Ben Buechner, College Baseball Coach and Personal Trainer, Reviews the Ball Coach Radar

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We recently sat down with Ben Buechner, Santa Rosa Junior College baseball assistant coach and personal trainer, who went in depth with us about how he has been incorporating the Ball Coach radar into his training and coaching lessons with his team and players.  Hear what he has to say about the value it has brought to their hitting training (Ball Exit Speed is a direct measure of the power of a hit), as with their bullpens and recruiting.

Here are a few soundbites from the interview:

1.  How has adding the Ball Coach into training sessions helped your players improve their game?

“They start to understand numbers a little more. So when you throw numbers at them they start to believe, okay this is working, this isn’t working type of deal. I use it a lot for Ball Exit Speed, and they start understanding that the good line drive swings develop a good exit speed because you can read them a number, and it’s one number is higher than the other, can’t get any better than that.”

2.  How has using the Ball Coach helped your coaching and training methods, when working with players?

“Having numbers really helps increase your ability to teach them. For instance, we use Tom House’s Velocity Plus program, and we get a reading before an after on their velocity, and you get to see if the program is increasing that. When a pitcher starts realizing this is working a little bit and they see their velocity jump up 1 or 2 miles per hour, they start believing in it and start taking it more serious. It helps with coaching because when they start believing in something as much as you believe in it, that’s when they really take off in your training and it makes your job a little easier.”

3.  What have you been using the Ball Coach for during training, practices and games?

“During practice we use it a lot down in the bullpens to measure velocity because it’s short distance and you can get right up behind the catcher.  During games, we use it for the same thing. We have scrimmages, sometimes where we will have a screen behind home plate so we can stand back there and see what the pitcher is doing. During training, a lot of Ball Exit Speed off the bat. I am able to work with the kid on his swing and he can see his improvement. Since I coach at a college, I do a lot of recruiting, so when I go to high school games it’s real easy and I just pull it out and check out the speed right there.  It doesn’t bring a lot of attention because it’s some big ol’ gun, which makes it really handy when it comes to recruiting.”

4.  Has anything surprised you so far since you began using the Ball Coach, that has made you think about “radar” any differently?

“Quite a few.  What I really love is measuring the Ball Exit Speed. You can measure just the true power that a hitter has. The faster the ball travels off the bat, the further it’s going to go, it’s science. It’s great to talk to a kid and say, look there’s the numbers it doesn’t lie, it is what it is. So we can try to increase it and we can try to work on it, because the further the ball goes is because of the power off the bat. A couple more surprises would be the fact that it’s so handy for recruiting, you get a reading and then put it back in your pocket. We use it up against various different other radars and have never had a problem with it. Just as accurate and always keeps up with them. To me, it’s a lot better because it’s small and handy.”

5.  Would you recommend the Ball Coach to any other coaches and trainers, and why?

“I do recommend it to everybody. The fact that it is so helpful in motivating these young athletes, they see the numbers and they want to get better. It’s a goal to set. For instance, pitching wise you’ve got a fastball and a change-up, two different speeds.  85 (fastball), you need a change-up at 77 right now, let’s try to get it a little slower. When you have numbers, and you have a goal that you can actually obtain because of the number, it just makes it more motivating and the athletes wants to work at his goal.”

We look forward to hearing more upcoming results from Ben and the team, and if you have any questions or would like to share your Pocket Radar stories, please give is a call toll-free at 888-381-2672 from 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Time, or e-mail us at info@PocketRadar.com