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Monsterful VR, the innovative and fast growing immersion engagement brand for sports and technology, today announced a partnership with Jeremy Booth, PROGRAM 15, and the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series to design and implement a custom programmed Virtual Reality training system to enhance player development through technology. The new patented interactive VR platform is the latest advancement in the space, and the first of its kind on the market. The implementation is set to begin in 2018.
“I’m thrilled to announce this partnership as the next evolution in our fast growing business,” said Jarett Sims, Monsterful VR founder. “We’re interested in ensuring that from end to end we have an ecosystem where kids age six and up to Major League players are using our system effectively to improve their play quality. Jeremy Booth’s experience in evaluating and coaching some of the great players in the game today as well as working with the younger athletes on a consistent basis, brings a lot to Monsterful so it’s exciting to work with him and now have him on our board as well. Baseball is our next step, but not our last for sure.”
“Jarett Sims and the Monsterful Staff’s experience in developing quality Major League player development products made this an easy decision,” added PROGRAM 15 founder and veteran MLB talent evaluator Booth. “This technology has already shown results with players we recently tested it with at the New Balance Future Stars Series International Week. I’m very excited about working with Jarett to lead this innovation in player development and translate analytical data into accelerated player growth.”
Set to launch the first quarter of 2018, RBI-VR, Monsterful VR’s state-of-the-art training platform that extends far beyond the entertainment value of Play the Pros (PTP), which debuted as a consumer facing product at Detroit’s Comerica Park to wrap up the 2017 regular season. The RBI-VR virtual reality gaming engine is built on a proprietary process developed by Monsterful VR engineers for compiling and calculating the enormous amount of data used to recreate the throwing mechanics, correct biomechanics, vertical and horizontal release point of any pitcher in the league with near 100% accuracy.
Utilizing virtual reality to enhance pitch recognition and reaction time while minimizing injury risk is the perfect marriage of sport and technology. One of the revolutionary features built into RBI-VR is that it does not just provide players with the experience of hitting against Major League level pitching. The platform also evaluates, documents and provides Major League level feedback to the hitter that can also be made available to recruiters and scouts.
The fully immersive nature of the RBI-VR hitting experience is based on a physics engine built by Monsterful VR which accurately replicates the Magnus Effect – the phenomenon that governs the spin and flight of the ball once thrown by the pitcher – and the accurate physics of the bat + ball collision. The software is not just a close representation of the game, but a highly refined, accurate and measurable re-creation what it is to hit against Major League pitching, and allows for the capture of the tens of thousands of new data points measured by the system with each swing.
The Program 15 and New Balance Future Stars Series VR Tournament will be held in January for Baseball academies across the country with Monsterful VR’s RBI-VR training product.
Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers recently expanded their Fan Experience at Comerica Park with the debut of Monsterful VR’s Play the Pros (PtP) virtual reality batting cage. The Play the Pros fan engagement platform enables ball parks, entertainment venues, and retail establishments around the country to provide fans the opportunity to virtually step up to the plate at a major league ballpark and take real swings against simulated pitches from their favorite MLB pitchers. It will soon be expanded into a remote platform bringing this unique experience into the home and commercial establishments as well.
