millions of results, while YouTube offers nearly endless videos to watch. This amount of information can be paralyzing, leading to inaction—and inaction doesn’t produce results in the batter’s box. To solve this problem and make life easier for hitters everywhere, WIN Reality is introducing Training Tracks. This program is uniquely
Training
Understanding the WIN Assessment Scoring System
The WIN Assessment Scoring System is a thorough scoring method that connects scientific principles with familiar baseball/softball scouting terms. It assesses a player’s hitting abilities by examining several key factors: impulse control, decision-making, visual discrimination, pattern recognition, motor planning, motor coordination, and neuromuscular ability. These factors are then correlated with a range of batting performance metrics, including swing decision, reaction time, on time rate by pitch types and location, early vs. late swings, hard hit rate, chase rate, plate discipline, and power metrics such as bat speed. Scores Scores are based on the percentile all hitter falls into for each
Training, Baseball, Featured, Softball
Unlocking Your Potential at the Plate: Mastering the Three Key Skills of Hitting
Youth baseball and softball experts have identified the three fundamental skills that must be mastered for a hitter to achieve their potential: Pitch Recognition, Swing Timing, and Biomechanics. 1. Pitch Recognition: Swing at the right pitch A hitter typically has just 150 milliseconds to decide whether to swing at a pitch. This doesn’t allow for conscious, rational decision-making. Instead, the hitter must make an instinctive decision guided by the brain’s subcortical structures. Try these tools to improve your child’s instinctive decision making: 2. Swing Timing: Find a rhythm in the box Once the player has decided to swing, finding the
Baseball, Softball
WIN Reality: 2022’s best gift for baseball and softball players
Can you smell it in the air? The pumpkin spiced lattes have started to make their way back into our lives, which can only mean that the days and nights filled with peppermint canes, hot chocolate, and bright lights are almost here. No matter what you may celebrate, Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, or even just the exciting deals of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the season of the gift has arrived. And with it comes an important question. Have you started thinking about the perfect gift for those special people in your life? While it’s easy enough to put $100
Softball
Lady Dukes Partner With WIN Reality
The Lady Dukes take training to the next level with WIN Reality Nationwide partnership. WIN Reality’s VR batting app will improve player performance throughout the organization while creating tighter bonds between teammates and coaches in-season and off. AUSTIN (August 1, 2022) – This month, WIN Reality has partnered with The Lady Dukes softball travel organization to launch a revolutionary new product specifically built for organizations to allow interactive team practices in the virtual world. This product gives coaches the ability to create customized practice plans built around real game-speed pitches for their teams while tracking individual progress across each team
Training, Baseball
Pitch Tunneling: How hitters can train to overcome it
Over the last few years, you’ve likely heard the term “Pitch Tunneling” during a broadcast, or seen it mentioned online. The concept itself isn’t new, and is something that great pitchers like Greg Maddux instinctively understood before it had a name. Developments in high-speed cameras, virtual reality, big data, and 3D modeling, have made it possible to visualize pitch tunneling (from the perspectives of the pitcher and hitter), and understand its effects. In 2017, after more than two years of work, Baseball Prospectus unveiled their research on what they termed pitch tunneling, and introduced it to the greater baseball community.
Training, Baseball, Case Studies, Featured
Elite Baseball Training: How VR transfers to the batter’s box
Since baseball began, undoubtedly its most difficult training challenge has been replicating in-game pitching conditions for hitters to practice against. Pitching is a scarce resource that is too valuable to waste on batting practice. Consequently, as players we practice against coaches throwing 50% of game speed, take “simulated” at-bats against teammates in scrimmages, and try to stay fresh at local batting cages. All the while doing this, we hope that it will transfer to helping us in actual game environments. While some of us may look great at our local batting cages, or against our coach’s lazily tossed batting practice,