Baseball Hitting Program Puts You Right At Home Plate In A Major League Ballpark

Having coached my son’s Little League baseball teams for several years, I know how tough it can be for some kids to hit. And the older they get, the faster the pitches come in. Thus, the more difficult they can be to hit. But one company is out to help batters.

WIN Reality is a system that can be downloaded to VR goggles – I used the Meta Quest 3S model to try it – and is described as the complete player development platform. It teaches you body mechanics, swing timing at the plate, and how to recognize pitch types. It’s similar to the training used by elite colleges and professional organizations to develop their next generation of players using data, AI and virtual reality.

WIN is nothing short of immersive. When you first start the program – even before you sign into an account – it has you take 10 swings at pitches. You immediately see from a batter’s perspective — standing at home plate in what appears to be a full-sized major league stadium. It’s pretty incredible, actually. Right down to the crowd noise. You see what looks like a detailed animation of a life-size pitcher throwing to you. At this point, you can either arm yourself with a real baseball or softball bat, and get a strap that attaches the Quest hand remote controller to the neck of the bat. Or you can use one of WIN’s short weighted bats that will house the controller. That’s the option I took. You can also just hold the remote, but then you won’t have the feeling of holding a real bat, and that defies the purpose of learning how to hit.

Regardless, with bat in hand, you swing at the 10 pitches so it can gauge your talent level and presumably create a training program. I quickly found out that I’m not as bad as I thought I would be. In fact, the pitches came in gradually faster and I made solid contact – there are no haptics at impact, but there is the sound of impact – on a pair of 90 mph fastballs. Bring on Justin Verlander!

After I officially established an account and logged in, I trained at first against a high-school-level pitcher before graduating to college and then pro-level pitchers. I was amazed at not just how fun this was and what good exercise it was (I was sweating after a few minutes), but also how quickly time passed while I was training. By the way, I set it up in my empty garage where I knew I could take hard swings and not break anything.

What you can learn with this app is nothing short of astounding. With 600+ right-handed and left-handed pitchers to choose from, you can face velocities from 40-100+ mph, see any pitch type, and train against any arm angle. WIN uses actual pitch data and pitcher windups to provide a challenging and realistic hitting experience. You see metrics, such as bat speed, pitch location and path, 3D strike zone, contact point, swing path, and hit path – all instantly after every pitch. This can help increase the speed of player development by up to seven times, and boost plate discipline: The company claims that hitters who use WIN for just 15 minutes per day see significantly more plate discipline metrics. There are live hitting sessions with real-life coaches. It’s all very well organized and presented, as well.

I also love the realism of the graphics. As you’re standing at home plate, you see your name up on the centerfield scoreboard. And the pitches really do look like they’re coming in at the listed speed. Trust me, I’ve spent enough time in batting cages to know. There are different subscription prices. But I can honestly say that if my son was still playing baseball, he would be begging for me to get this for him. And I know the younger version of me would have been mesmerized by it. As it is, I will keep using it for softball training – of which is part of the program. It’s one of the best uses of virtual reality I’ve seen. It’s super easy to set up and use, and is very convenient to use indoors when the weather outside isn’t cooperating for real batting practice. Or when there’s no one around to pitch. Plus, it allows you to share hitting data with your coaches.

Most of all, I love that it gets kids physically moving, to help keep them healthy – while they’re learning and having fun.