University of Tennessee Athletics
Baseball Benefits from Video Software
February 15, 2008 | Baseball
By Melissa Anderson, UT Sports Information
The video moves in extreme slow motion. As if in a trance, one current member of the Tennessee pitching staff analyzes each movement on the computer screen frame by frame. With eyes fixed and mind focused, he studies the fluid movement demonstrated by the video???s subject???arm angle, foot placement, balance, weight transfer.
Under such intense scrutiny, mechanical flaws and weaknesses???should any exist???will surely be exposed. But when the subject on the video screen is a Major League Hall of Famer, one is often better served to take notes rather than scrutinize.
At the University of Tennessee, the opportunity to break down the mechanics of the game???s most successful players exists thanks to the utilization of state-of-the-art technology.
Since the beginning of fall practice, the UT baseball team has been using video analysis software developed by Dartfish, a company whose ???technologies and know-how are widely recognized for exclusive televised broadcast footage and breakthrough training applications for sports, education, healthcare and more. The program helps to analyze a player???s movement through the use of video tape,??? according to the company???s Web site.
The Dartfish software allows the coaches to capture video that they can then speed up, slow down, layer, play side-by-side, and manipulate in other ways that allow them to analyze the movements of pitchers and hitters in ways that might not have been possible before.
???We can talk about it all we want as coaches, but until we see it on tape, it helps to convey those thoughts while utilizing tape,??? UT pitching coach Fred Corral said. ???It just increases the ability to coach a young man and make adjustments.???
Corral believes the program has allowed the Vols to bring teaching into a more visual state.
???You can do a lot of things through working on fundamentals,??? Corral said. ???But handling the visual aspect of things, the Dartfish software has done an outstanding job as far as relaying and conveying what hitters are doing and not doing.???
The coaches recently used the software to break down the mechanics of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens using two tapes ??? one of Clemens throwing out of the stretch, the other out of the wind-up. Layering and slowing down the two videos, it became apparent that, although they start at different points, both the wind-up and the stretch delivery end up in the same place. A recently published study revealed the same information.
The software also can store video and allow users to access that video in order to watch how a particular player is progressing, or allow a player to see the finest details of how his mechanics might have changed.
???The Dartfish program allows us to see, ???Hey, this is when you were doing well in February and felt really good about things and were tearing the cover off the ball. And now, in late March, you are struggling a little bit.???
???And you can put both clips up side by side, or even lay those clips on top of each other, so that you can really see the differences. And if there is no difference, generally you can pinpoint where the problem really is.???
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And being able to pinpoint where the problem is, both in words and in video, has been instrumental in helping many young pitchers and hitters improve.
However, while it???s helpful for players to be able to analyze their movements frame by frame, Corral said there is a fine line that athletes have to be careful not to cross.
???The reason we use it as a staff and use it in our offices is, we don???t want our guys to get too analytical,??? Corral said. ???We don???t want them to get technical. We don???t want them to over-assess things. When they need to see something that they are doing wrong, we bring it to their attention. If there???s nothing, we have to keep it simple.???
Keeping it simple seems to be working for the coaches and the players themselves.
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Nick Hernandez said the whole pitching staff is benefiting from using the Dartfish software.
???I know that we started off and some of our mechanics were not in sync,??? Hernandez said. ???Being able to break it down image by image has really helped a lot of our pitchers out this fall.???
The UT pitchers have used the software to work not only on the mechanics of their deliveries, but on their pickoff moves as well. They also use the layering abilities of the software to compare themselves to Major-League pitchers.
With all the instruction the team receives on a daily basis, Hernandez said he feels the video analysis has allowed the players to reach another level of understanding in the movements necessary for a successful pitch.
???Everyone has improved because of this program,??? Hernandez said. ???Guys are breaking bad habits and making them into good habits. Now we are good mechanical pitchers who understand the mechanics of pitching better than we did when we started because of this program.???
And if the success of those who have used the Dartfish software in the past is any indication, using the program can pay off in a big way.
Corral said former Tennessee pitcher Luke Hochevar, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 Major League Baseball draft, was one of the first UT pitchers to really benefit from the Dartfish software.
???Luke Hochevar was a guy who really enjoyed this type of information,??? Corral said. ???He was a guy that, in his learning stages as an incoming freshman and a sophomore, there were times when his arm strength got stronger and faster.
???There was a lot of time in his sophomore year that we were fortunate enough to go back and look at his freshman year to tie things together. When he went off the path trying something new, it was easier to pull him back.???
Corral said he thinks to Hochevar and other big-league pitchers when it comes to his pitching philosophy. When people look at athletes who are in the Major Leagues, they don???t just see one approach across the board. Each player uses a different approach.
And if that???s how things work in the pros, Corral said, the same should apply to collegiate baseball players.
???No two guys are really the same,??? Corral said. ???But, pitching or hitting coaches, we try to make guys pitch or hit the same. Some coaches have this perfect model, and they try to make their players do just that.
???What we do is try to individualize each young man. Not every big-leaguer has the same approach, so why should everyone on a pitching staff or in a hitting lineup have the same pitching or hitting approach????
The software has allowed the UT baseball team to figure out where its weaknesses lie and focus on those without being overly analytical.
???Keep it simple??? is one of the staff???s mottos, one that, along with the help of the Dartfish program, will equal some success on the diamond for the Volunteers this season.
???KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Smart,??? Corral said. ???If it???s not simple, it is not smart. And for it to be smart it has to be simple.???
