Kansas City, MO, October 23, 2015 — EON Sports VR, makers of the widely popular SIDEKIQ simulator football software, announced a new partnership with Jason Giambi, former Major League Baseball MVP, and Dan O’Dowd, former Colorado Rockies general manager and current MLB Network analyst, to offer virtual reality baseball training featuring EON Sports VR’s interactive hitting simulator, Project OPS.
The VR Baseball trainer experience will focus on strike zone awareness and pitch recognition from a pitcher in real 360 action. Giambi, a 20 year veteran, will provide interactive tutorials throughout the training experience.
Bringing strike zone awareness and pitch recognition to mobile phones.
“The Strike Zone awareness simulation is unparalleled in baseball today,” said Giambi. “I can’t imagine what the game would have looked like if we had this technology when I broke into the league in the mid-90’s. Many kids live in cold weather climates where they can’t get out on the diamond every day. This solution allows hitters around the world to practice real-life applications and situations wherever they are.”
“The biggest obstacle we face as an industry is bridging the gap between potential and performance because practice doesn’t allow us to duplicate the “speed” of the game,” said O’Dowd. “After pursuing Virtual Reality for close to 20 years, I finally found a partner in EON Sports VR and Brendan Reilly that has opened up the door for a new way to train at “best speed”. This product is the first in a line of many that will change the game forever in how we train and develop our players.”
The new technology offers more than 30 interactive virtual reality strike zone awareness challenges with the ability to receive a lesson and participate in interactive challenges on a variety of baseball fields. In addition, a pitcher will throw randomized pitch sequences in virtual reality using four different pitches (Fastball, Slider, Curve and Change-up) aimed to provide the hitter a real-life like at-bat experience.
“What separates us from anyone else in the marketplace is our level of detail and acceptance by some of the biggest names in professional baseball,” said EON Sports VR CEO Brendan Reilly. “Our intuitive design and pitch variety allows a hitter to learn how to do things that can only be mimicked in real game experience which not everyone has access to every day. Project OPS will change the way hitters are able to train and give them a 24/7 tool to work with.”
“I’ve stood in the box against some of the best and most intimidating pitchers in the world.” Giambi said. “They were so good at changing up their pitches, at times it was almost impossible to anticipate what they would throw. But with the EON Sports VR Project OPS, you are prepared for anything that a pitcher will throw at you.”
Additional features of the technology include:
- Opposing pitcher’s motion designed precisely to emulate exact biomechanical motion, release, and ball trajectory
- 360 VR lessons and exclusive access from Jason Giambi on how he approached each pitch
- Quicker visual cues and subconscious biomechanical recognition
- Each pitcher’s trajectory and ball break, flight, etc. is visually represented
- VR Simulation configuration software
- Randomize Pitching Mode or Customized Pitching Mode
- Configure speed, type, location of pitch, break of ball and spin rate
- Pitch Recognition or Interactive Swinging Mode
- Upload to any VR interactive device
- VR Simulation configuration software
- Randomize Pitching Mode or Customized Pitching Mode
- Configure speed, type, location of pitch, break of ball and spin rate
- Pitch Recognition or Interactive Swinging Mode
- Upload to any VR interactive device
