Biomechanics and Me?

I made a guest FanPost titled Biomechanics and Me? over at Lookout Landing, a very popular (and great) Seattle Mariners blog in the SB Nation network. It talks about my history of building our biomechanics lab.

Even prior to Graham’s post, I had been working on building a low-cost biomechanical analysis laboratory in Seattle. For those unaware, high-speed cameras were basically unavailable at reasonable price points in 2008 until the Casio Exilim EX-F1 came out for $1000. Even then, these cameras weren’t enough to do the advanced biomechanical analysis required to even shine a light on the “mechanics” of throwing a baseball. It would require multiple cameras, off-the-shelf software that could solve for kinematics/kinetics (and provide a digitization solution), custom algorithms that could solve the synchronization issue between these consumer-grade cameras (commercial ones do this automatically), and a precisely measured control object.

Commercial packages are available, but cost $15-17k for a two-camera setup that is not sufficient for working with movements that occur in all three planes so rapidly – like baseball pitching. You’re looking at $25-30k at the bare minimum with off-the-shelf packages, plus customization and training.

Head over there and take a look if it interests you!