BASEBALL
// P I T C H I N G L A B
NEW PITCHING LAB,
NEW PARTNERS WAKE FOREST BASEBALL, WAKE FOREST BAPTIST HEALTH TEAM UP IN STATE-OF-THE ART BIOMECHANICS LAB TO HELP PREVENT PITCHING INJURIES AND ENHANCE PERFORMANCE By Jim Buice
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hen describing Wake Forest Baseball’s new state-of-the art pitching lab and a partnership with Wake Forest Baptist Health, head coach Tom Walter said, “Nobody has everything we have here. Nobody has the people we have. And nobody has it under one roof collaborating on everything.”
The organizations will combine forces in the biomechanics lab in the Chris Hurd Player Development Center at David F. Couch Ballpark – the first partnership of its kind in college baseball. "This is truly a groundbreaking partnership," Walter said. "First and foremost, this ensures that the development and health of the Wake Forest pitching staff will be second to none in professional and amateur baseball. Equally important, however, is the opportunity to improve the game of baseball as a whole and put Winston-Salem at the epicenter of cutting-edge pitching analytics." The lab, which will eventually be expanded to analyze athletes from various youth baseball organizations, utilizes 16 high-speed cameras and motion-captures markers to record each detail of a pitcher’s delivery. The additional data gathered from the young athletes will be combined with that of the college athletes to help identify the root causes of baseball injuries and hopefully prevent many of them. Dr. Brian Waterman, who is the Demon Deacon team physician and an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Wake Forest Baptist, specializes in shoulder and elbow care and works with the players on injury prevention and recovery.
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"Helping athletes prevent injuries is a major focus of our sports medicine team, and we are thrilled to be able to bring the expertise and research capabilities of Wake Forest Baptist's academic medical center directly to the players who will use this facility," he said. Dr. Andrew Koman, who is head of orthopaedics at Wake Forest Baptist, added, “We’ve been the sports medicine physicians for the university for 45, 50 years. But we were just the doctors. Now we are partners. This gives us a way to do research and advance care for all student-athletes.” Athletics Director Ron Wellman said that the structure and the lab is unique, but what really makes this initiative so special is the partnership with Wake Forest Baptist Health. “There isn’t another baseball program or athletic program that is so closely tied to an academic medical center,” he said. “What we gain would not be possible if it weren’t for that partnership and what they’re going to be able to give us to help our players.”
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long with the lab comes a true team approach to working with the pitching staff, including the return of John Hendricks as pitching coach. Hendricks, a 2000 graduate of Wake Forest who still ranks as the program’s all-time leader with 34 career wins and 409.2 innings pitched, spent more than nine years working in Major League Baseball, including the last five seasons with the New York Mets. After two years as the Area Supervisor of the Carolinas, Hendricks was promoted to National Pitching Supervisor in 2015. “It was a dream job to be a scout for nine years, and I never ever thought about being a college coach again,” he said. “I certainly wouldn’t be a college coach anywhere except for Wake Forest.” In his last position with the Mets, he was responsible for evaluating and drafting pitchers across the country. He also served
