Measuring the Biomechanics of Baseball

Photo credit:Joseph Paradiso and Alexander Reben

A Red Sox player is wired with sensors, which gauge the force

he exerts when he swings the bat.

By Ed Martinez

October 7, 2009

For the sixth time in seven years, the Boston Red Sox reached the postseason playoffs. The conclusion of the regular season also marked the team’s 108th season in history. 

The Red Sox got off to a slow start this year, going 2-6 in the first eight games. But they also experienced a winning streak of 11 games in April. Whether or not they can win another World Series remains to be seen.

For the past three years, Professor Joseph Paradiso and his team of researchers from MIT have been strapping sensors on Red Sox players during the preseason to gauge the physical force they exert when they swing a bat, or pitch a ball.

When players return next spring, Paradiso hopes to expand the program by gathering more data on more players engaged in a wider range of activities. For example, hitters will be strapped with sensors when they are on a hot streak, and then again, when they are in a slump. He believes that they will be able to assess the mechanics of the swing and how they have changed, so they can be fixed. "There are many areas where this technique will have a meaningful influence on how things are perceived and how data is interpreted," said Eric Berkson, a physician for the Red Sox.

Berkson is eager to find out how utilizing technology could help identify behaviors that can lead to injury. He also believes that the findings could help determine when injured players can come back from an injury.

MIT’s sensors use accelerometers, gyroscopes and more recently, magnetometers. Magnetometers can measure joint angles. Paradiso is currently working with Boston-area manufacturers to develop new, smaller sensors that can handle a baseball player’s range of accelerations. Pitchers can produce up to 130 Gs during a routine motion, so it is crucial that the sensors can register it accurately.

"We can now look at what's causing injury in a shoulder through a pitcher's real activity, in real-world situations," added Paradiso, "and this will help us understand why kids get injured, and why Little League pitching is dangerous for some kids, and why there's an increased number of surgeries happening on these kids on a yearly basis."