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We love hearing feedback from users of our products.
We recently sat down with Eric Rea, training center owner and travel ball coach, who went in depth with us about how he has been incorporating the Ball Coach radar into his training and coaching lessons with his players and teams. Hear what he has to say about the value it has brought to their hitting training (Ball Exit Speed is a direct measure of the power of a hit), as well as game preparation, where he used the Ball Coach to gain an upper-hand over his competition and capture a championship with one of his teams this past season.
Here are a few soundbites from the interview:
1. How has adding the Ball Coach into your training sessions helped your students and athletes improve their performance?
“The big thing with the Ball Coach is that it allows you to start with a starting point. Beginning of my season, I radar all of them as far as their Exit Speed. Gives me a good starting point, shows me the kids that are pulling off, what kids are getting through the baseball, and it’s one of those things they want to build. They know that little Joey is over there hitting at 48, they’re going to want to hit 49. That’s the biggest thing with the radar, giving them the ability to work towards that extra number.”
2. How has working with the Ball Coach helped your coaching and training methods with your students and athletes?
“It just gives me an upper-hand. Anytime you can use technology with your training, it’s huge. It creates new synergy between the team and enables them to strive harder every time they come in. Not just make contact, but try to be 90% of that number consistently.”
3. What speeds have you been measuring using the Ball Coach during practices and games?
“The big thing I have been using it for games is opposing pitchers. With the younger guys, 8-11 or 8-12, timing is everything, and giving them the ability and upper-hand when they step in the box is huge.” Case study: ”This last spring season we won the championship. This pitcher that we were facing, an 11 year old big strong kid had been hosing people down all season. So I went up there the game on Thursday night to radar him and he’s throwing 47, 48, 48… So Friday I went out to batting practice and threw 48 to the team, and the Saturday before the game I lined everyone up in our cages and put the pitching machines at 48 miles per hour. So we get into the game, we’re the visiting team, and scored 5 runs with no outs and everyone was in shock. The pitcher couldn’t do anything, we were hitting balls that no one else could hit all season.”
4. Has anything surprised you since you began using the Ball Coach that has made you think about “radar” any differently?
“I think how effective it is. How fast you can get kids to turn around with their Exit Speed. When they see numbers, that’s something they deal with everyday in school, they get it and they know which numbers are what. Getting instant results from the Ball Coach is the biggest thing. The kids can see it instantly. They come to practice and they hit 50 today, they come back next practice and they hit 51. Now they’re pushing themselves every single time they come in here, and I think that’s where the instant results are that not too many people understand.”
5. Would you recommend the Ball Coach to any other coaches and trainers?
“I would definitely recommend the Ball Coach. When you’re training so many kids at one time, you need to be able to see what they’re doing. Measuring Exit Speed or what ever you are measuring for those kids gives you a huge advantage. You can see it hitting off the tee, you know what they’re doing. Whether or not they need to work on getting through the ball, or pulling off or what ever it is, I think if you have something in front of you every time, in regards to the numbers, you can’t be beat.”
We look forward to hearing more results from Eric about his players and their training, and if you have any questions or would like to share your Pocket Radar stories, please give is a call toll-free at 888-381-2672 from 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Time, or e-mail us at info@PocketRadar.com
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