Rockville Centre business analyzes the biomechanics of athletes

Baseballs flew from Jarad Vollkommer’s arm, which a nearby screen logged as moving at 909 rotations per minute. It was a typical day in the Motus Global lab.

The Rockville Centre-based business has been capturing athletes’ three-dimensional motion for eight years by using advanced biomechanics analysis. Motus analyzes how they move according to the sport they play and gives them suggestions by comparing them to other athletes.

Motus’s goal is simple: “Reduce injuries and improve performance,” said Derek Squires, a biomechanical laboratory specialist for Motus, while at a physical therapy center in Garden City.

There are infrared cameras on the walls, which reflect off of “wearable sensors” on the client’s “bony landmark,” a part of the body where the skin moves the least. On a computer, dots resembling a human shape move when the client does. When connected, a “stick figure” can be made out to “recreate a skeleton,” according to Squires.

The technology is used on a variety of athletes. Baseball pitchers, for example, get their arms, elbows, shoulders, hands and even feet and knees evaluated to test for arm speed, release point angles, shoulder rotation, maximum knee height, hand separation and foot contact.

“People who are into this stuff are those who got hurt,” Squires said.

“They want to know what went wrong,” added Vollkommer, a performance coach for high school level baseball in Bellport, while getting fitted with 46 sensors before getting tested. Both former players got injured while playing baseball semi-professionally.

Vollkommer wanted hands-on experience to better understand his own players, but to also see “what’s good with him.” And Squires wanted to apply his educational background in engineering to sports, but mostly baseball, which he said is his passion.

Motus, which has an office on Sunrise Highway, has developed a database of athletes, according to Squires. Thousands have been analyzed, including minor-leaguers and some the major leagues such as Dellin Betances, a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees, and his teammate Andrew McCutchen, an outfielder who won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 2013.

While a FitBit, for example, tracks biometrics, Motus’ technology “analyzes the forces of your body,” said Keith Robinson, president and co-founder of Motus. He formed Prospective Studios, a motion-capture service, before starting Motus with Joe Nolan, after Rockstar Games purchased their other company.

“We thought it would be interesting to use motion-capture technology to analyze athletes,” said Robinson, who was raised in Rockville Centre and graduated from Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale.

In the past, Motus has done general sports and health and wellness analysis, but are now focused on the wearable technology it develops, including a sleeve with a sensor that contains an accelerator and gyroscope so that data can be collected on the field during practices or games.