While the core functionality of ChangeUp is recording pitches and ensuring pitch count compliance, the mobile app software provides much more.
The two-time National League MVP’s mindset exists in many of today’s players. The difference is that there no longer is a true “offseason” to spend looking out the window, dreaming of baseball and – most importantly – resting and recuperating. More and more athletes play year-round, often for multiple teams. In addition to the traditional outlets of little league and school-based teams, the pay-to-play industry has taken off with more and more playing opportunities through AAU, travel and tournament teams. In years past, these additional playing opportunities were limited to just a small subset of players. Nowadays, these opportunities have opened up to a broadening portion of the baseball community and involve a far greater degree of diversity in players in terms of skill, athletic ability and physical make-up.
Sports, by their nature, present a certain level of injury risk. Baseball is no different. And, with increased playing opportunities come increased risks of injuries and the need for greater vigilance to keep players healthy and performing at their optimal levels. One key tool in the fight against overuse injuries in baseball players is the adoption of maximum pitch counts and required days of rest. Enter ChangeUp, a mobile technology solution making compliance with, and enforcement of, these protective measures simple and easily tracked.
While the core functionality of ChangeUp is recording pitches and ensuring compliance with applicable rules, the evolving ChangeUp platform provides users with so much more:
- As pitches are logged throughout a session, the application provides visual cues to the user showing impending days of rest thresholds as they apply to the team’s upcoming game schedule.
- At set intervals, the application presents users with an easy-to-use interface to track subjective analytics on the athlete’s performance to that point. That feedback is collected throughout each pitching session and compiled over time for the athlete’s later use. This data may be used by the athlete to reveal trends, strengths, and weaknesses, and provide coaches, trainers, parents, scouts and medical professionals unparalleled insight into an athlete’s past performances and future potential.
- Collected data is player-centric, allowing coaches complete and accurate reporting of their athlete’s pitching activities for any other team on the ChangeUp platform. This information is crucial to avoiding the overuse so prevalent amongst multi-team athletes.
- With ChangeUp 1.0 on the cusp of release, we are already hard at work on version 2.0 based on the great feedback we’ve received from coaches and baseball professionals thus far. Stay tuned for additional features and enhancements such as the incorporation of measured pitch type, location, and velocity, as well as enhanced bullpen capabilities enabling coaches to predefine or script workouts for their pitchers and measure/score results.
Who are we? The ChangeUp team is comprised of “baseball guys” located north of Boston. We’re former players, coaches and league administrators ourselves. We love the game of baseball and the opportunities for growth, learning and success it provides. But, we’ve also witnessed firsthand how injuries can derail careers and keep athletes from reaching their potentials. So, as passionate as we are about the game, we’re equally passionate about helping reverse the trend of overuse injuries in pitchers. The feature-rich ChangeUp platform makes compliance with health and safety measures not only easy, but attractive to coaches looking to help their athletes and teams maximize their potentials. Join the ChangeUp revolution. Because every pitch counts.