We’ve noticed a shift in biomechanics over the last few years, especially in the world of professional sports. It’s hard to ignore when “biomechanics” keeps getting repeated in the New York Times and we certainly think that it’s an exciting time for the field.
One place in particular where we see this is with our partner KinaTrax, the leading provider of in-game biomechanical performance data for baseball at both the professional and collegiate levels. This is a partnership that has endured many years and transitions, including HAS-Motion’s acquisition of C-Motion’s IP last January and KinaTrax’s acquisition by Sony last October.
Biomechanical Insights at the Speed of Sport
KinaTrax uses a proprietary, research-grade markerless motion capture technology to collect athlete movements during MLB games for the purpose of informing teams’ decision-making. The HAS-Motion/KinaTrax partnership comes in at this point, because all of the players’ in-game motion capture data passes through the Visual3D engine to ensure that biomechanical models and analysis pipelines are rigorously and repeatably applied to every pitch and every at-bat. This seamless integration is aided in no small part by Visual3D’s ability to automatically build models from KinaTrax output, simplifying the task of going from measurement to insight.
Dugout, KinaTrax’s web-based biomechanical reporting application, presents these insights in a series of reports. According to Scott Coleman, Director of Technical Sales and Product Development: “For hitting we produce roughly 45 graphs displaying more than 100 metrics. For pitching we double this: every pitch is reported using 230 metrics over 90 graphs.”
This kind of reporting solves the “last mile problem” for biomechanics by getting actionable insights into the hands of coaches and managers in a timely manner. It’s clearly working too: KinaTrax currently has over 100 systems in use around the world of baseball, giving them a deep understanding of what it takes to operationalize motion capture. Plans to build on this expertise are in motion, with ambitious hiring underway to support ongoing work with the NBA and opportunities in other professional sports leagues.
The Impact of Markerless Motion Capture
At HAS-Motion, we see KinaTrax’s success as a clear sign of what is possible with modern markerless motion capture technologies. No longer limited by the need to place markers or to capture only in a lab environment, biomechanical applications are exploding and there is a clear demand for scientifically-grounded understanding of how the human body moves.
Markerless motion capture technology allows users to collect previously unthinkable amounts of motion capture data. A back-of-the-envelope calculation tells us that an MLB team ends up with north of 48,000 data files recorded per year (300 pitches thrown and 300 pitches faced per game for 81 home games), every year. And this is without considering practices, affiliates, off-season work-ups, or any other collection opportunity.
This amount of data is both a challenge and an opportunity, immediately presenting the possibility of running large cross-sectional or longitudinal studies that were previously infeasible. We developed Sift in response to these considerations, grounded in our belief that it is important for users to know their data – no matter how large scale it is.
“The arrival of big data in biomechanics allows us to answer new questions grounded in the reliable measurement of thousands of real-world movements, but collection is only half the battle,” says Scott Selbie, CEO of HAS-Motion. “The ability to curate large data sets is key to providing real value to athletes and coaches.”
Looking Forward
Neither HAS-Motion nor KinaTrax is sitting on their laurels and we’re especially excited to see the push for biomechanics in professional sports to expand beyond baseball. Building on our longstanding relationship, we are happy that Visual3D and Sift will play an integral role in the polished delivery of biomechanical insights to end-users through applications like Dugout and whatever’s next to come.
Want to learn more about KinaTrax? Visit them at their website: www.kinatrax.com