An Outsider's Inside Look at Driveline

Many people may not know Kyle Boddy, but they are aware of his contribution to baseball science and analytics. I met Kyle over email when Driveline was a conceptual undertaking.

Small facility, Kyle was digitizing 3D motion and using a calibration box (3D guide) to digitize the data from a series of video cameras. He’s a self-made biomechanist and analyst but rooted in computer software engineering.

He created a special database with historical injury data that I wanted to tap into for my PhD, which struck up a conversation. But, instead of asking him to partner, I carried on with my education, and I’m still kicking myself in the ass by not working with him.

When I walked by the first cage at the facility, I noticed a stalker radar gun with a small electronic box plugged into it. Being in baseball for many years, I have never seen anything plugged into a Stalker gun and I asked about the purpose of the electronic box.

Kyle Lindley, Director of Sports Science, mentioned that Kyle had programmed the box to associate the radar gun data with all the ball flight metrics and video captures for the specific cage. As a result, the radar gun does not need to be manned and goes directly to the cloud where it is associated with the athlete.

This was absolutely fascinating to me, and I can 100% guarantee that Driveline is the only place in the game with this type of infrastructure.

GAMIFIED TRAINING PURPOSE

The tour continued, and I saw multiple training stations across the facility. I am a big believer in gamified training, and that is a theme across the company to compete across the board.

After touring the biomechanics area of the facility, I came back to the training center and watched a warm-up with athletes who were in one of the college groups.

Here, I witnessed something that I absolutely l loved (I have a video of what I saw, but it doesn’t do it justice.)

I watched baseball athletes perform a sprint, plant, and jump over a small high jump bar. I especially liked it because it reduces the apprehension of having a stack of boxes to jump up on and allows the athletes to take risks and test themselves maximally.

This drill may appear gimmicky and incompatible with the sport to some people in the game, but it was intensely purposeful for me.

One of the most important qualities in velocity enhancement is the development of lower-body power. This is often expressed in vertical jumping involving force plates available at the facility for a multitude of testing procedures.

The translation of lower body power in the pitching delivery involves a high energy transfer into the lead foot. The enhancement of lower body power comes through jump velocity and force. Jump velocity is amplified by kinetic energy, which is the multiplication of half of the athlete’s mass multiplied by the take-off velocity squared (KE = 0.5mv2).

In a nutshell, this simple exercise embodied the necessary features to develop vertical jump power, and it was involved in the pre-day warm-up.  I go into the importance of lower body power for enhanced throwing velocity in this week's ArmCare FX.

BIOMECHANICS

Driveline has two biomechanics areas – one for performance measurables, the other for mechanical evaluations for pitching and hitting.

It was amazing to see some of the customizations they have in their test battery. I loved their reflexive jump test, an adapted version of the Bosco test developed for rebound power.

They perform Dynamic Strength Index testing that intersects maximum isometric mid-thigh pulling and vertical jump performance, and they have their own proprietary test for bilateral pull strength.

I loved seeing how motivated the athletes are to compete in their physical evaluations, which is what we believe in for our product. Compete with yourself but compete with everyone to have the strongest arm in the game.

In the afternoon, I hung out with one of their Sports Scientists, Ben Jones.

Ben is working on a research manuscript involving Driveline data collections for which I am assisting as a co-author that intersects physical performance measures, ball flight characteristics, and biomechanics.

I sat at the control station for the data collection and was amazed.

Everything captures simultaneously from slow-motion video, Edgertronic video, Hittrax, and more. For large-scale research, they are the best I have ever seen. One person controlled the entire data collection, and for any MLB team reading this, that reduces cost and increases productivity and efficiency.

KYLE BODDY

After lunch, we walked into the control center for the operation.

I have a picture here that showcases the Wall Street-esque set-up they have at the facility. People are working on different things, from supply chain, analytics, and marketing, all perfectly orchestrated by one person – Kyle Boddy.

We chatted with Kyle for a little while and talked about how MLB operations could be more efficient and how teams can save money by sending their players to Driveline for diagnostics.

Out of all the conversations we had, Kyle mentioned the one crucial question he offered on his applications for hiring for the Pitching Coordinator position with the Reds when he was the Director of Pitching.

It was a simple question, but he asked candidates what they were currently reading.

Kyle does not do anything as filler and does not do anything that is not efficient. The point of the question was to determine who is motivated to be self-taught, who can be disciplined enough to find time for professional development and be competitive in a field with 1000s of candidates eyeing the same job.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

As we continue to work with Driveline, we can see a future in baseball that offers a comprehensive monitoring approach involving our throwing arm strength and range of motion analytics and the external workload tracking using the Pulse sleeve.

Imagine how you can identify your AC Ratios and make individual adjustments based on strength data. It’s the ultimate individualized player development solution.

I use the racecar analogy….

The athlete is the racecar, Pulse is the odometer and speed dial indicating how much mileage, how fast the car is to drive, and the horsepower needed for the day.

ArmCare.com provides pre-bullpen exams and pre-throwing Arm Primer tests, which is the engine check for the coach and athlete to indicate how the neurological system is performing and allows the coach and athlete to fine-tune the daily demands.

After throwing sessions, the daily workload from Pulse can be evaluated for fatigue with ArmCare.com’s post-throwing strength testing to further refine the next day’s work and map a plan that encourages the right amount of fatigue at the right time to build throwing arm resilience—this is a common goal between ArmCare.com and Driveline.

CLOSING REMARKS

I could write a whole lot more about my experience at Driveline, but I’ll sum it up with a promise to make a concentrated effort to visit Driveline year after year because the learning valve is cranked to the max.

The possibilities are endless between ArmCare.com and Driveline’s initiatives as the world leader in velocity enhancement and data-driven approaches to maximize performance and minimize injury risks.

Latest from ArmCare.com