Ryne Tacker and Scott Lonergan are two former Rice Sport Management students and creators of one of baseball’s next biggest training innovations. Their company, Phantom Weight Technology, specializes in sports-specific training to help every athlete excel in their sport.
The Phantom Sleeve helps athletes train and strengthen various parts of their body through functional training. After numerous studies, the Phantom sleeve continues to produce results in athletic performance. Phantom’s current product line includes an arm, calf, and forearm sleeve.
“Ryne Tacker was the idea guy who called me with this crazy thought about a weighted arm sleeve,” Lonergan said. “We were both in our first off-season from professional baseball, looking to add velocity to our pitches, and we weren’t satisfied with today's conventional methods of weight lifting, surgical tubing, and especially throwing with weighed baseballs. I basically took the idea and ran with it.”
Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher Cole Hamels fully endorses and uses Phantom’s training technologies. Hamels believes the product is an excellent training mechanism to produce strength and endurance. Hamels believes the weighted sleeve will give him, “a few more miles per hour and some extra endurance throughout the season, which could be the ticket in winning 20 games and a Cy Young.”
“Between our huge support system at the Rice Sport Management Program and my contacts on the West Coast consisting of entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors, trainers, athletes, and a wetsuit manufacturing company that also worked on custom projects, we were able to turn this idea into a reality,” Lonergan said. “Overnight success certainly does not happen overnight as we've learned, and the credit goes to many people for helping us along the way.”
In 2010, Phantom Technologies was awarded with the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Convention “Best Product of the Show.” Through their revolutionary training technologies, the Phantom Group continues to represent our sports management program in the transformation, innovation, and implementation of the world’s greatest training techniques.
Matthew Reckling, a senior from Houston, Texas, is majoring in Sports Management.