Glove Radar Coaches Letter

Letter to Coaches and Players:

Glove Radar® is a breakthrough advance in training equipment for baseball and softball players. By making accurate measurement of ball velocity with real Doppler radar easier and more affordable than ever before, Glove Radar® earned the NASDAQ "Top Twenty New Products" award at the 1999 Super Show. Radar guns have been used by professional and top amateur players for years. Now Glove Radar® turns any ball glove into a radar gun and makes these same training benefits available to everyone at a much lower cost. The cutting-edge Doppler radar technology in Glove Radar® is applicable to the entire spectrum of ball players:

Any age from tee ball to professional

Any position—infield, outfield, catcher or pitcher

Any throwing distance

One of the greatest challenges for a coach is to help players throw to the best of their potential and avoid the widespread problem of nagging arm soreness. The Glove Radar® philosophy emphasizes arm conditioning, stretching, throwing technique, and ample warm-up with the aim of maximizing throwing performance while curtailing arm strain and overuse for players of all levels. How does Glove Radar® facilitate these objectives?

First, Glove Radar® verifies and reinforces proper throwing mechanics by giving objective performance measurement, i.e., digital readout of throwing speed.

Second, the ability to measure performance makes it possible to regulate throwing intensity. This means establishing and enforcing limits on the strain a player places on the throwing arm.

In a nutshell, Glove Radar® makes a player a better thrower by helping teach and improve technique and making practice both effective and controlled to reduce the risk of injury. Aside from its undeniable value as a training tool, Glove Radar® is fun to use. The expression most often used by the players is "awesome."

Glove Radar® is a "must-have" piece of equipment for coaches and players who are innovators or looking for a competitive edge. Glove Radar® offers the following features:

Glove Radar® is a microwave Doppler radar, like the hand-held radar speed guns, not an impact sensor or timer, which is dependent upon a specific distance.

Glove Radar® does indeed "see" through the glove.

The accuracy of Glove Radar® is comparable to that of more expensive radar guns when measuring ball speed in the same relative location.

Glove Radar® can survive the pounding of repeated ball impacts when attached behind the glove fingers.

Glove RadarÔ is much more than a device to measure a player’s maximum throwing velocity. In fact, having a player throw too hard without adequate preparation is contrary to the Glove Radar® philosophy and is expressly discouraged.

Following are some specific examples of how coaches, players, and parents can utilize Glove Radar®:

LEARN THROWING FUNDAMENTALS. For beginners, the body turn, weight transfer, follow-through and other fundamentals are difficult to grasp. However, when these concepts are demonstrated and taught as individual steps—with measured improvements in performance for each step as verified by Glove Radar® —youngsters will learn more quickly and repeat the desired fundamentals. They enthusiastically receive instructions as they see positive results.

IMPROVE THROWING TECHNIQUE. For all young players, speed measurement aids continued improvement in fundamentals and technique—in other words, attaining proper biomechanics and developing greater throwing speed and power. Glove Radar® confirms what works and what does not work for each player, and progress can be readily tracked.

DEVELOP THROWING EFFICIENCY. From beginning players on up, learning to throw efficiently is at least as important as learning to throw harder. Efficiency means finding the motion and effort level for each player that produce the best results in relation to arm stress. Before Glove Radar®, a player might equate "throwing harder" with a motion that "feels" the hardest, i.e., the most stressful. Finding out how velocity is affected by changes in throwing mechanics and effort—and striking the proper balance between velocity and arm stress—requires a convenient means of accurately measuring speed as provided by Glove Radar®.

LIMIT ARM STRESS. Players at all levels should refrain from throwing their hardest day after day. Glove Radar® enables a player’s maximum throwing range to be determined. This information can then be used to establish a speed threshold that the player should not exceed in off-day throwing sessions. By setting and enforcing velocity limits, Glove Radar® removes the guesswork from this vital facet of safely developing throwing skills.

These are just some examples—individual experiences may vary.

Glove Radar® can be used wherever it is beneficial to measure the speed of a thrown ball. For instance, once pitchers start changing speeds, it is essential to be able to quantify the speed of a change-up or other off-speed pitch relative to a fastball when practicing these pitches or warming-up before a game. Keeping a Glove Radar® unit attached to a bullpen catcher’s mitt is ideal for these purposes. Some coaches of youth teams use Glove Radar® to help their hitters by adjusting the speed of batting practice pitches to equal or exceed the speed hitters will face in a game. (Note: The batter must not swing at the pitches used by the coach to calibrate the appropriate pitching speed.)

Glove Radar® is to baseball/softball throwing what the stopwatch is to track athletics. The ability to measure output—whether throwing velocity or running speed—is essential to effective, safe training and optimum performance. A track coach would not think of conducting a practice without a stopwatch. As the baseball/softball community becomes aware of how easy and affordable it is to obtain comparable measurement of throwing performance, Glove Radar® is being recognized as the leading tool to help all players become better throwers, while at the same time promoting healthy arm development and providing a lot of fun!

Please remember that Glove Radar® is perfect for off-season training as well as in-season player development. Many teams continue practice activities year around, and many baseball/softball camps and clinics are also conducted throughout the year. So it is never too late to start working with Glove Radar® and capitalizing on its many benefits.

If you have any questions or we can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to call.

Good luck with your baseball/softball endeavors, and remember, our message to all players is:

It’s not just how hard you throw but how well you throw!

Sincerely,
Al Dilz,
President
Sports Sensors, Inc.