A Look Into The Future
Another year, another push to being the best program in Canada. As we welcome new players and coaches for the upcoming season, we want to take a moment to recognize all that participated in our fundraising and charity efforts last season. We thank you for your time and generosity. Although we came up short of our goal, we were able to reallocate the funds to make improvements around the facility and update the technology accessible to our players and coaches.
The improvements to the facility have been strategically implemented to create the best environment for our student-athletes to develop their skills. Specifically, upgrades to our weight room equipment, pitching machines and hitting tools.
Our first piece of technology added this off season was Driveline TRAQ player development software. Simply put, TRAQ allows coaches to program & deliver training protocols (hitting, pitching, S&C) in one localized system. TRAQ also allows us to collect data over time from our Strength & Conditioning program, along with technology such as Blast Motion, Rapsodo, ProPlay AI, & Driveline PULSE. This allows coaches to spend less time programming & scrubbing through data, and more time on the floor coaching our athletes.
In conjunction with TRAQ, we have also purchased Driveline PULSE sensors for our pitching program. PULSE sensors are a wearable piece of technology that goes around the athlete's forearm and tracks various metrics such as total throws, high effort throws and average torque. This allows our coaches to better manage our pitcher's workload on a day-to-day basis, as well as annual workload. Without PULSE, it is extremely hard to determine the total volume of throws our athletes are performing, and the intensity that they are completing the throws at. PULSE allows us to know exactly which of our athletes are ready to perform at high intensities on a given day, or if they need an extra day of recovery.
Our pitching program will also incorporate ArmCare.com ActivForce Strength & Range of Motion Sensors to measure shoulder strength. Working alongside our PULSE units, the data collected will allow us to make dynamic changes in a pitcher's throwing workload and strength programming.
The off season hitting program begins with Blast Motion assessments, along with the use of video for subjective feedback of swing mechanics. Metrics from the Blast Motion Sensors will be tracked throughout the off-season, along with periodical updates on video. We will also be implementing Axe Bat Weighted bats this year, which will produce more bat speed for our hitters. Development will be tracked and monitored throughout the off-season as they prepare for the season and continue to refine their approach, timing, and mechanics.
Lastly, each one of our players will have a movement screen performed by Dr. Tyler Dobos from Baseball Development Group. The insight gained from these assessments will allow our Strength & Conditioning coaches to program exercises specific to each individual, that in turn will help them move more efficiently. We will also be introducing Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) protocols for our athletes to improve their mobility. Along with this, our skill coaches will be aware of what players bodies are capable of, and can adjust their coaching based off of this.
This season we will continue raising money towards adding new development tools to our program which will help our student-athletes reach their goals on the baseball field. Starting with another Poker Night at the end of November & a Golf Tournament in early June!