Pro Baseball Summit, New Underload Baseball Record, Seminar Dates, Mariners' Scout Team, and Wireless EXG Sensors – MaxVelo News

I’m going to try to make these posts a little more frequently since the 2013-2014 offseason is here, which means tons of action. Let’s get to it!

Pro Baseball Summit

Driveline Baseball will be hosting the first annual Pro Baseball Summit at our facility in SeaTac, WA from September 15th-21st. This seminar/group work session is open to all current professional pitchers, pitching coaches, and athletic trainers attached to a professional baseball organization. We will be covering a wide variety of topics, including – but not limited to:

• Pitching Mechanics
• Strength and Conditioning
• Rotator Cuff Training
• EXG Sensor Measurements – Muscle, Heart, and Brain Measurements (more on this later)
• Command/Control Training
• Velocity Development

If you are interested in attending, please contact Kyle Boddy for more information.

Confirmed attendees include Trevor Bauer (Cleveland Indians), Jack McGeary (Boston Red Sox), and Michael Boyden (Washington Nationals), with many other invites pending.

New Underload Baseball Record!

Resident flamethrower Julian Archuleta (Peninsula HS, 2015) hit 109 MPH on a run-and-gun throw with a 2 oz. underload ball, which shatters the amateur record of 107 MPH set by… himself.

Hell of a job, Julian! Keep blowing it up in the MaxVelo Program!

Seminar Dates – Mount Mercy University, ShoulderWorks

Driveline Baseball will be hosting a small seminar/hands-on demonstration at Mount Mercy University (IA) from September 13th-15th. Desi Druschel (head coach) and I are considering opening up part of the seminar to the public on Saturday, September 14th. If you are interested in attending, please contact Kyle Boddy ASAP for more information.

I will also be presenting at the ShoulderWorks & OrthoEd conference – The Modern Overhead Athlete.

I look forward to presenting some unique data on how we train the medial forearm to withstand injury and improve performance, as well as demo preliminary studies that use our new EXG sensors from Somaxis.

To sign up, go to lakewashingtonpt.com and contact them for more information!

Seattle Mariners Scout Team – See Driveline’s Guys

We are pleased to have strong representation on the Seattle Mariners Scout Team this fall. The list of pitchers on the roster from Driveline Baseball include:

• Chris Carns (Decatur HS, 2014 – committed to Seattle University)
• Janson Junk (Decatur HS, 2014 – uncommitted)
• Julian Archuleta (Peninsula HS, 2015 – uncommitted)
• Drew Rasmussen (Mt. Spokane HS, 2014 – committed to Oregon State University)

Their preliminary schedule is:

September 15th @ Meridian Park vs the Texas Rangers Scout Team and Shoreline CC
September 22nd @ Everett CC
September 29th @ Bellevue CC
October 6th @ Tacoma CC
October 10-14 @ Arizona Fall Classic

Wireless EXG Sensors – Dominating Objective Measurement

Any fan of ours knows that we are all about objective measurement of everything related to pitching. That’s why we use the following tools to evaluate our training methods and our pitchers’ mechanics to design the optimal training program for them:

• Multiple high-speed cameras that shoot from 120-1000 Hz
• Wearable computers designed in-house with built-in gyroscopes and accelerometers
• Goniometers to track and measure ranges of motion of various joints
• Stalker/JUGS radar guns to measure not only fastball velocity, but velocity of underload/overload throws to uncover discrepancies

We’re extremely excited to add Somaxis EXG Sensors that should be at our facility within the next two weeks. These sensors will measure muscle activity (sEMG) during training and throwing without significantly impeding performance.

Previous EMG sensors require invasive procedures to get muscle activity readings and thus degrade performance significantly, which causes issues when trying to replicate and/or apply conclusions found from related studies. With wireless, self-powered units, Somaxis EXG sensors stand to absolutely change the game of athletic training. My hat is off to Alex Grey, who has worked tirelessly over the last year to get these to his first-round investors and backers – a group I am proud to be in. Not only will they measure muscle activity; they also have accelerometers built into them to allow us to measure kinematics of the delivery as well.

I couldn’t be more excited about this development, and I encourage you to watch the following TED talk that I first saw over a year ago that led me to spamming Alex’s blogs, email accounts, social media sites, and even TED.com to beg him to sell me some units.

It could totally revolutionize how we – and everyone else – will train baseball pitchers, and I am incredibly excited!

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If all of the above excites you, then join us today. We are going to do some amazing things this offseason. Don’t miss out.