What happens when technology, softball and power hitting collide
“Hit the top half.” “Don’t pop up.” “The ball can’t hit the top of the cage.” Any of those sound familiar? Maybe you have heard them, maybe you have said them or maybe you have taught them.
In my twenty-plus years of hitting, I remember my coaches telling me all of those things while we would in a cage. My approach with one visit to Nate Headley at RBI Knoxville.
Headley, the owner of RBI, was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Tennessee for two seasons where he helped with outfielders and hitting. Since then, he has opened a booming business with over 20,000 square feet of training area and one HitTrax program that will change a hitter’s approach with one swing.
So what is HitTrax? According to its website HitTrax is the first and only baseball simulator that combines analytics and entertainment, “Patented technology delivers innovation to the baseball industry by measuring real-time data and displaying live results for immediate feedback. Analyze key performance metrics to identify tendencies before stepping onto the field.”
Because I was there for softball, Headley loaded my information into the system and the first thing I saw was Farrington Stadium at Arizona State. From there the camera and technology tracks exit velocity, distance, launch angle, batting average, hard-hit average, percentage of line drives/fly balls/ground balls, slugging and OPS, spray charts, strike zone analysis and performance trends.
I took a few warm up cuts and saw my trend of hitting the ball with a very low launch angle. Headley ran through the statistics with me and told me to get it up to the mid 20’s and I would see a difference. I hit what I thought was a pop fly because it went into the top of the cage, but as soon as I turned to look at the monitor, it bounced off the wall. That’s when he told me that hitting the top half in the cage is a myth.
We hit for about an hour and as soon as we finished, all of my statistics were emailed to me. I also got video of my swings with the furthest and hardest balls hit.
Now, I know some of you reading may be old school and think just see the ball, hit the ball. Honestly, that’s how I function when I’m in the box. This new technology has opened my eyes to the next generation of hitting and I can’t wait to put it to use.
