Pocket Radar CEO Interviewed on Gamechanger's podcast: Athletic Intelligence episode 4

The article below is lifted directly from the accompanying link: 

 https://gc.com/podcast/athletic-intelligence-episode-4-pocket-radar

Pocket Radar Improves Tech in Sports by Making It Affordable for Anyone

GameChanger’s Athletic Intelligence podcast episode 4 is here with all the heat of a 95-mph fastball. (We actually know the exact velocity of this episode thanks to our esteemed guest, Steve Goody.) As CEO of Pocket Radar, Steve has dedicated his career to democratizing technology in sports by producing velocity capturing devices affordable to all.

Athletic Intelligence host Aman Loomba is once again joined by Senior Marketing Manager Anna Nickel, formerly a softball player and coach at the youth and collegiate level before joining our team. Steve reveals in this episode how women’s softball was one of the first sports to embrace Pocket Radar’s products, which Anna has used herself to great success on the diamond.

Athletic Intelligence Episode 4 Highlight Reel:

• [05:51] The fascinating tale of how three engineers without an ounce of playing experience became some of the most influential innovators in sports tech.
• [17:21]  Why tracking velocity matters as much as pitch count in maintaining pitcher health.
• [27:08] How coaches can use objective data like pitch velocity to help players reach their full potential.
• [28:40]  Pocket Radar’s future plans for products more connected to our devices than ever before — including a GameChanger partnership.

The Tech Advantage in Youth Sports

One of the favorite debate topics in baseball circles is the payroll disparity between the richest teams, like the Los Angeles Dodgers, and smaller franchises like the Detroit Tigers. The wide gulf between MLB’s top spenders and smaller clubs is clear. But what not everyone realizes is that this disparity extends all the way down to youth sports.

To understand the phenomenon, meet Andre. A pitcher for his high school team and a local club, he comes from a humble background. His team doesn’t have a big budget for technology and training, but that doesn’t diminish his natural talent. Hand-me-down cleats don’t slow him on the basepaths either, and his older brother’s glove suits him just fine in the field. 

But Andre’s true skill is on the mound. He is a fantastic young pitcher, but the right boost from tech could really help him maximize his potential by focusing his training efforts in the right direction. Considering that relatively small differences in velocity can translate into a college scholarship, Andre is at the crossroads. Can he get access to the type of velocity data he needs to take the next step in his baseball career?

Tracking Pitch Speed with An Affordable Training Tool

Andre’s story is exactly the dilemma that fuels Steve Goody, CEO and co-founder of Pocket Radar. Steve and his fellow co-founders were not athletes who made the transition to coaching, like so many of our guests and GameChanger employees. Instead, they are engineers who discovered a true need for technology assistance that just so happened to sit in the sports world.

As Steve explains in this episode, the three friends were driving down the street when they saw a father and son using a roadway speed tracking sign. Normally used to tell drivers to slow down, it was now serving as a makeshift radar gun to measure pitch speed. This gave them a “eureka!" moment as they realized radar gun technology hadn’t changed in 50 years.

The result was a simple and affordable device that any coach and parent can use, whether working with an elite professional athlete or a little leaguer. By democratizing radar technology and making it both affordable and easy to use, Pocket Radar is transforming it from an expensive tool gatekept by wealthy coaches and teams to a training tool well within the reach of family budgets.

“Our mission is to democratize high-performance technology that otherwise is inaccessible so that the most number of people can benefit from the most advanced sports technology.”
—Steve Goody, co-founder and CEO of Pocket Radar

Pocket Radar Innovation

As Steve explains, sports technology like his company’s radar guns is about far more than training pitchers to achieve their potential. Tracking velocity can prevent injuries by revealing fatigue and other problems before they cost the athlete a whole season of recovery. It also helps set expectations, since some parents and coaches only remember the athlete’s very best speed on the gun, comparing their day-to-day performance to an outlier number.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be Athletic Intelligence if we didn’t talk about the future. To this end, Pocket Radar continues to innovate with a pipeline of products that will make velocity tracking even more impactful. The company is working to connect their devices to iPhones, helping everyone with a phone become an expert data-gatherer to support the athlete in their life.

In another exciting innovation, Pocket Radar now integrates its velocity tracking with GameChanger, syncing pitch speeds with in-game events, automatically generating pitcher stats, including average velocity.  When data is captured in real-time and transformed into actionable insights, athletes are best able to make lasting improvements. Even better? What was once the playground of MLB’s richest pro teams is coming soon to a diamond near you — thanks to this Pocket Radar and GameChanger collaboration.

And what about Andre, who comes from a modest background but has sky-high potential? He may not have access to a fancy radar gun like his big city rivals, but he doesn’t need it — his coach bought an affordable Pocket Radar Smart Coach radar gun, and now his every pitch is tracked. By uncovering areas to concentrate on, Andre has already picked up a few mph on his fastball. He might just make it to the big show one day.

Athletic Intelligence is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favorite podcast app. Subscribe now and never miss an episode!