Summary:
- Core Energy Belt sponsored a research project in partnership with Dr. Ryan Crotin, Ph.D, CSCS, RSCC, President of RC13 Sports and Executive Vice President of ArmCare.com, to understand how increased intra-abdominal pressure can increase throwing and batting speed in baseball players.
- The research included 13 college pitchers throwing 3 bullpens of 53 total pitches each. The study assessed 159 pitches for each pitcher. Each pitcher threw 2 fastballs followed by 1 change-up. An LED screen connected to a Radar Gun (Pocket Radar) was in-front of them to give them visual encouragement to throw at maximum capacity.
- Each bullpen was randomly assigned different belt types: their regular team-issued belt, a Core Energy Belt measured to the diameter of their waist, and a Core Energy Belt with a 2-inch cinch to provide additional intra-abdominal pressure.
- Dr. Crotin and his research assistants collected data to assess arm strength, velocity, command, and other physiologic variables.
- Dr. Crotin found that 77% of the college pitchers had improved throwing arm strength entering the bullpen when wearing the Core Energy Belt compared to when they wore their regular team-issued belt.
- Dr. Crotin's research found that the sample of college pitchers had improvements in velocity and pitching command when wearing Core Energy Belt compared to when they wore their regular team-issued belt.
- Additional research including a larger sample size with more pitches thrown has true potential to better understand the effect the Core Energy Belt has on pitching performance.
- Full findings will be published in the future in a peer-reviewed journal.
Ph.D, CSCS, RSCC, President of RC13 Sports, Executive Vice President of ArmCare.com and Former Director of Performance Integration for Los Angeles Angels
Understanding Key Terms & Concepts
What is Proximal Stiffness?
Dr. Ryan Crotin: "The word proximal refers to the center of the body, or our center of mass, which is located around the belly button. When we can create proximal stiffness, it means that muscles connecting the pelvis and trunk, being the core, lower back muscles and diaphragm contract all at once. This co-contraction creates stiffness in the center part of the body which allows athletes to aggressively stop rotation and protect the spine for heightened rotational and compressive spinal loading. Also, as we mentioned in the whip analogy, the ability to create stiffness and stop the handle abruptly transfers energy to the whip which increases speed at the tip."
The Research
- Core Energy Belt sponsored a research project in partnership with Dr. Ryan Crotin, President of RC13 Sports and Executive Vice President of ArmCare.com to understand how increased intra-abdominal pressure can increase throwing and batting speed in baseball players.
- The research included 13 college pitchers throwing 3 bullpens of 53 total pitches each. The study assessed 159 pitches for each pitcher. Each pitcher threw 2 fastballs followed by 1 change-up. An LED screen integrated with a portable radar unit was placed in-front of them to give them visual encouragement to throw at maximum capacity.
- Each bullpen was randomly assigned different belt types: their regular team-issued belt, a Core Energy Belt measured to the diameter of their waist, and a Core Energy Belt with a 2-inch cinch to provide additional intra-abdominal pressure.
Key Findings: Dr. Crotin found Increased Throwing Arm Strength Before Simulated Games.
Key Findings: Improved Fastball Velocity, Change-up Velocity, and Deception
Why is this important?
It takes 200ms to recognize a pitch and another 200ms to swing the bat. Most pitchers throwing 90 mph throw pitches from their hand to the plate in under 400ms. Velocity disrupts timing, rushing the decision-making process and swing that can reduce the chance of making hard contact with the baseball. When change-ups look more like fastballs, as in the findings of this study, along with greater difference in speed between the fastball and changeup, pitchers’ deception increases and batting success declines.
FASTBALL VELOCITY TABLE
Dr. Crotin found that 54% of the college pitchers had higher fastball velocity while wearing the Core Energy Belt as compared to their regular belt.
CHANGE VELOCITY TABLE
Dr. Crotin found that 54% of the college pitchers had higher Change-up velocity while wearing the Core Energy Belt as compared to their regular belt.
VELOCITY DIFFERENTIAL TABLE
Dr. Crotin found that 69% of the college pitchers threw with greater speed differentials between their fastball velocity and change-up velocity while wearing the Core Energy Belt as compared to their regular belt.
Key Findings: Improved Pitching Command with the Core Energy Belt
FASTBALL COMMAND TABLE
Dr. Crotin found that 58% of the college pitchers threw with improved fastball command while wearing the Core Energy Belt as compared to their regular belt.
CHANGE COMMAND TABLE
Dr. Crotin found that 70% of the college pitchers threw with improved fastball command while wearing the Core Energy Belt as compared to their regular belt.
Conclusion
There is much left to uncover with current research study, but in these subject-specific analyses, there are a clear indications of improved performance with the use of the Core Energy Belt. Dr. Crotin plans to publish the full findings in the future in a peer-reviewed journal to indicate the impact of improved proximal stiffness and intra-abdominal pressure on pitching performance.
Core Energy hopes to sponsor additional research including a larger sample size with more pitches thrown will allow the research team to better understand the effect the Core Energy Belt has on pitching performance with greater statistical power.
In addition, we hope future research might include additional belt conditions beyond the 3 assessed in this study. Additional research may find that players react positively at different levels of compression. This should be studied further within a fully-randomized, incremental belt setting study to see how each belt setting impacts ball flight, throwing arm strength, internal physiology and other trends associated to enhanced pitching success.
Core Energy is dedicated to sponsoring research to understand how intra-abdominal pressure impacts sports performance. If you are interested in conducting research similar to Dr. Crotin’s research, please contact us.
Disclosure
This research was conducted independently of Core Technology USA Inc.by RC13 Sports, a full scale, baseball performance consulting firm owned and operated by Dr. Ryan Crotin PhD, RSCC, CSCS, USAW, SFMA L1. RC13 Sports, Core Technology USA Inc. or its parent company makes no performance or injury claims outside of the results of the current study. For more information on the research conducted by RC13 Sports, contact the company at info@rc13sports.com