Practice: Batting Practice

The Batting Practice workflow allows you to create Hitter Groups, quickly create clips for each pitch, and easily switch between players. Batting practice also allows for flexible data tagging, where no data tags are required, besides a single click clip creation for each pitch.

Getting Started

To create a new batting practice session, select the Practice tab. In the upper right corner, click Add Practice, then select Batting Practice from the drop-down menu.

Begin by selecting the League, Date, and Team for your Batting Practice in the far left panel. In the lineup panel, you can add as many groups for hitters as you want by clicking the + button next to Group 1. If you would like to remove a group, simply click the X next to the group you would like to remove.

Select the group you would like to add hitters to, then in the player panel on the right, double click on the player name to add them to the selected group. You can also assign either a player, coach, or machine as the pitcher for the practice session. To designate coach or machine as the pitcher, simply double click on Coach at the bottom of the player list.

Once you have added all of your hitters you can verify each group is correct by selecting the associated group tab. If you would like to move a player up or down in the order within a group, select the desired player, then, using the up and down arrow buttons to the right of the player lineup you can move the player to the desired order.

To remove a player, select the player you would like to remove, then click the Remove from Lineup button above the Group. When all of your groups are set as you would like, click Apply to create the session.

Importing Video

Under the Practice tab, you will now see a new practice session created that displays the Date, Team, number of Players, and Batting Practice under the Practice Type. Select the newly created session, and click the Import button at the top right of the app to add the video file(s) associated with your batting practice session.

Begin by selecting the number of angles you wish to import from the Total Camera Angles dropdown. For each camera, assign the angle from the dropdown menu. Then, click the Add Video File(s) button, and select all video files from that angle associated with the batting practice session.

Click the Start button to upload your video files. Once successfully uploaded, a green checkmark will display in the Upload column.

Synching Video

Now that your video files have been uploaded, if you are using more than one angle, you can sync them by clicking the Sync button at the top right of the app. Using the scrubbing tools below the video player, find a very specific point in the first pitch, that is visible from both angles, for example, the moment of impact. Repeat this step with all additional camera angles, then click the Create New Sync Point button to the right of the video players, and click Apply at the bottom of the window. For a more in depth look at the synch process, click here.

Logging

Now that your angles are synched, you can begin your logging. Click the Log button at the top right of the app. The batting practice logging screen will display as shown below.

The default display is set to the hit location screen, however if you want to add pitch location, the view can be easily switched by clicking the strike zone chart in the upper right.

On the left you will see the groups you created with the associated players listed within, allowing you to easily toggle between groups, and quickly select the next player with a single click. 

Under Pitch Type you will see listed all the different pitch types which can be selected, including their associated hotkeys for quick data entry.

In the table to the right of the hit location screen, Swing Result, BIP Type and Hit Quality tags are listed, along with their hotkeys for quick data entry. There are also dropdown menus to Select Swing Type, and Select Bunt Type.

To begin logging, open up the capture window by clicking the Capture button in the top right. The number within the camera icon reflects the number of camera angle uploaded into the logger.

Now that the capture window is open, your video will display, and you can advance the video to the first recorded pitch to begin marking the swings. The goal of this stage of the process is to simply marking events within your video timeline. Select your at-bat player, then, with the video running, click the green Mark Swing/Take button each time the player swings. This will create an event for each swing, displayed in the table in the bottom right of the Logger screen. Once the hitter has taken their pitches, select the next player at-bat, and continue the process.

NOTE: Marking Swing/Take is a one-click action. The event will create a six second clip, beginning four seconds before the click, and ending two seconds after. This eliminates the need to create start and stop points.

If you hit the Mark Swing/Take by accident, or the batter doesn't swing, you can click the Remove Swing/Take button next to it to remove the event, and continue on to the next pitch.

Adding Batting Data

Once your batting practice session is complete, you can then go back and add any information you would like to each swing event. Select Play By Play view in the top right of the window, and each group and their players will be listed on the left. You can expand or collapse each group by clicking the triangle next to it's name. Select a player, and their batting events will be displayed on the right. By clicking the pencil icon, you can edit each event to add your information.

Your video will display in separate window, where you can switch between angles, and now you can enter your Pitch Type, Hit Location, Swing Result, BIP Type, and Hit Quality. You can also enter your pitch location if desired by clicking the Strike Zone icon in the top right next to the hitter's name. Once you have entered all the information you desire, click Apply at the bottom to save your data. When you return to the Play By Play View, all of that data will now be displayed, and associated with that video clip.

If substitutions are needed to be made after the fact, for example the wrong player was created for the session, all changes should be made in Play By Play view. In the same manner, select the player in question, and click the Edit button for the event.

Now you can select the hitter name above the hit location chart, select the correct hitter from the list of Hitter Substitutions, click Done, and then Apply at the bottom of the screen.