Today I attended my first team practice this season. Our team (the 60+ team I’ve been playing the longest with) rented a couple of batting tunnels at a sports facility. Good turnout! — eleven of the sixteen players on our roster. Some had done this last week, but I wasn’t able to attend due to speed skating the last ice at the Pettit National Ice Center.
I’d had a bit of practice last month in Phoenix on our drive back from California, with a teammate who has a winter home there. Throwing and fielding some fly balls, bunting a few pitches.
Today was my first chance to see if my VR batting practice was working well, or throwing me off. Results: unsure.
I did a 50 swing VR session at home before driving to the facility. I had the bat calibrated quite well and hit great for all but the highest velocity pitcher (~70mph). My main problem at high velocity was distinguishing balls from strikes, not swinging/contact.
At team BP, as usual I bunted the first four pitches and that seemed OK. I barely made contact the first few swings, which is a sign that ball-tracking in VR isn’t the same as RR (‘real reality’). After a few swings, I started hitting OK. I definitely benefited from learning not to lunge. But I only really squared up a few balls out of perhaps forty swings. I did feel strong enough to comfortably swing the heaviest bat I brought (34” 30oz); I did work my way lighter and choked up a bit as our one hour session progressed.
It’s still possible that VR could translate to RR better than what I experienced today. The reason is because the batting ‘tunnels’ at the facility only allowed for about 30’ from the pitcher to the plate. On Thursday I’m going to a batting practice with another team (a 52+ team that I’m joining this season, in order to get more reps against higher velocity pitchers so that I can hit better against the best 60+ pitchers) at a facility that I believe has longer tunnels.