Video Analysis at BISP - John Crampton
High Speed Cameras Changing Baseball – what about us?
John Crampton
SNSW - High Performance Director
If you haven’t come across the site before, Sporttechie is one of the best references to technology applications and advances across the world of sport. A recent article is singing the praises of some video cameras marketed by Edgertonics.
These kinds of “paradigm shifts” (complete changes to the way we used to do or even think about coaching practice) occur from time to time. In the golf industry, we saw a similar effect when we started using radar systems that tracked the ball through its full flight and the club through the hitting area. With information simply not available to the human eye, coaches were challenged to re-think their understanding of what actually created the various ball spin and associated shaft/head relationships that produced shots like fades, draws, and other forms of trajectory control.
It would appear that baseball coaches are going through one of these shifts with the adoption of camera systems like the edgertronic range.
So what about Softball? Well, it might interest you to know that we now have 2 bullpens on the first base line at Blacktown equipped with high speed, high resolution cameras. This bullpen is the centre piece of the new Learning Centre being developed by Softball NSW at Blacktown. The cameras are capable of recording at incredible frame rates, and doing so in incredible clarity.
What about being able to see around 30 “frames” through the release area, with full clarity of wrist and finger positions, and the ball coming out as though it was sitting on a table – sharp vision of seam position from one frame to the next. 30 frames in a fraction of a second? That’s what high speed cameras bring to the game. Baseball may be coming to visit us!
Normal video is 25 frames per second, but you may have noticed that if you ever paused a video tape that you would get a flicker back and forth between 2 pictures. That is because the kind of video we used to use was actually 50 “pictures” taken by the camera per second. These “fields” would blend in our viewing to create a smoother viewing experience and an impression of movement. The biggest problem was when pausing video you couldn’t guarantee that the wrist position you were interested in was actually captured in one of those frames. For pitching coaches, advancing video by “pause-advance” could see the release hand go from knee height on the way to release to shoulder height in the follow through in one frame. So, like most sports, we would go to the biomechanists with their expensive and cumbersome high speed cameras.
SNSW uses AXIS cameras at BISP (https://www.axis.com/en-au/products/network-cameras), controlled by the Angles and Piston software running around the ground. This system is the same one the Sydney Swans use at the SCG.
What is the video like? Have a look at this link:
How many frames per second can the human eye see? Check this out:
How many frames per second can a video camera shoot? Check this out:
We have experimented with our cameras set at 1/250thof a second. They are capable of shooting in the 10,000ths of a second – I’m not sure that you would enjoy watching 5,688 frames around release, but if you did, I’ll bet you come away with some very different ideas about cause & effect!
We are now debating and experimenting with the protocols we will standardise with this system. Some of these ideas include:
- Getting pitchers to throw their full set of pitches in the bullpen, then comparing that video with vision shot from the diamond in game, scrimmage or training modes
- Looking for signs of fatigue impacts on pitchers by comparing video from the bullpen pre-game, the first innings, and their last innings / batter thrown
Mel Roche used the system for the first time last week and she described the video as incredibly powerful, allowing pitchers to see things they didn’t even know that they did. Mel will no doubt contribute further protocols to the way we use the Learning Centre across the association.
This system will greatly add to the growing realisation that Blacktown is an Asia-Pacific region Softball Centre of Excellence.
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