There’s no substitute for practice, but the higher the level of sport, the finer the margins become between good and great. Increasingly, technology is helping the best players maximize this margin. As part of this growing tech trend Zepp and Old Hickory have teamed up with Mike Trout, one of the world’s top baseball players, to produce his very first Smart Bat.
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Zepp creates interactive training tools for baseball, golf, tennis and softball and many baseball fans will already be familiar with bat-making company Old Hickory. To improve upon the existing clip-on system, Trout, Zepp and Old Hickory have been in communication since late 2015 regarding integrating a sensor into Trout’s signature bat. Which has now become a reality.
The Smart Bat will house a sensor in a 3x3cm cavity found in the base of the bat, and will be easily removable for charging. With this development, Trout and his team will be able to reflect post-game on his bat speed, time-to-impact, hand speed and attack angle through a 3D swing visualization and various stats.
Great day at the yard today…announcing the new #smartbat with @MikeTrout @ZeppLabs pic.twitter.com/TIzPxVgcI0
— Old Hickory Bats (@OldHickoryBats) February 29, 2016
What most baseball fans will deem more exciting is that the tech will be available to everybody else as early as June, giving aspiring players the chance to make this summer the one where they take a data-driven look at the mechanics of their swing. To visualize the swing and provide the feedback, the sensor will also come with a free smartphone app.
#SmartBat launched today with @OldHickoryBats and @MikeTrout #PoweredByZepp https://t.co/8TBo0OfU0D pic.twitter.com/KNLIAv0T21
— Zepp Labs (@ZeppLabs) February 29, 2016
Indeed, as well as giving Trout the edge on game-day, Zepp CEO Robin Han believes that the development has the “potential to change the way players train as we know it,” with a clear emphasis on players in all tiers of the game. Travis Copley, VP of Sales and Marketing for Old Hickory, goes one step further, citing how he feels that this will be baseball’s “next big thing.”
Whether that will prove to be true remains to be seen, but the three parties involved certainly seem to have devised an interesting new baseball technology and we will certainly be monitoring Trout’s progress this upcoming season.