You've Got Questions. We Got Answers.
Why "so what do you actually do?" is simultaneously the most embarrassing and most exciting question we get.
Every other week I write an email discussing what I learn launching and growing Reboot Motion. If you would like to receive it directly in your inbox, subscribe below.
So what do you actually do?
We get that question a lot.
Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about it. Should I be embarrassed? Are we failing at getting our point across quickly and succinctly?
Or should I ooze with excitement? Are we fostering in a new era of player development?
The answer is likely both.
A New Era of Player Development
Generally, baseball is at the forefront of analytical advancements. Still, the most advanced teams in the most forward thinking sport are only just beginning to understand how to properly use the endless ball and body they receive.
Yes, the best front offices have had an analytical focus for years. Yes, they are already fluent in data analysis. And yes, they are constantly looking to unlock new key indicators that correlate with winning.
But this is not that.
We are not offering teams better signals to predict future outcomes.
Rather, we are providing the tools to create better ones.
A New Era Comes With Question Marks
At Reboot Motion, we believe the future of player development comes down to understanding “How Data”. Winning organizations will dissect how players move, using body and ball data as the foundation for a player focused organization- realizing if the team takes care of its athletes, its athletes will take care of the team.
But it will be a journey. It always is.
But we know superior information leads to superior outcomes. And biomechanics offers a seismic change in the information teams receive.
It is our job to make sure the large change is not in the amount of data, but rather in the quality of information teams can use to drive change.
To do this, we need to educate. We need to answer as many questions as we can. We need to get everyone thinking about how best to use this new information to improve outcomes.
At the end of the day, front offices, coaches, and players do not care about biomechanics. They care about performance.
It is our job to show they are synonymous.
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To start, we wanted to share a list of questions we commonly get. Hopefully, they give a little more insight into what we do and how we work with elite organizations.
(And please reach out and let us know what else would be on your list!)
What is Reboot Motion?
Reboot Motion is a physics and biomechanics company. We deliver actionable insights from motion capture data.
While we are not the first entrants, we are the only ones who:
Use a momentum based approach.
Focus purely on analysis. We partner with the best in data capture, coaching, and more.
Take a holistic view. Rather than delivering joint angles and going away, we provide a platform of reporting, proprietary data, education, and more for teams to build upon.
Are enterprise focused. We do not have an “off the shelf” product, but rather understand every organization is at a different stage in the process. We meet teams where they are to educate and empower their front office and coaches to improve performance.
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What was the foundational research Reboot Motion was built on?
Reboot Motion’s analysis was built on years of academic research across multiple disciplines, combined with on-field experience.
Jimmy’s experience in aerospace engineering taught him about the need to optimize a machine’s performance through efficient energy transfer…and it turns out us humans work the same way.
While Jimmy started his PhD researching prosthetic hands, once he came across research on how the muscles of the forearm and the biomechanics of the elbow interact, his attention quickly turned to applying his work to baseball.
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Where did Reboot learn how to bring this research to the field?
When Jimmy joined the Dodgers in 2015, they were are at the forefront of biomechanics. Still, it was early days for everyone, so he was given an open- ended mandate: figure out how the organization can use this stuff to make pitchers better.
This meant finding the right hardware, building out algorithms, and spending countless hours on the field learning from Dodgers’ coaches- seeing how they work and discovering how biomechanics can improve their lives.
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What was the impetus for starting Reboot Motion?
Reboot Motion has been an idea for nearly a decade. However, we thought the timing was right at the end of 2019, mostly due to the rapid advancement in marker-less motion capture technology. As the ability to generate body data goes up (and the cost comes down), the biggest need will be the ability to analyze it and create actionable takeaways.
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What is different about how Reboot Motion analyzes movement?
While there is a time and a place for statistics and data science, we prefer to put our trust in first principles. We base everything off of foundational physics and physiology.
When we talk with coaches and front offices, this gives us more confidence that changes not only correlate with improvement, but cause it.
Additionally, using first principles makes it easy to “explain the why”, so our partners can have confidence in their decisions. In highly competitive fields like pro sports, this is key.
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Why does Reboot use momentum as the foundation of its analyses?
We like momentum for two reasons:
Momentum normalizes for size. Large objects cannot move as fast as small ones, which makes comparing velocities ineffective. This is true when comparing multiple athletes, or multiple body parts for a single athlete.
Second, momentum has a concept of direction (as opposed to energy, which does not). This allows us to focus on the transfer that leads to the desired output, while simultaneously minimizing unwanted momentum.
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Is Reboot Motion a motion capture company?
We get this question a lot.
We are not a motion capture company, but rather a motion analysis company.
To us, motion capture is about taking raw video and transferring that into joint positions over time. There are a lot of companies doing this- from ultra high end stadium solutions to mobile application with iPhones and iPads.
Our specialty comes in after the data is captured- we process it, organize it, analyze it, and make it actionable.
In other words, for people that have motion capture and ask “now what?”…we want to be your first call.
(We are also happy to be your first call if you are exploring motion capture solutions- we know them all and can help weigh the various pros and cons.)
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What is the difference between marker based motion capture and marker-less systems?
Reboot Motion is a big fan of marker-less systems. While marker based motion capture has been the gold standard in accuracy, we like marker-less systems due to their ease of use.
As opposed to marker based systems, where the athlete has to wait thirty minutes or so while someone puts stuff all over their body, marker-less motion capture lives in the background.
This is a big plus for practice and evaluation, and imperative for in game analysis.
Additionally, we have seen the data quality gap close immensely in recent years. In many cases, the high end marker-less systems MLB teams use is now more accurate than marker based systems, as there is less opportunity for human error.
At the opposite end, when using mobile solutions we admit there will be noise.
But noise is OK, as these systems hold their value in flexibility and ease of use. It is important to understand where the noise is and craft analysis that accounts for it.
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How does Reboot Motion interact with a professional organization?
While it would be nice to have a specific answer here, the reality is no two organizations are the same.
Some are looking to install motion capture for the first time, others have been on the forefront of biomechanics for years.
As a result, we built our business to be as flexible as possible.
We don’t prescribe. Rather, we educate, consult, and empower.
Our goal is to turn our partner organizations into experts.
We want their coaches to find actionable insights and take them to the field. We want their front office to excel at roster building. And we want their data scientists and biomechanists to build their own algorithms on top of Reboot Motion’s platform to stay ahead of the competition.
And we will do whatever it takes to make that happen.