Wetmore: Twins using Force Plates

[Seth Stohs]

https://www.skornorth.com/twins-2/2020/02/force-plates-making-hitters-better-minnesota-twins-experimenting-with-new-tech-in-spring-training/?fbclid=IwAR3k3xHGRPOLXJimF77kU1VhvbmIXFl5ZNkPTzpabDu1TUb2F9eAD4S1ngU

 

Force Plates? Apparently they are this year's new technological tool being used by the Twins to provide their players with ways to learn more about themselves and how they can improve.

 

The team has two units. One is near a pitcher's mound. The other is in a batting cage as this technology can be used by hitters and pitchers.

 

 

At minimum, these tools do something invaluable for the team’s coaching and support staffs. Successful use of the tech requires that group-to-group communication is on point. Any kinks in the hose and it likely would disrupt the flow of useful information. Coaching needs to work closely with research, which needs to work closely with strength & conditioning, which needs to stay in lockstep with the medical group, and so on. All of them need to show up with the daily purpose of helping the players.

 

This is a recurring theme we have heard over and over from people around the Twins in recent years. The communication has improved between all areas of the baseball operations... 

 

Please click the link above, read the article and then let's discuss. 

[Craig Arko]

The Forceplate will be with you, always.

[Doctor Gast]

It`s all Greek to me. But it`s exciting that this staff is brain storming to try to get an edge, maybe each has a piece to the puzzle to better utilize this tool. Hopefully it doesn`t confuse or throw off anyone's    timing

 

[jkcarew]

I love it! Data is god. Or is it God is data? Doesn't matter. This gives the Twins a competitive advantage forever. Nobody else will have access to this technology and/or be able to learn from it. Ever.

 

I hate it! It's reason 1001 for the modern player to adopt the same boring, cookie cutter swing that everyone else has. After all, the data says it's optimal. Somewhere, right now as we read, there's a 19 year-old Rod Carew being told to change his swing by a guy with a laptop who never made the high school baseball team, but won the blue ribbon at the science fair.  

 

OK...I'm somewhere in between those two takes. (But please keep Louis Arraez away from this thing!)

[Thegrin]

I found newtforce.com with more information about Force Plates. 

[saviking]

Now give me a plate that uses a laser that can frame a strike zone that is adjustable for each individual players strike zone based on their knee height and middle of the chest. It can yellow out balls and strikes from a built in speaker and turn red or green based on whether ball or strike .. 

[Old Twins Cap]

Most of these technologies will turn out to be busts, but, you know what?

 

If you aren't failing every year to a certain degree in MLB in expanding your horizons, you aren't trying hard enough.

 

You should fail. And, you should keep experimenting, breaking in new technologies, going for the big breakthrough.

 

That's just how innovation works, or doesn't, until it does.

[jkcarew]

Did this thing swallow Nick Gordon? Someone needs to open it up and look, because nobody seems to have seen him since the day this photo was taken.

[AZTwin]

Did this thing swallow Nick Gordon? Someone needs to open it up and look, because nobody seems to have seen him since the day this photo was taken.

It certainly isn’t helping Royce Lewis make contact. Sure can swing hard though.

[jkcarew]

 

It certainly isn’t helping Royce Lewis make contact. Sure can swing hard though.

At least we know our 2017 first-round draft pick is alive and kicking...(emphasis on the kicking, right?)

 

Meanwhile, our 2014 first-round draft pick is nowhere to be found. Is he hurt? Traded? Released? Are the Twins looking for him to back up Drew Maggi in Rochester this year?...or is there some other reason Maggi is going to lead the organization in 2020 spring training plate appearances? We don't know.

[AZTwin]

At least we know our 2017 first-round draft pick is alive and kicking...(emphasis on the kicking, right?)

 

Meanwhile, our 2014 first-round draft pick is nowhere to be found. Is he hurt? Traded? Released? Are the Twins looking for him to back up Drew Maggi in Rochester this year?...or is there some other reason Maggi is going to lead the organization in 2020 spring training plate appearances? We don't know.

Day games aren’t good for Nick. He’s up all night rapping at concerts

[Squirrel]

There is a thread started now discussing the whereabouts of Nick Gordon. It can be found here:

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/36483-nick-gordon-news/

 

 

[Number3]

I wonder what Ted Williams would have said about force plates. The only plate that counts home plate.

 

Old cap said ...."you should fail"..... and mind clutter along with needless adjustment will lead to exactly that. Ok Donaldson, welcome to the Twins. Its your turn at the force plate. Sano you're next. Can't wait for March 26 at Oakland who is probably not using force plates. Any predictions?

[nicksaviking]

 

I wonder what Ted Williams would have said about force plates. The only plate that counts home plate.

 

 

Ted Williams was about as competitive as anyone. Considering most of the players today are more than happy to use new technology to improve, I'd guess the players of the past would have been as well. Most people don't become top end athletes without an innate desire to continue to be the best.

 

Anyway, if one was interested in finding out more about Williams' obsessive desire to perfect his swing, his book is available. It's called The Science of Hitting. I kind of think the title alone gives away how Williams would have felt about Force Plate and the rest of today's technology.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Hitting-Ted-Williams/dp/0671621033

[Number3]

Ok he wrote a book about the "science" of hitting and didn't need force plates to do it. Twins led MLB in home runs and set a record last year. Can't wait to see how much better they do this year with these gimmicks to make them even better. Maybe they will just put the ball in play and go with small ball.

After using force plates, Stan Musial was told that no way would he be allowed to hit from that crazy stance.

Hank Aaron was told that he was using too much wrist action in his swing and needed to use legs and body torque more.

[amjgt]

I look at force plates kind of like all the silly measurements they take for NFL prospects... It might be meaningful and it might not be meaningful, but you'll DEFINITELY never know if it's meaningful if you don't measure it and track the results.

[Number3]

"“Linear wrist velocities at ball release correlate highly (r^2 = 0.82) with maximal posterior push-off shear force…Linear wrist velocity also correlated highly with vertical push-off force at MAP (r^2= 0.74), push-off resultant force at MAP (r^2=0.76), landing anterior shear force at BR (r^2=0.86), landing vertical force at BR (r^2=0.70), and landing resultant force at BR (r^2=0.88).”

 

This is in Ted Williams's book. I take back everything. Why didn't I know this in Little League?

Memorize this+ listen for banging on trash cans= hit 1000

[jimbo92107]

Sounds like Borg technology to me. Count me leery. Watch for passive aggressive behavior and metallic outcroppings. Not cool. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Ok he wrote a book about the "science" of hitting and didn't need force plates to do it. Twins led MLB in home runs and set a record last year. Can't wait to see how much better they do this year with these gimmicks to make them even better. Maybe they will just put the ball in play and go with small ball.

After using force plates, Stan Musial was told that no way would he be allowed to hit from that crazy stance.

Hank Aaron was told that he was using too much wrist action in his swing and needed to use legs and body torque more.

it’s a good book, nice charts, sketches of mechanics. Sure, full of anecdotes, but stats too.

 

The tools only matter as much as how you use them. I’m sure there’s some application to understand how, where and with what force your feet hit the ground. Mechanics are everything to a hitter.

[Number3]

All kidding aside, a golf swing is actually very similar to a baseball batter's swing in that all that matters is how your body maximizes swing speed at impact. However, no 2 golfers accomplish that objective in exactly the same way. Most good golfers do look pretty much the same at impact but can look very different in other aspects of the swing. What bother's me about introducing a purely mechanical approach is that there is no one way. As Arnold Palmer said, "Swing your swing". Obvious flaws can be detected by a decent coach with the naked eye which is what I thought coaches are for. looking over pages of numeric gobbledy gook is a pure distraction.