If you bought a Maserati for $150,000, would you take any chances of ruining its value by driving an entire year without getting the oil changed or tires rotated?
No. And if you have an athlete with an arm that could potentially be worth millions, would you let him pitch an entire season without taking the proper precautions to prevent injury?
Of course not. But until recently there was no accurate way to prevent injuries so they use the dreaded innings limits and pitch counts. As we know, every pitcher is different and 200 innings for one guy might be asking too much, while guys like Clayton Kershaw and Felix Hernandez thrive off more work.
One company, Motus Global, is forever changing how we prevent injuries.
Here’s what Bryan Goelz, the Director of Business Development at Motus Global had to say about their state-of-the-art technology:
Our 3-d motion capture technology helps identify weaknesses that can lead to injury, particularly with a pitchers throwing mechanics and mobility and stability of a player’s joints. The lab experience can be cumbersome and not in a true environment, so that led us to developing the compression sleeve with sensor for baseball players. We’re taking the lab experience to the field. The idea of the sleeve is to measure workload and stress on the elbow, but it also measures arm slot, shoulder rotation, and arm speed. Currently; the standard is to use the pitch count, but that only takes into account pitches in a game and doesn’t take into account that every player is different. Some players put more stress on their arms and should throw less. With the sleeve, we’re able to quantify exact workloads and stress, and also account for every throw a player makes. For amateur players, this means taking into account all throws made, whether practice, in between innings, or playing different positions after pitching.
The creators of the 3-D Motion capture technology, Joe Nolan and Keith Robinson, certainly have an impressive pedigree. They are responsible for the animation in the video game Grand Theft Auto. After selling the technology to Rockstar, they decided to use the same technology to help athletes.
After setting up their lab at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida they now have a mobile lab at Prospect Sports in Farmingdale.
Unsurprisingly, the technology has spread to professional sports–specifically Major League Baseball– quickly.
“At IMG we work with a good amount of elite athletes, including MLB, NFL, NBA, FIFA and Olympic athletes. We work with a couple NBA teams, including the Boston Celtics, and have 27 MLB teams using the sleeve and lab services,” he said.
If you would like to go to their lab and get the same assessment that the professionals do, it costs $275. Their pitching sleeve/sensor costs $150.
Just because it has been an ingenious idea doesn’t mean it has been a direct path to success.
Our lab equipment consists of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. To develop our sensor was very expensive. As you can imagine, hardware development and app development is not cheap. We’ve had to travel all over the world to find the best companies to work with. But there’s also been an expense of being a partner of IMG academy and getting access to elite athletes so that we could build our proprietary physics engine. There are a few sensors companies out there, but none of them have the background in working with these pro athletes, providing them biomechanical analyses. This experience and years of data has allowed us to develop a device that can accurately acquire the data and report it in the same manner as our comprehensive lab.
But they are on the verge of releasing another product that could be a breakthrough.
“We’re just about to launch version two of the sensor which also can be used to measure batting metrics, such as; bat speed, hand speed, hot cold zones and attack angles,” he said.
And not only that, but they have linked up with Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who will be the virtual coach on the app.
Imagine that? Taking out any subjectivity to scouting reports/coaching and using analytics to be accurate every time. Hitters will have a much more consistent approach at the plate, knowing they have addressed their weaknesses and can be confident at the plate every time.
This app should be used by every serious baseball player.
Goelz noted that they have began talking to major retailers about getting their products in the store. Once that occurs, they will explode in popularity.
For the time being, it is a must-have for any baseball player. It can be a huge step in the direction of preventing injuries for pitchers and with the launch of their next product, it could change the game entirely.
