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Pitching inthe Age ofNew Tech

Collegiate Baseball’sLouPavlovich

22 Inside Pitch / July/August 2021

Whether you’re a fan of technology or not, it’s dif-ficult to ignore. It’s here in full force and it’schanging baseball with it. Those that are too

close-minded to take the time to expand their knowledge ofthe new performance metrics run the risk of being left be-hind, both in terms of overall knowledge about the game andimproving an athlete’s efficiency in performance.

Here at RPP Baseball, we look at each athlete through aholistic, body-focused prism. To us, the body is the centerof everything, however technology is now an importantpiece of the puzzle. Here’s how we assess pitchers in theage of new tech:

1. Movement ScreenThe first step in the process is a basic movement screen. Manyof the issues pitchers face on the mound can be traced back towhat we see in a movement screen. It can even predict whatwe’re more than likely to observe on video or motion capture

later in the assessmentprocess. Without amovement screen, you’rebasically flying blind.A coach can scream andyell all he wants but toquote Frans Bosch, “thebody cares very little aboutwhat the coach has tosay.” In other words, if thebody can’t physically per-form the task, there isn’t awhole lot a coach can do.

While the movement screen happens to be the least tech-ori-ented aspect of the process, it’s where we always refer backto when trying to tie together all the different pieces of data.It’s an integral part of how we evaluate a pitcher’s move-ment strategies, and it can tell us a lot about an athlete. Athorough assessment will review the following categories:•Laxity Test•Standing Static Tests•Shoulder

- Static Test- Dynamic Movement- Strength and Stability- Flexibility and Tightness

•Lower Half- Flexibility and Tightness- Strength and Stability

•Other Tests- Lunge Test- Kneeling Test

There is tremendous value in this information, not onlyfor evaluating potential flaws in the delivery but alsoweaknesses that need to be addressed in any strengthtraining program.

2. Strength and Power TestingStrength and power can give us great insight into the type oftraining our athletes are initially producing and help create ablueprint for their strength training programs. It wasn’t longago when strength testing was primarily measuring the 1 repmax (RM) of an athlete with a variety of different lifts in theweight room. Today, technology is changing this dramati-cally, literally as we speak. Several new technologies havefound their way into the weight room:

• Velocity Based Training (VBT): VBT is a method of evaluat-ing the intensity of a given movement through the monitor-ing of bar and/or body speeds. Until recently, measuringvelocity during resistance training was only available to eliteathletes, measured with expensive equipment such as aTendo unit. But now, with the introduction of linear transduc-ers, anyone can calculate percentages of 1RM with high preci-sion at a fraction of the cost. We can now zero in on anathlete’s true strength and power as well as get predictionsof an athlete’s daily readiness to enable them to train at theoptimal intensity for that given day.

the LINEUP Coaches’Corner

by Nunzio Signore and Bahram Shirazi Rockland Peak Performance, Inc. (RPP Baseball)

Assessing Pitchers inthe Age of New Tech

July/August 2021 / Inside Pitch 23

If it looks athletic...• ...and velo and command are there,• ...and there is no pain involved,• ...then leave it alone!

the LIN

EUP

• The Force-Velocity Curve: De-veloping strength,speed and explosive-ness in athletes ispurely physics. Ap-plying these traits tobasic anatomical at-tributes can get a bitcomplicated but atthe end of the dayit’s all about force,velocity, and power.When it comes to

training athletes in an explosive sport such as baseball, under-standing how the athlete creates power through either forceor velocity has a great deal to do with how they should train inthe weight room. So, finding which trait, force or velocity, theathlete has a larger deficiency is the concept behind creatingforce-velocity profiles.

By using a forceplate or jump-matthat can measurepower production,we can better un-derstand whichside of power(force or velocity)the athlete relieson more and ad-just training togive them more ofwhat they need.

• Proteus Motion : This newtechnology is hot off thepresses, as we recently ordereda unit. Proteus is the size of asmall cannon and it is the first-ever technology to allow an ac-curate measurement ofphysical power production in3D. Although we’ve beenmeasuring power production inthe lower half for some timewith the aforementioned forceplates, we’re excited to be ableto assess power production in3D, especially in the upper bodyand in the frontal plane.

Although every piece of tech in this article is amazing, Proteusmight just be the most revolutionary when it comes to assess-ing and training. To be able to evaluate power production in arotational movement and train it within the freedoms of yourown movements is huge. It also allows us to train on thestrength continuum that otherwise has been delegated to

mostly med ball work only. Byproviding resistance continu-ously in a manner differentthan you’d experience withmed balls, cable machines andfree weights, we can bettertrain eccentric strength anddeceleration as well. For pitch-ers, this will be huge!

3. Pitching MechanicsEvaluationSince no two pitchers arealike, it is our belief that as-sessing pitching mechanics ispart art and part science. We

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24 Inside Pitch / July/August 2021

basically perform this part of the as-sessment in two ways:

Video Analysis: assessing apitcher’s mechanics should startand end with video. All the data inthe world can never replace watch-ing a delivery with your own eyes.You can call us old school if youwant, but a pitching delivery is ahuman endeavor, and in our opin-ion, video is still king.

Being able to visually see a pitcherin “real-time” speaks volumesabout the athlete’s strengths,weaknesses, and overall athleti-cism. There are times when videowill trump everything else thedata is telling us. Why? Here’s oneway to look at this. Pitching is anart, so…• If it looks athletic...• ...and velo and command are there,• ...and there is no pain involved,• ...then leave it alone!

Motion Capture: “Mocap” is considered to be the gold stan-dard of measuring athletic movement. It basically refers torecording human movement digitally and using that informa-tion to create an avatar at extremely high levels of accuracy.During motion capture, movements are recorded synchro-nously with multiple cameras at the same time and hundredsof times per second. This information is then mapped to a 3Dmodel such that the avatar performs the same actions as theathlete in the digital world.

The data and information provided by our Qualisys motioncapture system can be extremely valuable from several dif-ferent perspectives. It paints a thorough picture of how bodyparts are moving at extremely high speeds, it provides datathat allows us to have a much better understanding of thetorque and consequent stress placed on different parts ofthe body during the delivery, and we can utilize the system tohelp provide a detailed picture of where in the delivery theathlete may be losing velocity.

A motion capture system can also provide a full kinematicsequence which graphically lays out how velocity is gener-

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AssessingPitchers

July/August 2021 / Inside Pitch 25

ated from the ground up, from your pelvis to your torso andthen shoulders and finally the hand. There are many thingsthat can go wrong as the kinetic chain works itself up thebody. Mocap provides the angular velocities up the chainand allows us to numerically and graphically observe how ve-locity is transferred.

4. Pitch Movement EvaluationAlthough Trackman has been around for a while, it wasn’tuntil Rapsodo came out with their lower price point pitchingcamera system that evaluating ball movement data startedto become mainstream. Here are five areas we evaluate inevery pitcher’s ball movement:1. Spin axis by pitch type2. Spin efficiency percentages by pitch type3. Differentiation and relative pitch movement4. Holes in the overall movement pattern5. Consistency of arm slot (release height and side)

The measurements will help dictate how you work with eachpitcher in a pitch design program. Issues may be varied but

can include 4-seam and 2-seam with similar movement pat-terns or offspeed pitches that could use more depth, drop, or

sink, for example. Evaluating the actual release point on video

goes hand-in-hand with the ball tracking infor-mation provided by Trackman, Rapsodo andother systems. Cameras such as Edgertronicand Rapsodo Insight can be coupled with move-ment data to provide pitchers with a more vi-sual assessment of how the ball’s spin axis iscreated at the point of release. They can helpyou make instant adjustments to create differ-ent types of spin and movement on the ball. Ifinterested in learning more on this topic, pleaserefer to our article on pitch design published inthe July/August 2019 of Inside Pitch Magazine.

SummaryCoaches don’t need to worry about a Robo-Coach. That of course will never happen. Pitch-ing is and always will be an art. However, withthe type of information that is available today,pitchers and coaches can reach conclusions andmake decisions more quickly. But most impor-tantly, pitchers can develop faster with more pre-cision and focus. IP

Source: Rapsodo