Hutchison serves UIndy pitchers, Pastime Tournaments participants

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Landon Hutchison is developing pitchers in a scientific way at the University of Indianapolis.

Heading into his third season as pitching coach at the NCAA Division II school in 2020, Hutchison uses the latest training methods while staying focused on the ultimate objective.

“It’s very tech-driven,” says Hutchison, who was learning more about his craft at the Jan. 2-5 American Baseball Coaches Association convention in Nashville. “But at the end of the day you’ve got to try to get guys out.”

To get his pitchers ready to do that, Hutchison pays close attention to health.

“Arm care is definitely the No. 1 point of emphasis,” says Hutchison. “Workload is managed. We’re not throwing too much. We’re not throwing too little.

“We make sure we’re recovering and moving the right way. We’re making sure we’re getting proper sleep, nutrition, all those things.”

Motus sensors are used to monitor throwing. It’s a seven-day workload that maps out to a 28-day workload.

“If you keep that on pace it helps ramp things up in a safe manner,” says Hutchison. “We use the Florida Baseball Ranch style of training as far as the cycle goes.”

The Greyhounds have heavy day followed by a recovery day, connection day (a time to work on movement patterns) and max intent day.

“If you keep repeating it, you don’t have to think about it out on the mound,” says Hutchison. “The last thing I want them thinking about is that. Their job is to get guys out.”

Flexibility are the mobility of the Thoracic spine (T-spine) are also deemed important.

With the help of Chad Odaffer, an instructor in UIndy’s Kinesiology, Health & Sport Sciences department, full-body assessments are performed.

If deficiencies are found those can be addressed by head strength and conditioning coach Steve Barrick.

To improve core strength, pitchers do plenty of yoga. There’s also chaos training and HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts to get the heart rate up.

“We want to make sure we’re athletic,” says Hutchison. “Pitchers are athletes.”

Hutchison notes that ABCA members are harping on how far golf is ahead of baseball in terms of movement patterns.

“The amount of video that we take on our guys is insane,” says Hutchison. “I don’t know if I have one video of me pitching when I was in college.”

As a right-handed pitcher, Hutchinson graduated from Liberty Union High School in Baltimore, Ohio, then played four seasons (2012-15) at the University of Rio Grande (Ohio).

After his playing career, Hutchison served the 2016 and 2017 seasons for the Red Storm as a graduate assistant. He received a bachelor’s degree in Educational Studies in 2016 and a master’s in Coaching Leadership in 2017 and joined the UIndy staff in the fall of 2017. Indianapolis went 31-23 in 2018 and 30-20 in 2019.

Since each pitcher on his staff is unique in his approach, cues won’t be the same for each one.

“Sometimes it’s best to tell them to change their aiming point or use their legs more because they have nothing to do with their mechanics,” says Hutchison. “If you’re glove side is flying open, you might be told to stay tight.

“Little things like that can help guys stay in line and stay true.”

D-II baseball teams are allowed 45 days of practice in the fall. After that comes individual work. That’s when the process of developing velocity and pitch design begins.

During pitch, Hutchison will create video overlays of all the pitches in a hurler’s repertoire.

“We want to make sure all those are tunneled and we’re going from the exact same arm slot,” says Hutchison. “We want them to mimic each other. Around the 40-foot mark is our goal for when they start to separate. That’s when the spin actually takes effect.

“I’d rather have later movement than earlier (giving the hitter little time to react).”

Each pitcher is given an individualized plan that begins when they arrive on campus in the fall. Hutchison asks them the last time they threw live

“I tell them to be honest,” says Hutchison. “There’s no point in lying because you’re just going to hurt yourself.”

Once they get to winter break after final exams, UIndy pitchers are given six- to eight-week plan they can follow when they are away from the coaches.

Players are due back on campus Jan. 13.

“That’s when we start hitting things pretty hard,” says Hutchison. “We open up Feb. 15 (against Hillsdale in Johnson City, Tenn.).”

The Hounds will also play several games inside their dome.

“We’ve got plenty of arms,” says Hutchison. “Guys are getting full ground balls and full fly balls since it’s seven stories high.

“Hitters are seeing live (pitching) and it’s  white background. If you can hit the ball in there, you can probably hit the ball almost anywhere.

“With our pitchers we do a good job making sure their intensity and pitch count is where it needs to be.”

Hutchison says UIndy head coach Al Ready wants pitchers to be able to throw seven innings or up to 100 pitches within their first outing.

“If we can get them to that point we know we’re going to have a chance to win,” says Hutchison. “If they can go seven innings, we have a bullpen that can seal the game for them.”

When Hutchison arrived on campus, there were 15 pitchers. The following year that moved to around 27. This year, there are 30.

“To be a fully-funded program, there must be at least 45 man on the roster,” says Hutchison. “Why not bring in arms?”

Besides his role at UIndy, Hutchison is also national scouting coordinator and regional director for Pastime Tournaments, which runs travel baseball events all over the country.

He is in charge of staffing all events. Last summer, the organization employed around 250 250 independent contract workers.

Hutchison makes certain baseballs and merchandise go to the right places.

On tournament weekends, president Tom Davidson, vice president and national director Brent Miller and Hutchison divide up the 25 or more tournaments and oversee them with the help of site directors.

Hutchison also acts as a point of contact between players, parents and college coaches and educates the recruited on the process. He lets them know that the colleges will want to know things like age, grade-point average and SAT score. Players should get their own email address to be used in corresponding with colleges.

“I want to recruit the athlete,” says Hutchison. “I don’t want to recruit the parents.”

It also helps to have a presence on social media, where videos and other important information on a recruit can be placed.

To help college programs, Hutchison can let coaches know which teams and players will be playing in which region so they can take a look at that uncommitted left-hander they seek.

When filling tournament fields, Davidson likes to pool like competition to keep them challenging for all involved.

Pastime’s social media presence has swelled in recent years. The organization has more than 8,500 followers on Twitter and more than 1,000 in Instagram.

Landon Hutchinson is baseball pitching coach at the University of Indianapolis and national scouting coordinator and regional director for Pastime Tournaments. (UIndy Photo)

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Motus Baseball technology aimed at injury prevention, performance improvement

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Over-use in baseball has led to many injuries and countless hours on the operating table.

Will Carroll, a former Bleacher Report and FanDuel writer who has been tracking athletic injuries for the past two decades, says that 30 percent of Major League Baseball pitchers end up with the tell-tale scare of reconstructive surgery on their elbow.

“Teams, through no fault of their own, are ramping up pitchers wrong and overextending these guys,” says Carroll, who resides in the Indianapolis area. “There were like 106 Tommy John surgeries at the professional level (majors and minors) in 2016. That’s just too many.

“This is a problem in baseball without any solution. We have a chance to really make a dent in it and maybe reverse it.

“Most people don’t understand the forces they’re putting on their elbow. Ask a player, ‘How many times did you throw?’ The player has no idea. Coaches have even less of an idea.”

But what if these throws could be tracked and the subsequent injuries could be prevented while also improving performance?

That’s the idea behind a product from Motus Baseball that tracks every throw and calculates arm stress and throwing workload.

Motus, founded in 2010 and headquartered in New Jersey, makes biomechanics accessible to athletes and more with clinical-grade motion capture data.

A lightweight sensor is placed into a Motus Baseball compression sleeve and data is collected as the player goes about his daily routine — warm-up, bullpen, long toss, game action.

“It is a product that demos itself and manages itself,” says Carroll, who has joined the Motus team as chief storyteller. “All you have to do is put it on.”

With the aim of protecting young arms, the IHSAA adopted a pitch count rules (1 to 35 pitches requires 0 days rest; 36 to 60 requires 1 day; 61 to 80 requires 2 days; 81 to 100 requires 3 days; and 101 to 120 requires 4 days) in 2017.

Carroll says this approach is better than nothing.

“There are better measures,” says Carroll. “We think there’s a smarter way to do it.”

Motus wearable technology can help track fatigue and show that a pitcher’s arm is dropping.

Before, when a coach suspected this, the exchange would go something like this:

Coach: “How do you feel son?”

Pitcher: “I’m fine, coach.”

“They’ve lied to us for 100 years,” says Carroll. “This is demonstrably better.”

Carroll sees the hesitation of those who see this as another baseball gimmick.

“It’s a tool,” says Carroll. “Gimmicks are just tricks. This isn’t a trick, it’s data and it’s powerful data.”

This data is being used all over baseball and is endorsed by New York Yankees right-hander Dellin Betances.

The University of Indianapolis has started using it and head coach Gary Vaught reported at the 2018 Indiana High School Baseball Coaches State Clinic in Indianapolis that he is more than pleased with the early results.

“I haven’t heard a college coach get more excited about something,” says Carroll of Vaught. “This is the big thing. Arm injuries will kill baseball if we don’t fix it. He took a big leap of faith once he saw it.

“I haven’t seen a team buy in like that and I think they’re going to see the results.”

It’s not just UIndy pitchers using the Motus product. The Greyhounds also have sensors for all their hitters.

Since the state clinic in January, Carroll has watched Indiana high school programs like Center Grove and Carmel begin to use Motus and he has a list of schools that want him to visit.

“When Center Grove and Carmel get something, everybody else is going to want it,” says Carroll. “We think we’ll have 10 or 15 by the time school starts and 100 by next year.”

The tool becomes even more effective in the hands of knowledge coaches.

“This is going to make the best coaches better,” says Carroll. “They can make quicker adjustments. At worst, it will be an early warning system for some coaches.”

Carroll says customer services is important to Motus.

“We don’t sell a product and forget you,” says Carroll. “We don’t change what you’re doing. We want to enhance what you’re doing.”

Motus team members, including Carroll, will help teams analyze the data and essentially serve as part of their medical staff.

“It’s like they just hired five new assistant coaches,” says Carroll.

And it’s not just at the high school level where this will make an impact.

“It’s the younger guys that will pick this up, adjust and use the data that they’re getting,” says Carroll. “This is going to grow from the bottom up.”

Understanding this data will only help them when it comes time to talk with college recruiters and pro scouts.

New York Yankees right-hander Dellin Betances is a Motus Baseball athlete. (Motus Photo)

A lightweight sensor is placed into a Motus Baseball compression sleeve and data is collected as the player goes about his daily routine — warm-up, bullpen, long toss, game action. (Motus Photo)

The Motus Baseball sensor is small, but helps collect much useful data. (Motus Photo)

 

Just 25, Carlton is already making his mark on Indiana prep baseball scene

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

One of the younger minds on the Indiana high school baseball coaching block is enjoying success early in his career.

Royce Carlton, who turned 25 in January, has racked up 48 victories in his first three seasons as a head coach.

As a University of Indianapolis junior, Carlton was hired as an assistant at his high school alma mater — Morristown. The next spring (2014), the Yellow Jackets went 19-7 with Carlton in charge a season after going 12-13. The ’14 Morristown team hit .378 with Quality At-Bat percentage of 61, a .458 on-base percentage and 3.15 earned run average).

After graduating UIndy, Carlton got a job and a fresh start on the western side of the state. At Attica, he is head baseball coach, head boys tennis coach, strength and conditioning coordinator and teaches health and physical education. He was also coaching basketball when he first arrived at the Fountain County school.

“It’s been a very enjoyable experience so far,” says Carlton. “It’s a very tight-knit community and there’s a lot of support.”

On the diamond, Carlton took a team that was around .500 the year before he arrived to 14-10 in 2015 (.351/45/.446/3.56) and 15-8 in 2016 (.312/45/.407.2.25). Opponents hit .207 against Red Ramblers pitching last spring.

Drawing from his many influences and conducting plenty of research, Carlton is making Attica better on the diamond. Attica will be out to earn its eighth overall sectional title and first since 2010.

The foundation of what Royce does comes from his parents — Roger and Elaine Carlton. Roger stole 72 bases in a season for Morristown in the late ’70s and base stealing has been a major component for Royce’s teams (Morristown swiped 98 in 2014 while Attica pilfered 95 in 2015 and 67 in 2016, all with a success rate of over 85 percent).

The enthusiastic coach is always talking with people in the baseball community and applying that knowledge to his program. He will take this from a college coach and that from Major League Baseball manager.

Some of what Carlton knows about base running comes from Mike Roberts, professional and college coach and the father of former American League stolen base champion Brian Roberts (who took 50 for the Baltimore Orioles in 2007 and 285 for his MLB career).

To be successful on the paths, Carlton says his players must be “aggressively technical.”

“You have to commit at the right time,” says Carlton. “You have no time for a second thought.”

Grandfather Paul Goble, a highly-respected track and cross country coach at Morristown, and great uncle Charlie Nugent (who hit .299 with five home runs and 28 runs batted in as a first-team all-Indiana Collegiate Conference first baseman at Ball State in 1965) have also shaped Royce.

Royce played for Tim Hancock at Morristown and credits head coach Gary Vaught and assistant Al Ready for teaching him a lot of baseball in his two seasons as an Indianapolis Greyhound.

He is thankful to the athletic directors who hired him — Craig Moore at Morristown and Fred Unsicker at Attica. Moore continues to be a professional mentor to the young Carlton.

Carlton saw that Oscar Jimenez (a former Kansas City Royals prospect, Little League World Series star and native of Panama living in the Lafayette) did not have a job in baseball and added him a coaching staff which also includes Rod Crist at the varsity level with Nick Burris and Chris Ferguson running Attica’s two junior varsity teams.

With 34 players, Carlton said he has to the biggest numbers in the Wabash River Conference (a league of Class 1A and 2A schools).

“That’s unheard of for a school our size,” says Carlton. With two JV teams, players will be moved around as needed. The head coach is not yet sure about the quality of pitching in his freshmen class.

A few ways that he helps his pitchers — really all players — is by the use of the DriveLine Baseball training methods as well as the Motus sleeve, a device which includes a ulnar collateral ligament workload monitor which is touted by the company as “the first tool aimed specifically at combating UCL tears that lead to Tommy John Surgery.”

“The kids see all the technology and see how changing an arm slot reduces arm stress on the elbow,” says Carlton.

Pitchers throw from their natural arm slot and if Carlton sees any issues with the data he gathers, he might change their motion a little bit.

Ramblers senior ace right-hander Eli Merriman was converted from overhand to a sidearm delivery and found to have less stress that way.

“It’s not one size fits all,” says Carlton. “You’ve got to adapt to each kid. Not every kid can throw sidearm.

“In the past, coaches wanted each pitcher to be a cookie cutter (and all throw with the same delivery). It’s not that way anymore.”

Following a two-week spring break, the Ramblers are scheduled to open the 2017 season Tuesday, April 4 by visiting the Cornjerkers of Hoopeston (Ill.).

“I am very excited to see how all of our players contribute to having a successful season and a deep tournament run,” says Carlton. “I am looking forward to having our best season yet lead by not only my strong senior class but also our freshman, sophomores, and juniors.

“I want us to be “uncomfortable” this season. We know we have the pieces but we need to stay on a continued path of growth each pitch of every game and not get comfortable with success.”

Royce Carlton is entering his third season at Attica in 2017. He has led the Red Ramblers to 29 victories in his first two seasons. He turned 25 in January.