The new season of Hofstra Summer Camps 2019 Winter Baseball Clinic is teeing off with a twist this month. The clinic, based in Uniondale, is adding the use of baseball analytics to its roster of fun this year. It will now offer Rapsodo Baseball and Flightscope technologies, the same equipment used by Major League Baseball to measure a players’ pitching and batting moves, giving them ways to improve their game.
“Baseball analytics is the future of baseball,” said Terry Ryan, director of the summer camp program.
The pitching component of the technology, Rapsodo, measures pitch velocity, spin rate of the ball and efficiency. Flightscope measures bat performance data, such as exit speed, flight time and carry distance.
Open to children ages 7 to 17, the clinic is designed for young baseball enthusiasts to keep their skills sharp during winter months. The sessions run January 19, 20, 26 and Feb. 2, and will include hitting and base running. Players can also select a pitching option, which will give them the opportunity to pitch and throw bullpen sessions with pitching instructors.
The clinic will be held in the school’s 80-yard indoor sports bubble and is run by the New York Baseball Academy. The instructors are staff from the academy and coaches from Hofstra’s Division 1 baseball team.
“It’s neat. The kids get to play, practice and get instructed by a Division 1 staff at a Division 1facility, the highest level of baseball,” Ryan said. “There’s really nowhere else around here where you can do that.”
Registration is now open. More information is available on the Hofstra Summer Camps website.
Image courtesy Hofstra Summer Camps
