I took some video of CASon from the side and from head on. I was only able to get 4 pitches from the side and 3 pitches head on while my son was working on location at the beginning of a pen when he was probably throwing only about 80-81. I hadn’t charged the camera properly and although I had planned to get some shots while he was throwing mid to upper 80s later in his pen I wasn’t able to get those shots. I had the camera in my hand rather than on a tripod. In other words, I made every mistake in the book. Unfortunately, that was my only chance to get any video of my son for quite a while so I called 3p up and asked if the video would do. They said to go ahead and sign up then send in the video and they’d look at it to see if it would work. They said that we could figure out what to do if they couldn’t do the biomechanical analysis from my video. After I paid, or after I called, I don't remember which, they sent a pdf file showing the proper way to do the video. Generally speaking they want you to do it from the correct angles and for the camera to be on a tripod. They also want the pitcher to be wearing relatively tight fitting clothes to make it easier to take measurements. We did almost none of that.
As it turned out they were unable to do the biomechanical analysis from the video I took. They said that the camera was moving too much. They also tried to use the baseballwebtv video that had been taken at a PG showcase but that was only from one angle. As far as I can tell they made a good faith effort to do the analysis and maybe a bit more.
They have examples of the measurements they take on their website and given that I wasn’t likely to get any more video of CASon for quite a while I went ahead and analyzed the video of CASon myself to get the measurements. I simply pasted the images of him at the proper points in the motion into Powerpoint and then used the drawing guides to measure distances and then calculated the angles. I was able to get all of the measurements. However, CASon was landing toe first rather than almost flat the way most pitchers do and it made it difficult to determine the point at which foot contact was occurring. I decided to use the point where his plant foot was almost completely down but the heel was just smidge above the ground. There’s a big difference between the measurements at that point and at the point where his toe first touches. Things are starting to move fast at that point in the motion. I’m not sure they would have been able to make the assumptions I did when trying to do the biomechanical analysis. I was able to do so because I knew what the effects of my assumptions were but it would have been irresponsible if they had made assumptions and then done the analysis without my knowing about the assumptions so I’m glad they didn’t try to.
I also did some research and was able to find the “ideal” ranges for the 14 parameters that they measure in the open literature. It wasn’t easy to find and when I did find it, the information was buried in a fairly technical paper on another subject so it was rather difficult to figure out. I wouldn’t recommend anyone without a technical background and a touch of obssessiveness trying the same approach. Once you pay for the service and send in the video, they've got an ftp site of sorts for uploading the video, or you can send in a CD, they post your pitcher's measurements and the images of your pitcher they used to take the measurements along with the “ideal” ranges that the measurements should be in for safety and velocity. In our case, of course the images and the measurements for CASon weren’t there but the explanations were.
They also provide a set of pitching drills and conditioning drills, along with a day by day schedule over a month showing which sets of drills to do each day and a bit of performance coaching including text, audio and a video clip each month. The drills are presented in professional quality video clips that are easy to follow. The drills are presented one month at a time so I’ve only seen the drills for the first month. The pitching drills are fairly basic which is appropriate for the first month and in our case these particular drills are quite applicable to what CASon needs to work on. Of course, I have no idea what the drills for the remaining months are like.
The next part in parentheses is a nit and most will want to just skip over it and go to the next paragraph. (There’s only one drill that I've seen that I have an issue with and that’s the very first and simplest one. It is the old standby, circle up until the elbow is bent 90 degrees and the palm/ball is facing back toward 2nd base. They even describe that turning 90 degrees from there will end up with the ball facing the plate. However, if you turn 90 degrees from that position the ball will be facing the dugout. Pitchers just don’t circle up with the ball/palm facing toward center when they reach the high cocked position. Almost all pitchers circle or bring the ball back such that the when the arm is extended behind them the palm is facing down. Then with the arm extended at roughly shoulder height and the palm facing down the elbow bends about 90 degrees with the palm still facing down and the pitcher scap loads at the same time. Getting the elbow bent 90 degrees while keeping the ball in line with the torso may even be the main reason why pitchers scap load whatever effect it may or may not have on velocity. Next as the hips begin to rotate the shoulder externally rotates in response to the hip rotation and the arm ends up with the elbow bent about 90 degrees with the fingers pointing toward the sky and the palm facing out toward about 3rd base (righties). This is the classic high cocked position and from there if a pitcher rotates to face the plate the ball will be facing the plate with the fingers and palm behind it. Every pitcher is a little different and there are even a few pitchers who have the ball facing back (fingers toward 2nd base, rhp palm toward first, lhp palm toward 3rd) when they start to scap load and bend their elbows. They're the ones who can end up with the inverted W.) -- See I warned you.
So what do you get for your money? You get a biomechanical analysis with a set of 14 different measurements that are each compared to the normal ranges for elite (hard throwing) pitchers. You also get a description of each measurement and what being either below or above the range means relative to it’s effect on safety and velocity. You get a set of drills each month that should help a pitcher get and keep their measurements in the normal range. You get a conditioning program that should also help. You also get some performance coaching.
What don’t you get for your money? We didn’t actually get the biomechanical analysis, although we still could if I were to get some decent video, so it is possible that one gets something we didn’t get, but what you may not get is an explanation as to the root cause for why the pitcher is outside the normal ranges. This may shock you but we didn’t get a personal call from Rick Peterson explaining what was wrong with CASon’s mechanics.
In CASon’s case he was well within the norms for almost all the measurements, however because he was counter rotating to an excess and landing toe first he was externally rotating far too soon in his motion which threw one or two measurements outside the normal ranges and more importantly was causing him to be way out of sync with his arm reaching maximum external rotation well before his hips and torso were done rotating and he was squared up with the plate. Now it is possible that some of the drills would have helped with this problem but I think that knowing what the root cause is will allow him to understand why he’s doing the drills and will therefore make it far more likely that the drills will have the desired effect. I think CASon has finally realized that despite the seldom realized potential for a bit more velocity that there's a reason why very few pitchers counter rotate and of those who do most return to having their shoulders in line with the plate pretty early in the motion. On the other hand if a pitcher was to do all the drills and commit to making their motion match the drills then they would probably work quite well without having to understand what the root cause of the problem was.
All in all I think they deliver what they say they’ll deliver, it is a quality product and as long as the purchaser doesn’t have unrealistic expectations then you’ll get what you pay for and each family has to decide if it is right for them.
