Real-Time Output and Feedback with Swing Catalyst Software and Bertec Plates

Featuring Justin Stone, one of the most in demand private instructors in the country. Justin teaches approximately 3,000 players from across the United States each year and teaches hitting, defense, pitching, and catching at Elite.

One of the things I like to do after evaluating a player is also testing drills. I think the real-time output and feedback you get from the Swing Catalyst software and the Bertec plates is you can test drills in real-time and see if they're actually effective for a player. What we had here in an August evaluation is a player that had a slow rate of force development and stabilization in the front leg.  

You can see that in the regular swing this high school player is getting 161% of body weight into the front leg and you see how we get a double spike here due to the lack of stabilization in the front leg. We know the front leg vertical and horizontal force is one major contributor to speed creation. So, what we wanted to do was practice some drills that overload the system, that force the front leg to have to become more active and have a more violent interaction with the ground.  

First, we did this with a medicine ball drill that we call a kick through and then did the same kick through drill at bat. And what we're looking at in this drill is that with our front leg posts up to keep the angle from the shin through the femur and up through the torso, the back of 90 degrees. We're trying to keep the body from getting perpendicular to the ground.  

Notice the difference in the rate of force development when the player gets through this drill and does it correctly, over 200% weight and a rapid rate of force development. Now looking at the regular swing just a few sessions later, the player went from 161% of body weight into the front leg to 196%. We're getting to that 200% range and had a rapid rate of force development.  

The player's bat speed then went from 66 miles an hour on a blast sensor to 72 miles an hour on the blast sensor. So that is one way that we show how the front leg contributes to speed creation and how the interaction with the ground, with the front heel, will help the rate of force development in aid and bat speed development as well.

About the Author

Cameron Hobson is a mechanical engineer by training with a background as a professional sports athlete. He helps people improve human performance through the development of modern technology products.

Featuring: Justin Stone is one of the most in-demand private instructors in the country.  Justin teaches approximately 3,000 players from across the United States each year and teaches hitting, defense, pitching, and catching at Elite. Justin was a two sport Division 1 athlete in college at Eastern Illinois University as a starter in both baseball and football.