Radar Technology
Applied to Sports Performance

Doppler radar provides Zelocity™ Sports Performance Monitors the advantage of collecting hundreds of thousands of data points for ball flight and swing analysis. The radar “sees” the bat and ball before, during, and after the moment of impact, and follows the ball as it flies down field. This allows Zelocity™ to collect a stream of actual data points (100,000 per second) from the Doppler radar signal; see the radar data stream table below.

This data is then processed through patented mathematical algorithms, to produce vital statistics about the hit, including bat speed, exit speed, distance and power transfer ratio.

• Bat Speed is speed of the bat at impact, in miles per hour.
• Ball Velocity is speed of the ball after impact, in miles per hour.
• Carry Distance is the distance the ball flies in the air before hitting the ground.
• Power Transfer Ratio % is calculated as Ball Velocity / Bat Speed x 100%. This represents an indication of centeredness of impact between the ball and bat face. An exception to this rule is the thin or topped hit which may show a high ratio even though off-center impact was made.

Zelocity™ Sports Performance Monitors use Doppler radar, combined with patented mathematical algorithms, to accurately determine ball flight characteristics of interest to coaches, scouts and players of every skill level.

RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging) measures the reflection time of microwave energy bounced off a target object, such as a baseball or softball bat.

The “Doppler Effect” is the apparent change in frequency caused by a change in distance between the transmitter and the target object during transmission/reception. For example, as a ball flies, the reflected frequency decreases relative to the transmitted frequency (i.e., the transmitted and reflected frequencies would be the same if the ball were not moving). Measuring this change, or “Doppler Shift,” allows the actual velocity of the ball to be determined.

Doppler radar is uniquely suited to the job of tracking bat and ball flight.

Why? Robustness. Radar signals operate at extremely high frequencies and cover a large cross-section of space. They are unaffected by lighting and weather conditions. They are “always on,” so they don’t require expensive, high-maintenance shuttering mechanisms found in other types of monitors.

Zelocity™ monitors yield the equivalent of a radar “videotape” of the flight of the ball. The monitor tracks the ALL of the action of the bat as well as the ball as it flies.

Accuracy

Rather than simply publish a set of accuracy statistics without backup or detail, Zelocity™ has defined and committed our company to a rigorous quality program to ensure our component materials, manufacturing processes, end products, distribution methods, and support systems all come together to deliver unparalleled satisfaction to our customers.

Our minimum guidelines for product performance are shown in the following table.

To meet these guidelines, our program includes frequent internal tests as well as product trials at independent testing facilities, training schools and team practice sessions.

We collect and analyze performance data when developing new products and also for mature products, to ensure our methods consistently yield quality results.