Tech Guide - 2019 - 6

5 QUESTIONS WITH:
SPORTS ATTACK
Describe how your product helps coaches,
athletic directors or other sports industry
professionals.
It gives repetition in the training of hitters. It helps with
timing, it's extremely accurate, and it provides change
of speeds. It also has a touch-screen interface to control
the machine. It all boils down to ease of use. Sometimes
people look at three wheels as a little complicated, and this
takes the mystery out of all of that.
What specific problems/challenges does your
product solve?
From a coach's point of view, it solves the problem of
providing pitches in an unlimited number that you can't get
anywhere else. This machine gives you all of the repetition
that you can't get from a coach or pitcher. We create a
game-like situation in practice, so it's almost like facing
live pitching.
What sets you apart from similar products or
competitors?
Last spring, I went to Spring Training and saw banks of
our machines in action, and I didn't see any competitive
machines. I saw a couple stacked, rusting in a corner. I
think the difference is we're dominating the upper levels of
baseball. We're providing almost life-like, game-situation
pitching for all levels.
We also understand the value of three wheels, and our
machines last long. We still have machines out there
from 15 or 18 years ago from the first year we sold
them, and we're placing new wheels on them because
it took that long to wear them out. It's a high level of
quality and reliability.
There's also no learning curve. People are going to
be able to step behind that machine and use it
immediately.
6 2019 TECH GUIDE
What improvements have been made to these
types of machines over the years to better serve
teams?
More sophistication, and the interface allows them to do
exactly what they want to do. Little League dads don't want
to study physics to know how to use a pitching machine.
They get intimidated by it. This allows them to walk in,
turn on the machine, tell it what to do, and position it to
where they want to throw. Before that, there were three
dials and they had to know what adjustments to make to go
from a curveball to a fastball. A lot of coaches did it, but it
was intimidating.
With competitive units, you can't change the pitch. If
they have a fastball or curveball, you can't modify it. It's a
default. We allow operators to fine tune it to accommodate
hitters or replicate the pitcher they're going to see that
night. They're going to be able to access every single
motor separate to dial in that exact pitch. That precision is
something that's definitely unique.
What sort of feedback have you received from
coaches about how they use the machines and
how they're helping athletes?
A catching coach is going to tell you how it's affecting
the catchers, and the fielding coach is going to tell you how
it's affecting the fielders. Every single position uses the
machine differently. It's because it's so versatile, and it can
handle every position.
Coaches are implementing these in unique ways based
on their job description. They're doing vision training in
unique ways to better facilitate the training requirements.
The higher level it is, the more machines they can get and
the more sophisticated the training regimen becomes.
Some high school coaches are excited to have one, and
that one machines does pitching, does fielding and trains
the catcher. It does everything.
Tech Guide - 2019

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