Northern ballplayers looking for the competitive edge with Northern Baseball Training

Northern Baseball Training first launched a few years ago in order to give ball players here locally similar resources that teams in the lower mainland have access to.

“Kids in the north and Prince George were missing out on training, just because of the long winters and short summers. We’re all competing against Lower Mainland teams that are able to get out on the field a lot longer,” explained Doug’s brother and fellow business partner Chris. “It was something we saw that was missing and we could kind of put something together.”

Over the past year, the business has actually grown, with a large part to do with many ball players looking to still train while their seasons are on hiatus.

“We could see a lot of the kids getting worn down because they’re just training all year without any games, but as soon as we got the HitTrax we were able to implement some games into it and then the kids were having a lot of fun with that,” said Doug.

The HitTrax is a baseball simulator that allows the user to play at any Major League stadium with full game simulations, all while providing at-bat training.

“It tracks every little part of your swing: exit velocity, launch angle, distance, play outcome, things like that,” said Doug.

“You see some of these kids and they’re so raw,” explained Chris. “Basically, they’re just swinging at a ball and then we throw the slow-motion camera on them and you can see everything unwind. A couple of sessions later, even them just doing one little thing, it’s a huge improvement.”

And the players themselves have been seeing the results as well.

“It was really tough last year,” explained James Yandeau. “Doug and Chris ran a summer program here for us while we weren’t able to get on the field. I got tons of swings in last summer without having a season. I’ve worked two years with them now, even last season we played a few intrasquad games last year, and I could see the improvement immensely. It’s helped a lot.”

Despite the uncertainty early on, Northern Baseball Training is hoping to continue its growth from the past year, especially now that they have the HitTrax to offer to their athletes.

A grand slam you could say.

by Ethan Ready

Northern ballplayers looking for the competitive edge with Northern Baseball Training

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