I am a huge sport parent. My kids all play sports. And i am not talking just one! Sometimes each child has two different sports going on. Well, as of now it is baseball and softball season. Every year when this season apporaches my skin starts to crawl. Four out of my children are pitchers. and if your a good pitcher, you are used and used. Sure, each child is in a rotution and is only in for their alloted innings, but, there are times where an inning goes to long and their pitch count is higher than it should be. They finish their innings and continue to play the rest of the game. Maybe they play in another position or maybe they sit the bench. They use their arm muscles for more than just pitching. sometimes, they are used to much, and they end up coming down with what the medical field calls Tommy John.
Tommy John surgery is for the repair and/or replacement of the UCL(ulnar collateral ligament). A healthy ligament is threaded through holes that are drilled into the bone around the elbow. This surgery was named after pither Tommy John in 1974. A surgeron by the name of Frank Jobe desigined the surgery just for John so that he may be able to return to baseball after injuing his elbow.
Well, the founders of the American Sports Medicine Institute, Dr. James Andrew and Dr. Glenn Fleisig are hoping their research and input will help prevent kids and professionals from needing this surgery. These doctors have given their input and research to Joe Nolan and his company,Motus. Motus is a well known biomechanics company in Florida. Joe and his company have created the Motus Pitcher Sleeve. From what people say it could be the Holy Grail of pitching!
The Sleeve looks like a normal compression sleeve. It has a small sensor near the elbow that contains both accelerometers and gyroscopes. These are very similair to those that are found in todays smart phones and video game controllers. Ben Hansen, Motus' vice president of technology, has led the development and explained the device in detail.
According to Hansen the Sleeve's data is compareable to the motion capture.
"If the motion capture is a 10, then the Sleeve is almost a 10," he said. "It's already capturing at a higher rate (1,000 frames per second versus their current 500 fps for motion capture). It requires no setup, and when we compare various measures to the database we've built doing years of motion capture, it's very good."
Those measures alone will astound. The Sleeve can capture more than arm speed and release point, it can calculate the angles of the elbow and shoulder. It can directly measure, in real time, the forces acting on the ulnar collateral ligament.
With the real time measures, it helps counteracts one of the main problems with motion capture.For those of you that do not know what motion capture is, it is a study that is done in a none game setting and the player has to wear up to 50 markers and is usually required to wear a form-fitting suit.With all that gear on they can not pitch like they would in a game.
Now with the new Sleeve the adrenaline they generate during a game can be capture.The Sleeve can capture all the practice and long-toss too. They are concerenced with measuring the long toss tho. Why? because it outs more forces on the arm and changes the players mechanics.
"This tells you immediately," Hansen explains. "It can warn you when the forces are up, in real time. Coaches can see if the pitcher is changing things in long toss." The teams that don't allow long toss (and yes, they do exist in MLB) will have a harder time maintaining that stance if the Sleeve gains wide usage."
The most intresting thing that the Sleeve can calculate is fatigue.
"It will give a measure of fatigue as well as efficiency. The easy thing to see is arm speed slowing down, but it also takes into account changes in mechanics like elbow angle, release point and others."
There are 10 MLB teams that are using this wonderful technology. If we are able to prevent Tommy John, we are able to help many children strive for what they dream of.
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