Mar 29, 2022

Tiare Jennings Supplies the Power, Rapsodo Supplies the Data, and the Rest of College Softball Runs for Cover Oklahoma Tiare Jennings, a big believer in batting metrics, barging her way to home plate during the 2021 College World Series against Florida State. March 28, 2022 In her first weekend as a college softball player last year, Oklahoma infielder Tiare Jennings went 12-for-13 with five home runs. She finished the 2021 season as a first-team All-American, the Division I Freshman of the Year, a record-holder for RBIs as a freshman (92) and the country’s second-most prolific home run hitter (27). Jennings, who had been Gatorade’s high school softball player of the year in California, also batted .462 while primarily playing second base for the eventual 2021 national champion Sooners. Following her breakout season, Jennings not only threw out the first pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game, but signed a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal with Rapsodo, a leading supplier of pitching and hitting ball tracking monitors. Rapsodo only signed two players: Jennings and Florida pitcher Elizabeth Hightower. This spring, Oklahoma is off to a 29-0 start and a No. 1 national ranking. Jennings is again helping lead the offense as she ranks second in the Big 12 Conference with 12 home runs, first in runs with 41 and second with a 1.485 OPS. Jennings' defending NCAA Champion Oklahoma Sooners were 26-0 heading into this past weekend and ranked No. 1 in the nation. On when she first used Rapsodo . . . I was first introduced in high school. We didn't really use it much in travel ball, but I had an idea of what it really was and then as soon as I stepped onto Oklahoma’s campus, we used Rapsodo pretty much every day. We use the pitching one and the hitting, and then [we] use it in our training program, I would say, more for practices—definitely when we’re hitting in the cages, hitting live off of our pitchers. On the data points she looks at most . . . I like to use Rapsodo the most when we're hitting live. For example, if one of our pitchers is pitching live, we have the pitching Rapsodo set up in the dugout on their iPads. So, I look at if their pitch is tunneling, their spin rate, their vertical break, kind of see how much their spin [and its direction], so I can get a good amount of data when I'm up at the plate against our pitchers. And then when I'm practicing in the batting cages, I would say we just use a lot of exit velocity, how can we improve that, and how we can better our swings using the exit velocity and launch angle. We do drills just trying to see what it looks like when we try and make our exit [velocity] go up. So, whether it was our swing, different launch angles, I would say I look for more consistency, as well. And then when I'm trying to improve it, I would go for harder swings and try to get my exit velo as high as possible and how I can stay at that top exit velo. On maxing out her exit velocity . . . I did it in the fall. I can't really remember, but I think it was around the 70 range, I would say? I don't have the specific numbers with me right now. We try and see how we can control our swing while maintaining a high exit velo. So of course, I can swing as hard as I can with a good exit velo, but are my mechanics the same? Is everything the same with an increase of my exit velo? So, my main focus is, ‘How can I keep my swing the most mechanical-wise so I feel comfortable and feel great, how can I keep that exit velo still getting it as high as possible?’  On whether she’s competitive with teammates . . . We did drills in the fall, just front toss and how high we can get it up and see. So, it's kind of cool to see everyone else's exit [velocity], we just compare it and stuff like that. So yeah, definitely. On using other tech . . . We did in the fall use a little bit of the bat sensors and that helped, as well. We’ve used both [Blast Motion and Diamond Kinetics] before, but this recent one in the fall was the Kinetic. And then we did use the [K-Motion] vest to see if our bodies move first and all that. I like using them all together, in the fall at least, just to see where I was at. Now, during the season, I’m trying to put all those numbers together. So how can I approach all the stuff I learned in the fall—all that training, all that preparation that I used Rapsodo in during practice—and how can I translate that to my live games and live at-bats? Jennings constantly monitors her exit velocity using Rapsodo and says she's generally in the 70 mph range, a high number in softball. On how she got into the sport . . . I started playing softball when I was four. My older cousin Keilani Jennings played at UC Santa Barbara, so I grew up going to all of her games when she played at Cal State Fullerton, when she would come down to UCLA. And we would go up to Santa Barbara. So, she made me really fall in love with the game, and I started playing at a young age. I'm a really big Dodgers fan, so I watch a lot of baseball. So, one of my favorite players is Chris Taylor, so I watch a lot of his games and his swings. Definitely a big baseball fan. On what she’s most working on in her game now . . . I would say now, probably, the mental part of my game—just working the pitch count. ‘What are pitchers beating me on? What pitches do I attack?’ So not just the physical part of my swing, but just the mentality and playing the game behind it and working on my mental piece. On why Oklahoma was the best fit . . . I would say Coach [Patty] Gasso’s morals and values are the exact same ones as mine—she cares for us more as people than she does as softball players, and she's really big on woman empowerment. We come into the program as girls and how she turns us into women when we leave. So, I think that was big, and I just knew a bunch of girls that are from California that I played with at home. So when they all came here and they all loved it, it's just like playing back at home with all of them. View this post on Instagram