NEW BIOMECHANICS LAB PAYING DIVIDENDS FOR PLNU BASEBALL

(SAN DIEGO) The PLNU x Padres Biomechanics Lab held its grand opening back in February and it’s already paying dividends.

Point Loma Baseball, ranked in the top-10 nationally in four different national polls, leads NCAA Division II in walks per nine innings (2.16), ranks second in strikeout/walk ratio (3.42), ninth in WHIP (1.29) and 12th in both ERA (3.84) and shutouts (4).

Point Loma also leads the PacWest Conference in each of those pitching categories.

"The lab has been very beneficial for us in learning how each individual moves and what their specific needs are,” Head Coach Justin James said. “We are also able to pitch design with our pitchers and make their arsenal better and more consistent.”

One PLNU pitcher who added a new pitch to his repertoire this season is Austyn Coleman (7-1, 3.48 ERA), who is just one standout on a stellar Sea Lions’ pitching staff.

Ace Dylan Miller (9-2, 3.26 ERA) leads NCAA Division II in wins on the season, while closer James Sashin leads the country in saves with 13.

The lab hasn’t just improved PLNU’s pitching, it has also helped to enhance Point Loma’s hitting as well, as the Sea Lions lead the PacWest in several offensive categories including batting average, on-base %, slugging % and OPS.

Six Sea Lions starters are batting over .300 this season, while four have an OPS over 1.000.

“From the hitting side, we're able to also learn each hitter's movement profile and deficiencies,” James said. “We also can gather and organize all the swing metrics needed to guide a player to where he can improve."

LAB FEATURES

The lab, which features a pitching mound, hitting bay and runway, is directed by PLNU Associate Professor of Kinesiology Dr. Arnel Aguinaldo.

“We’re applying physics to human movement and in this case athletic movement, which could be baseball pitching, hitting, jumping, cutting, running, those kinds of things,” Aguinaldo said. “We built the lab with movement application in mind, which gives us possibilities to see or examine players from the Padres organization, from Point Loma and from local high schools, to be able to biomechanically and objectively analyze their swing or pitch, whatever that may be.”

The pitching mound, hitting bay and runway have force plates embedded in the ground to measure various metrics such as stride side and drive side ground reaction for pitchers and ground reactive force for hitters.

The hitting bay also features a ball metric simulator which simulates where the ball would go after contact.

Twenty-eight specialized motion capture cameras also help the lab capture valuable data.

“We rely on Coach James and Ruben Niebla (Padres Pitching Coach) to inform us of what they’re looking at in each athlete, then it’s our job as a lab to biomechanically define what those are,” Aguinaldo said. “We give them the tools so they can make adjustments if they feel a player needs an adjustment in something.

“We’re in the mindset that especially when you get to that level, at the collegiate, minor league and major league ranks, there’s really not much you want to do in terms of mechanically changing what they do. But there’s some adjustments, some tweaks and red flags that we can address.”

Aguinaldo said possible adjustments they look to make involve inefficiencies and deficits in weight or energy transfer.

“We can identify those things and then make a decision on whether or not it’s a bad thing,” Aguinaldo said. “You can have someone who has a completely unorthodox throw, or their mechanics may not be optimal based on our experience, but it could be what’s good for them or what they do well.

“I wouldn’t take that mold and apply it to somebody else. I’m not going to take Joe Musgrove’s mechanics and apply it to Yu Darvish, or vice-versa. They do certain things very well and have been doing it for years.

“The coaches are very good about tweaking things only if needed to enhance their performance or enhance their endurance on the mound, but most importantly minimize their risk of injury.”

PADRES PARTNERSHIP

Aguinaldo said it was close to an eight-year process from the initial idea of building a permanent biomechanics lab to its ultimate opening earlier this year.

“I brought up the idea to Josh Stein (Padres VP, Assistant General Manager) and said, ‘We want to build this lab anyway,’” Aguinaldo recalled. ‘“I think there’s an opportunity here where we can partner and collaborate, a win-win and help each other out.’ He loved the idea.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project, Aguinaldo said that Point Loma officials met with Stein and other members of the Padres front office over a year ago at PLNU’s Balboa campus to finalize their plans.

“We just sat in a room and hashed things out,” Aguinaldo said. “Long story short, everyone got the green light and said let’s move forward. The last year was working with our architects HED and ByCor, our general contractor, to build this lab at the Balboa campus.

“It turns out we had enough room to essentially convert the old loading dock to an outdoor turf area. That’s where players can come in, warm-up, do long toss, and then go through the garage door and get tested.”

Aguinaldo said the Padres could have built the lab at Petco Park or at their Spring Training facility in Arizona but decided to partner with PLNU instead.

“A lot of these organizations definitely have some version of a biomechanics lab, either at their Spring Training complex or in the Dominican Republic for example,” Aguinaldo said. “But very rarely do you see one that is in close proximity to the home team’s park, in this case Petco. Even rarer is to see an organization team up with an academic institution.”

One of the main appeals for the Padres partnering with PLNU is the availability of staff and grad students who can operate the equipment and collect all desired data, Aguinaldo explained.

“The grad students know what they’re doing and are taking care of everything,” Aguinaldo said. “They’re the experts at what they do and the coach can be the coach. The coaches don’t have to touch anything and can just sit there and talk to the player and have a conversation about what they’re doing, which is what they should concentrate on.

“That’s the attraction. We’re in a business of promoting as well as performing biomechanics research. We study the science and hope to evolve and expand our line of research, and therefore gain and expand the trust of those within the organization so they can send us players. We do our thing and they coach.”

The partnership has also allowed two great baseball minds in James and Niebla to engage in conversation about pitching.

"The Padres have been extremely generous with everything, and I've been impressed from everyone involved,” James said. “I've known Ruben for a while now and respect him and his coaching style. When we cross paths, we are both bouncing ideas off each other and it turns into a pitching hot stove. He's a very smart and humble person so he's very easy to work with."

PLNU MS-KINESIOLOGY GRADUATE PROGRAM

Point Loma’s MS-Kinesiology program is its largest area of graduate study, with around 60 students per cohort.

While the lab has unquestionably benefitted players who get tested, it also offers valuable hands-on experience for Point Loma graduate students.

“It also gives us an opportunity to teach our graduate students how to analyze human movement and perform research in biomechanics,” Aguinaldo said. “It’s as much a research institution as it is a way to promote the science of biomechanics.

“Compared to biology and chemistry, [not many] have really heard of biomechanics. It’s almost like a subset of physics. Part of my job is to promote the science and be able to hopefully motivate or inspire students to pursue a vocation in biomechanics.”

While Aguinaldo designed the biomechanics lab with the best technology available right now, his hope is to continue expanding their line of research.

“Our main focus as a biomechanics lab in an academic institution, is fostering research either led by me or my grad students and being able to disseminate the information to the scientific community,” Aguinaldo said. “And by extension, to the sports scientists, coaches, and players so they can benefit because they’re in a business of evidence-based practice whether you’re a clinician or a coach.

“That evidence, we believe, research provides. Scientific research provides a high-level of evidence depending on the designs of these studies.

“That’s what we’re trying to promote, in addition to fostering a mentoring program of grad students who are interested in this space and are able to get jobs after this. Six alone are being employed by the Padres and half a dozen more are across the league.”

One of those is former PLNU Baseball standout Baxter Halligan, who is helping run the biomechanics program with the Pittsburgh Pirates, while current Sea Lions’ pitcher Josh Combs is working on a biomechanics capstone practicum project.

“My pride and joy, the legacy that I’d like to leave behind way down the line, is to be able to have Point Loma alums embedded in these organizations and doing great things as a bio mechanist,” Aguinaldo said.

If early returns are any indication, the PLNU x Padres Biomechanics Lab is well on its way to leaving a lasting legacy, on and off the diamond.