ST. LOUIS —
Professional athletes across the board are searching for new ways to stay game-ready during the COVID-19 shutdown.
For two St. Louis Cardinals players that means taking virtual at-bats.
Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt returned to his home in Florida, and Matt Carpenter returned to his ranch in Texas.
Both Cardinals infielders have been using a virtual reality program that they purchased during spring training to stay mentally focused.
WIN Reality, a company based in Austin, Texas, is a virtual reality baseball company that creates advanced offensive training tools.
The software comes in a kit with a headset for the player to wear to train in the virtual world.
“We’ve taken the event of you facing a pitcher and we’ve wrapped it with a number of different training modules and exercises,” O’Dowd said. “We’re gonna give you the tools not just to pick the velocity of the curveball, the location, but also have you elicit a task and respond to the pitch based on the exercise you choose.”
The technology was created to combine the technical and mental aspects of the game.
“It’s tech you can feel,” O’Dowd said. “It’s seeing and more experiential in a way. So like, all the intricacies about a pitcher, a pitch, what it feels like to step out in the box and play through an at-bat.”
The player has the option to see the pitch from all different angles with the ability to walk around real ballparks.
O’Dowd said there are different kits and levels of programs available for purchase. Software ranges from generic programs, to the top-tier program that Goldschmidt and Carpenter purchased.
This specific program is created using game data from current pitchers in the league, allowing Goldschmidt and Carpenter to choose from any pitcher they want to face.
The pitcher's hologram replicates pitches that look identical to what’s seen in real games.
“So, that’s through a combination of different things such as game-captured video that we turn into a pitcher hologram,” O’Dowd said. “Ball flight data, we then turn into the true ball flight.”
Goldschmidt has publicly praised the WIN Reality technology because of its ability to accurately replicate real situations, such as facing Cardinals pitchers Ryan Helsley and Jack Flaherty.
“When you’re in the batter’s box you’re not thinking about, ‘Who’s this cartoon character on the mound?’ You’re thinking, 'Oh wow, that’s Clayton Kershaw. I need to get ready to compete.’”
O’Dowd said WIN Reality is different from other baseball technology on the market because it is the only one that can fully implement mental focus into training for a game-like situation.
“We’ll see guys pull off the headset, and like, they’re sweating,” O’Dowd said. “They’re like, ‘Oh wow, I need a break.’ And I think that’s because in order to perform well, you really have to bring yourself to another level of emotional engagement.”
WIN Reality now works with more than 20 MLB teams and has started to sell kits individually to some of the biggest names in the league.
“We’re hearing from a lot of the bigger names in baseball just about, especially during this time of quarantine,” O’Dowd said. “How WIN Reality has been a part of their routine that’s kept them at least feeling like they had at least some sort of game experience over the past couple of months.”
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