Kineologist

PITCH case study

From twenty captured pitches to one coach-readable evidence system.

This page follows one real analysis workflow rather than presenting a list of isolated features.

For this case study we captured 20 pitches from Liam, an elite professional player, at 200 fps using high-end inertial motion sensors during live pitching. The individual takes were run through the PITCH analysis pipeline, where Kineologist generated per-take telemetry, plots and reports and used the captured session to build a reference baseline for comparison.

The reports are produced from deterministic rule-based analysis. Severity flags are designed to focus the coach on technique, sequencing and movement patterns that deserve closer review, including patterns that may be relevant within an injury-prevention programme. They are advisory evidence for the coach, not an injury prediction or medical diagnosis.

The three areas below show how the same underlying take is turned into a prioritised coaching review, a full-body valgus kinematic profile and a whole-chain dynamics analysis. The screenshots reinforce the story; the written interpretation remains the primary guide.

A simple two-channel example before the focused review

Before the focused review areas, this TrackView example keeps the evidence deliberately simple: two stacked channels show stride distance alongside hip–shoulder separation through the pitch. It demonstrates how Kineologist places related movement evidence on the same timeline before the report turns those measurements into prioritised coaching guidance.

PITCH TrackView example showing stride distance and hip–shoulder separation as two stacked channels

Case study area focus 1

Prioritised coaching review and structured action plan.

The first job of the Coach Report is not to show every metric. It is to tell the coach what deserves attention first, why it was flagged and what to review next in the subject take.

Coaching Review Priorities

The Coaching Review Priorities section is a prioritised guide to the subject take. It brings the most important technique, sequencing and comparison findings to the top so the coach can work through the pitch in a sensible order rather than searching through raw telemetry.

Each priority is backed by the evidence already generated by the pipeline. The coach remains the decision-maker: Kineologist surfaces the pattern, the comparison and the severity; the coach decides how that evidence fits the athlete, session and training objective.

Liam PITCH Coach Report showing the prioritised pitching review

Action Plan

The Action Plan turns the prioritised findings into a structured plan of action. Instead of ending with a list of flags, the report groups the next coaching steps into practical objectives, what to re-check and which evidence should be reviewed again after an intervention or subsequent take.

This is intentionally advisory rather than prescriptive: it gives the coach a repeatable review structure while leaving technique decisions, athlete context and training strategy with the coach.

Liam PITCH advisory Action Plan with mechanical objectives and evidence to recheck

Measured against a reference

The final part of this focus area is the measured comparison. Kineologist can build a reference baseline from approved example takes, then compare the subject against that reference automatically. The comparison is not reduced to a vague “different from baseline” statement: TrackView exposes the timing and magnitude evidence behind the report.

Where appropriate, the coach can see whether an event occurred earlier or later, the difference in frames and seconds, and the corresponding magnitude difference. That makes the report traceable back to the movement evidence rather than asking the coach to accept a black-box conclusion.

PITCH TrackView compare view showing subject and baseline timing and magnitude deltas

Case study area focus 2

Full-body valgus kinematic profile.

The second area of focus looks at the pitching pattern as a connected whole: lower body, pelvis, trunk, shoulder line and throwing arm, rather than treating the arm as an isolated result.

Whole-chain context

The Full-Body Valgus Kinematic Profile combines lower-body, pelvis, trunk and throwing-arm evidence in one report. In this Liam take, the report surfaces the STRIDE authority, hip–shoulder separation, lead-knee position, pelvis and trunk behaviour, throwing-arm measures and the observed M-event sequence so the coach can see how the delivery is organised around the throwing-arm result.

The aim is to support a technical review of the movement pattern. It is a kinematic profile from recorded motion; it does not directly measure elbow load, UCL strain or injury probability.

Liam Full-Body Valgus Kinematic Profile report

Automatic pitching events

P1Load and preparation

STRIDELead-foot plant

P2The throwing action begins

P3Maximum wrist-speed / release-side event

P4Completion of the movement window

Original timing versus phase-locked movement comparison

Original comparison preserves the athlete's real timing differences. Phase-locked comparison aligns equivalent pitching events so the coach can compare body position and rotational behaviour even when the athlete and reference move at different speeds.

This separates two different coaching questions: when something happened in the real pitch, and how the body was organised at the equivalent phase of the movement.

PITCH phase-locked comparison with P1, STRIDE, P2, P3 and P4 markers

Case study area focus 3

Full-body dynamics and lower-to-upper-body sequencing.

The third area of focus follows how the pitch develops from the lower body through pelvis and trunk transfer into the throwing arm and wrist-speed build.

Whole-body dynamics

Full-body analysis connects drive-leg contribution, lead-foot plant, stride timing, pelvis and trunk transfer, shoulder-line behaviour, arm layback and wrist-speed build into one ordered pitching sequence. The report highlights the parts of that chain that are most useful for coach review and places them against the selected baseline.

This gives the coach a way to review the delivery holistically: not simply whether an arm metric was high or low, but what the lower body and trunk were doing before that result appeared.

Liam PITCH full-body dynamics report

STRIDE as the lower-body timing authority

Lead-foot plant is extracted as a separate STRIDE event. STRIDE does not replace P2: it gives the lower body its own timing authority, while P2 remains the upper-body throwing-action marker.

That lets the coach compare lower-body plant timing directly against the upper-body P-marker sequence and ask whether the delivery is transferring from the ground up in the intended order.

PITCH TrackView showing STRIDE timing against the upper-body P-marker sequence

Motion-derived M events refine STRIDE detection

Kineologist derives motion-based muscle contribution and sequencing proxies from the recorded movement. These are not EMG measurements. The system identifies key sequencing events, shown as M events, to provide a repeatable view of how the movement chain develops through the pitch.

Within the full-body PITCH pipeline, the relevant lower-body M-event signal is used to extract the STRIDE event and refine automatic detection around lead-foot plant. The wider M-event sequence then gives the coach another layer for reviewing how lower-body drive, trunk transfer, shoulder activity and the throwing arm progress through the delivery.

Liam PITCH motion-derived M-event sequence used to support STRIDE extraction and sequencing review

Coach control. Scientific depth.

Make the language your own and keep the evidence inspectable.

The coach can adapt reporting language to match the programme, while the sports scientist can inspect and tune the analytical layer underneath. The biomechanics and numerical evidence remain deterministic.

PITCH Lexicon Editor for editable report wording

Edit the language without changing the evidence.

Adapt headlines, interpretations, action-plan language, review priorities, section headings and claim boundaries from the included defaults.

PITCH Threshold Editor with sport-pack rule settings

Fine-tune the analytical strictness.

A chosen sports scientist can review threshold values and rule parameters for the coaching programme, athlete group or capture setup.

PITCH plots page showing underlying movement telemetry

Inspect the underlying movement evidence.

Scientific plots expose telemetry behind the report so a technical reviewer can confirm why a finding was produced.

The coach owns the practical interpretation. The scientist supports configuration and validation, while Kineologist keeps the evidence traceable.

Kineologist can provide a consistent pitching-analysis workflow across multiple coaching locations while allowing each organisation to adapt its reporting language, thresholds and review priorities.

EXAMPLE REPORTS

See the reporting Kineologist PITCH generates automatically.

Download the current example report pack in English, Japanese or Chinese.

For biomechanists and sports scientists

Explore the PITCH biomechanics and technology.

Review the detector model, phase-locked comparison, telemetry, rule-based analysis, reports and technical architecture in greater depth.