Pitt Athletics Building Champions Through Sports Science
8/30/2024 2:49:00 PM | Softball
The University of Pittsburgh is dedicated to advancing the student-athlete performance using technology to optimize the human potential and growth of all Pitt student-athletes. The sports science approach in training helps quantify the student-athlete's performance outside of the sport and maximize the performance of each individual student-athlete on the field.
Through data-informed decision-making, Pitt helps set each student-athlete up for success with sport-specific programs that are geared towards individual athletes to maximize performance and help the athletes reach their goals.
Jazmin Contreras, a second-year sports science fellow with the softball team, monitors the data collected at practice to pinpoint any trends that can improve the student-athletes' performance.
The softball team utilizes multiple products from VALD Performance, including DynaMo to assess grip strength. The information on the athlete's grip strength gives Contreras insight on upper body strength and how that will correlate to the athlete's power outputs during play – how hard they can hit a ball, power and accuracy when throwing the ball, while also having control of their body movements.
Contreras and Pitt sports science also use SmartSpeed to track speed, agility, and reactivity. Contreras sets up a test for a 20-yard dash, the distance between bases, to assess speed and improve performance in running and stealing bases.
WEIGHT ROOM TECHNOLOGY
- Hawkin Dynamics Force Plates
- Catapult Sports GPS Monitoring System (select sports)
- Vald
- NordBord
- ForceFrame
- SmartSpeed
- Dynamo
The softball and baseball teams also use Diamond Kinetics to track metrics on their swing, including bat speed and exit velocity. Diamond Kinetics helps link a number to what the athlete is feeling in correlation to what is happening in their performance. The softball program opened a state-of-the-art indoor batting cage in April 2022 to house the technology essential in their training.
Contreras works closely with Devin Young, assistant strength and conditioning coach, to discuss and analyze the data and adjust work outs in the weight room. Contreras and Young will make workout adjustments that are specifically tailored to each individual athlete to make improvements in their on field performance.
Through sports science, Pitt Athletics is working to create a championship advantage through unmatched innovation, validation and application of sports science best practice to team performance.