The TrackMan is a radar system that uses Doppler technology to track and record 3D characteristics of a sports ball in motion.

History

TrackMan was created in 2003 by golfers Klaus (

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

) and Morten Eldrup-Jørgensen and radar engineer Fredrik Tuxen ( CTO). Tuxen worked with the tracking of bullets and missiles using Doppler radar. The Jorgensen brothers contacted him to see if the technology could be used to track golf balls. The team developed the TrackMan system and demonstrated it in the United States to five golf manufacturers.

Mizuno () is a Japanese sports equipment and sportswear company, founded in Osaka in 1906 by Rihachi Mizuno. Today, Mizuno is a global corporation which makes a wide variety of sports equipment and sportswear for badminton, baseball, boxing, cycling ...

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

Ping Ping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Ping, a domesticated Chinese duck in the illustrated book '' The Story about Ping'', first published in 1933 * Ping, a minor character in ''Seinfeld'', an NBC sitcom * Ping, a c ...

, Callaway, and

TaylorMade TaylorMade Golf Company is an American sports equipment manufacturing company based in Carlsbad, California, United States. The company focuses on the golf equipment market, producing golf clubs, balls, and clothing. TaylorMade Golf is currently ...

became TrackMan's first customers. TrackMan products are sold worldwide to professionals, amateurs, and businesses. The company's headquarters is in

Vedbæk Vedbæk is a wealthy suburban neighbourhood on the coast north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It belongs to Rudersdal Municipality and has merged with the town of Hørsholm to the north. The area has been inhabited for at least 7,000 years, as evidenced ...

, Denmark.

Usage

Golf

The TrackMan is a device that uses

Doppler radar A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the f ...

to monitor the launch of a golf ball. It is set up behind the golfer and is roughly the size of a laptop. With each swing, it measures every aspect of the club movement, the trajectory of the ball, and its landing. It is equipped with a video camera so golfers can watch themselves while looking at information about their swing. Rather than calculating its projectile motion from initial launch parameters, it can track the entire flight of the ball from the moment of impact to the point where the ball comes to rest. After it finishes tracking, the TrackMan displays data and graphics on the screen of a connected computer or smartphone. Users can compare their data to professional golfers or others with similar skills. The main advantage of using the device compared to traditional video analysis is that golfers get pure data instead of guessing everything from the video. Golfers and instructors use feedback from TrackMan to practice and improve their performance on the golf course. It was first used on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

in 2006. Television broadcasters also utilize it to display on-screen graphics such as the ball's

trajectory A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete traj ...

as a golfer hits his or her tee shot.

Baseball

TrackMan has recently been rolled out to all 30 MLB stadiums and more than 80

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

ballparks.

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

uses

Statcast Statcast is a high-speed, high-accuracy, automated tool developed to analyze player movements and athletic abilities in Major League Baseball (MLB). Statcast was introduced to all thirty MLB stadiums in 2015, a year now considered the beginning ...

, a system that uses cameras and radar to track and measure player and ball movements at all times.

PITCHf/x PITCHf/x is a system created and maintained by Sportvision that tracks the speeds and trajectories of pitched baseballs. This system, which made its debut in the 2006 Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason, is installed in every MLB stadium. The ...

, the previous pitch tracking system used by Statcast, was replaced by TrackMan in 2017. PITCHf/x used high-speed cameras to measure the velocity of a baseball at 55 feet from home plate, where the ball may have already lost some speed. The TrackMan uses

to measure maximum velocity, which is defined at the release point of the pitch. The new technology led to reports of pitchers throwing slightly faster than they did in 2016.

Football

In 2019, the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

became the first NFL team to use the TrackMan system for use in evaluating

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

kickers.

References

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