Athletic training is often thought of mostly as a matter of physical fitness. But entrepreneur Mike Halpert felt that there was a missing piece: vision training.
Halpert said he understands that athletes can get frustrated when they make a mistake in their game or performance. Just as drilling in better physical performance can help mitigate those mistakes, though, he recognized that improving vision skills would build confidence as well.
“If an athlete is frustrated in the thing that they love, everything else is really difficult,” Halpert said.
His solution is the Ver Vision Trainer: a virtual reality app designed to strengthen the eyes to help an athlete better track a ball. The app is a product of Halpert’s startup, named Ver Coaching after the Spanish word “ver,” or “to see.”
An athlete will put on a VR headset with the app downloaded and will run through a series of mini games. These consist of colorful cartoon landscapes with blinking components, and the athlete uses a remote to click or move each blinking target as it appears.
The technology is built to train the eyes to work together by strengthening each eye individually—which is particularly useful given that most people begin with one eye being naturally stronger than the other. Halpert said most VR is designed with two identical screens, but Ver Coaching’s app has two slightly different screens that enable it to train each eye separately.
Ver Coaching in practice
I visited Halpert at Durham’s American Underground for a demonstration of the technology. Halpert first had me throw and catch a ball several times, and I described the ball as coming at me fast. I then put on the VR headset to complete the vision training, focusing my eyes across the screen to select blinking icons.
Afterward, I worked with the real ball again. After less than two minutes of vision training, I felt the ball coming at me more slowly, and I felt calmer about catching the ball.
“Let’s have you be more confident in your sport,” Halpert said.
Halpert has sent his product to athletes playing various sports around the country, at the high school, college and professional levels. He said a college baseball player used this technology for three weeks and his exit velocity—meaning the speed of a baseball after it’s hit off the bat—increased from 80 to 88mph.
Other types of mental performance and vision training can involve special glasses and downloaded programs on a computer, which Halpert said could be a barrier for many athletes on busy training schedules. By contrast, Ver Coaching’s approach does not require the internet and can be done anywhere—such as on the field at practice or in the dugout during a game.
Case in point, Halpert said baseball or softball teams can utilize this technology as their batters wait in the dugout; they can undergo short vision training before they go up to bat.
This technology is also sport-agnostic, so to speak. Halpert, for instance, used his own app to improve his beach volleyball skills. Before Ver Coaching, he said he was only seeing the ball as it came over the net. After the vision training, he started tracking the ball the whole time, allowing him to get to the ball faster, he said.
“I became a much better teammate,” Halpert said.
Golf is another sport that Ver Coaching can help with, as Halpert has collected data from golfers who improved their accuracy and reduce their number of putts after using the VR app. He’s also worked with a para-skiier and a squash coach in Trinidad. And a Major League Baseball team invited Ver Coaching to spring training this year to try out the Ver Vision Trainer.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Ver Coaching
Founder: Mike Halpert
Founded: 2023
Team size: 1
Location: Durham, NC
Website: www.ver.coach
Funding: Bootstrapped; starting pre-seed
Founded in November 2023, Ver Coaching will have an MVP on the market by June of this year. The startup is currently undergoing beta testing, with about 20 paid users so far. Ver Coaching also recently wrapped up its participation in the inaugural FCAT Fellowship (GrepBeat has also covered its fellow cohort members Scale Social AI, Celestic, Baby Bumps, Deliveri, and Elroi). Halpert was honored with the fellowship’s “Cohort Prize,” determined by his fellow participants.
Users are now able to join the waitlist for the latest version of the Ver Vision Trainer.
The app is sold in a subscription model, and teams can choose to purchase subscriptions for their entire roster. Each athlete on the team can have their own account under the same login, so they can track their scores and progress.
Halpert invites any coaches or athletes interested in a demo to reach out to him at mike@ver.coach.
