New Baseball Lab Equipped with AMTI Force Plates Yielding Positive Results for Players and Students
AMTI is pleased to learn that the new Biomechanics Lab at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), which opened this past February in San Diego, is already yielding tangible benefits for baseball pitchers, hitters, and students of biomechanics. According to Point Loma Baseball’s Head Coach Justin James, “the lab has been very beneficial for us in learning how each individual moves and what their specific needs are. We are also able to pitch design with our pitchers and make their arsenal better and more consistent.”
As noted by Josh Stein, Assistant GM for the San Diego Padres, the new lab “is a big part of modern-day player development — being able to analyze movement and understand the way in which pitchers and hitters are taking ground forces and going up through the kinetic chain … into [throwing] the baseball or into the swing,” Stein said. “A facility like this gives us a real advantage in terms of understanding our players’ development and how we can get them better.”
The new biomechanics lab — a joint project of PLNU and the San Diego Padres — features 3 AMTI force plates embedded within an instrumented pitching mound designed by AMTI. As with all AMTI force plate solutions, the multi-axis force plates embedded within the instrumented mound let users (researchers, coaches and sports scientists amongst the PLNU and Padres staff) measure and record the 3D forces and moments generated under each foot throughout an entire pitch.
An additional 4 AMTI force plates are embedded within the batter’s boxes for ground force measurement during hitting, with two additional force plates installed under the lab’s turf area. All are installed alongside Qualisys and Theia markerless motion capture systems, as well as several other top-of-the-line performance tracking technology systems.
While baseball players will be the most visible beneficiaries of the new lab, benefits will extend to PLNU students pursuing careers in the emerging field of biomechanics. According to PLNU Associate Professor of Kinesiology Dr. Arnel Aguinaldo, the lab “gives us an opportunity to teach our graduate students how to analyze human movement and perform research in biomechanics. It’s as much a research institution as it is a way to promote the science of biomechanics. Compared to biology and chemistry, [not many] have really heard of biomechanics. It’s almost like a subset of physics. Part of my job is to promote the science and be able to hopefully motivate or inspire students to pursue a vocation in biomechanics.”
Learn more about the Biomechanics Lab at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) here: https://www.pointloma.edu/schools-departments-colleges/college-health-sciences/biomechanics-lab