彭蒙惠英语：The Ultimate Pitching Machine（在线收听）

The Ultimate Pitching Machine

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Using technology to improve

Pitching employs a coordinated sequence of body movements. The goal at ASMI is to identify and remove any inefficiencies from a pitcher’s delivery, while reinforcing characteristics demonstrated by the best pitchers. Great pitchers are highly flexible, with stable joints and a good range of motion. Leg strength is paramount. The legs generate the power that’s passed up to the hips, trunk, chest and arm.

This is where ASMI’s analytical process comes in. The Institute harbors a cavernous motion-capture lab that looks like a movie studio—and with good reason. The 3-D optical system is a version of the setup used for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Capturing a pitcher’s delivery is a simple procedure. Fifteen reflective markers are affixed at key joints on a pitcher’s body. The player stands on a mound and throws 10 pitches. The infrared cameras track each of the markers in 3-D and send the data to a workstation.

Researchers can precisely measure previously unquantifiable aspects of pitching—everything from the angular velocity of the arm at the shoulder joint to tension on the knees and elbows.

Making sense of it all

The trickiest part of ASMI’s analysis comes in making use of the data. “If you say to a pitcher, ‘Your hips are traveling 600 degrees per second and your torso is traveling 1,500 degrees per second,’ that’s not going to mean anything,” says New York Mets’ pitching coach Rick Peterson. “Good pitching isn’t analytical like that.”

Rather than filling his pitchers’ heads with numbers, Peterson has devised exercises to encourage good habits and correct mechanical flaws. His players go through their delivery in slow motion to develop a “muscle memory” of what feels right and what doesn’t.

Peterson has been taking his charges to ASMI for years. Lately more and more teams have followed him there—a new generation of managers, coaches and players turning to technology and scientific methods to build, manage and train winning teams.