Today I wanted to give baseball players and coaches an inside look at our pitching performance assessment. This is the starting point for every new client/pitcher we work with. While each evaluation process is individualized to your unique needs, this post will give you some insight into what to expect while going through this process. These assessments are comprehensive and look at all the ways your body can affect your pitching mechanics and your performance on the mound. The videos below will highlight the different elements we offer in our baseball pitching assessments.
Step 1: Get to know you and your specific goals
Every hitting performance assessment begins with a subjective history. During this portion of the evaluation we gain an understanding of what your specific goals are, what you are looking for in a program and we also get some background information on your game and any relevant medical or injury history. This is an important first step in the process and allows us to tailor the rest of the evaluation process to your unique goals and needs.
Step 2: Physical Testing and pitching video analysis
1. OnBaseU Pitching Screen: Developed the by OnBase University. This information allows us to see if and how a player's body is affecting their pitching mechanics. Many times players are trying to get their bodies into positions that they are not physically capable to achieving in the pitching delivery. This can limit velocity, control and overall performance.
This screen will quickly identify if any mechanical characteristics could be due to poor movement quality. This screen looks at several key movement patterns the body performs during the pitching delivery such as your ability to rotate, your core control, your ability to disassociate your upper and lower body, your ability to maintain posture and your ability to stride. The physical limitations identified in this screen are strongly correlated to pitching characteristics such as sway, hanging back, getting out front, flying open, and collapsing front knee, among others that can limit your efficiency, power and consistency on the mound. We also perform additional local testing of the limitations identified by the OnBaseU screen to give you the most appropriate plan to address it.
2. Video Analysis: video analysis can reveal your pitching style and also show if there are any pitching characteristics which might be effecting your velocity, control or performance. Many of these pitching characteristics are due to underlying physical issues mentioned above. Combining the physical screen with the video analysis allows us to determine your unique "body-pitching" connection.
3. Functional Movement Screening: While baseball specific movement is important we believe that each player should focus on being an athlete first and having a good foundation of basic movement patterns. This screen allows us to see if you have a good foundation/base prior to adding sport specific work.
Strength and Power Testing: Baseball specific strength testing of your core, upper body, lower body and grip. Also assess the balance between your dominant and non dominant side.
examines the different power sources in the pitching delivery. This looks at upper body, core, lower body and rotary power. It also assesses the balance between your dominant and non dominant side. We will also perform local strength testing of the the muscles of the shoulder and scapula as well.
Local Testing of the throwing arm:
We will also get baseline information on the range of motion and strength of your throwing shoulder and elbow and how it compares to your other side. This can be valuable information for your arm care program.
Contact us for more information about our baseball pitching assessments and training programs
