CHICAGO — With spring in full swing, the sound of bats cracking, and baseball gloves popping are abundant as baseball season gets underway. With Chicago’s temperamental weather, many teams are bound to take practice inside, and that is where Swing Science Hitting Lab gives teams and individual players a leg up.

Swing Science Lab uses 3D body movement analysis, pressure plates, pitching simulators, bat sensors and other high-tech tools for a data-driven analysis to help players and coaches of any skill level advance their game.

As with any story in the pandemic, owner Mark McCall had to switch business models and completely change up what he does for a living.

“I had this space, operating an IT consulting business and as people were working remotely I needed to come up with something,” Mcall said. “I’ve always enjoyed coaching baseball and I’m I’ve always worked in the IT world, so I combined both and that’s how Swing Science Hitting Lab came online.”

Some of the highlights offered is the HitTrax system which essentially turns the batting cage experience into a video game experience — adapting to the kids of today. It allows kids to select to play in any major league park, among a few other parks from around the world.

Other systems that parents and coaches will like is the high-speed video cameras that communicate with a vest each batter uses to create a 3D analysis of the batter’s approach to their mechanics when swinging.

That experience, coupled with electronic batting cages where batters watch a video of a pitcher pitching in real-time a ball that shoots out of a hole in the screen gives batters and coaches the best simulation of live batting practice available.

Swing Science Hitting Lab is open to anyone that wants to come by for a round in the cage. They also offer an in-house trainer that will offer up analysis and coaching as an available service. Hitting sessions range from $30 to $60 per half hour, depending on the depth of training and analysis. To reserve your cage time, visit Swing Science’s website.

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