Is there a way to prevent serious arm injuries to pitchers before they even happen?
Ziel is a sleeve a pitcher would wear on their throwing arm and is the work of two Rice University engineers who believe that the use of muscle sensors and motion trackers could prevent or warn of long-term injuries before they even happen. Simply, the sleeve is designed to help pitchers and coaches identify harmful pitching.
Young pitchers are throwing harder pitches and more pitches at younger and younger ages. Ziel is specifically designed to help younger athletes, such as high school pitchers, track their technique and their muscle exertion through the sleeve which sends data to the user’s smartphone. Using the data, a pitcher will know something is wrong in their technique or that they need to rest before damage to the arm actually occurs.
Ziel Solutions, the company behind the product, has already rolled through a number of prototypes, but hopes to have a unit available for shipment in 2018. This first version will specifically be targeted to high school athletes in the hopes of reducing the number of severe injuries which occur to young pitchers. The company states that 60% of high school pitchers suffer from a debilitating arm injury and half of those athletes either don’t return to baseball or have a limited career.
The product currently carries a pretty hefty price tag, checking in at $250 for the sleeve itself and then a $10 per month subscription fee for the software which offers all of the insights on the data being collected by the sleeve.
The sleeve may sound expensive, but it may be money well spent if it prevents Tommy John operations for young athletes.
