The Perfect Game Series is entering its third year and is already off to a great start for 2017. The inaugural Georgia PG Series Challenge was held over the weekend in Cartersville, Georgia and players were able to test their athleticism, quickness, and overall athletic ability.
The PG Series consists of two events: the Classic and the Challenge. The Classic is a tournament setting event for high school levels and players aged 11-16. Players come from all over and compete against high level competition. The Challenge, which was held over the past weekend, is more of an athletic testing setting for players of any age up until their last year of high school. Players test their athleticism and do a multitude of training drills to measure their performance.
The Challenge also incorporates throwing and hitting, Zepp, drills, however the focus of the event is on the athletic training. Players will be tested in the 30-yard dash with 10-yard splits, 5-10-5 Pro Agility training, Complex Reaction drills, the Witty Timing System, and the Opto-Jump system to get an accurate measurement of their athleticism.
The 30-yard dash and the 5-10-5 Pro Agility training aim to measure the speed and agility of the players. The 5-10-5 is similar to a shuttle drill and measures how the athletes can control their speed and utilize it to result in compact movements.
As it is a part of the name, the Complex Reaction drills measure the reaction ability combined with speed. Players have to get up quickly, turn and try to reach top speed after picking themselves up off the ground.
There are four parts to the Opto-Jump testing: reactionary jumping, quick feet, three power jumps, and one-legged jumps. These drills aim to measure lower-half strength, power, and control. It is important for players to not only have strength throughout the lower half but to be able to control that strength throughout.
Cognitive focus and reactions are the main measurement for the Witty Timing System. Players have to react quickly to different colored lights and show bursts of quickness to trigger the light and return to the set position. This measures the reaction skills and how they can control their speed to reach the target and return quickly.
Following the conclusion of the testing, the players will receive a PGAME Athletic Index Score. The PGAME score is a single, overall number that incorporates all of the measurements from the previous testing and represents the player’s overall athletic score. The PGAME score, along with all the testing, is objective data that is measured electronically.
“The PGAME score takes into account all the testing drills from the Challenge and it combines it into one score,” said PG Series Assistant Director Ryan Normoyle. “It’s almost like QBR in football. The computer takes all the recorded numbers and assigns the testing a score. It then weights the tests differently and gives us the overall PGAME score.”
So what does the PGAME score mean? What use does doing these athletic drills have in baseball?
“We want kids to test their athletic abilities, including their strengths and weaknesses,” said Normoyle. “We want them to test, see where they’re at, develop a baseline, improve on the weaknesses, and come back to the testing and, hopefully, score higher.”
Major League teams are already using similar techniques to help train their players and the PGAME score will show players where they are at athletically during the testing. It is a measuring stick that allows players to see where their strengths and weaknesses are and where they can improve. It is important to note that these PGAME scores are not the be-all-end-all of evaluating these players. Obviously, their ability on the field matters, but this testing is another piece of the puzzle for player evaluation.
“It’s all objective, it’s all numbers and data,” said PG Series Assistant Director Bill Perry. “You also have the throwing and hitting where you get evaluated subjectively. We understand that the testing isn’t the whole picture, but these are objective numbers and believe that this will help kids improve athletically.”
PG Series Director Ben Ford is extremely excited about the continued expansion of the Series Challenge. The Series Challenge will be expanding to cities across the United States as well as internationally in places such as Canada and Puerto Rico.
“We are ecstatic about the opportunity to bring this testing to amateur players across the world,” said Ford. “We strongly believe that the technology can help these players continue to grow and develop into first-class players and athletes. The testing is growing around the world and Perfect Game always strives to be the industry standard when it comes to optimal technology, utilization, and satisfaction of everyone who comes to our events.”
The Georgia PG Series Challenge was the first Challenge event of the year and a strong way for the PG Series to start out in 2017. The athletic testing and numbers that the testing provides are another piece of valuable information and analysis that players can learn from participating in Perfect Game events. As the Series continues to grow and expand, the availability of technology to test athleticism looks to be on the forefront for baseball as something that will be involved in the future of the sport.
For more information on the PG Series please click here. If you are interested in attending the Challenge, the Classic, or are interested in running a Challenge please email PG Series Assistant Directors Bill Perry and Ryan Normoyle.
Bill Perry: bperry@perfectgame.org
Ryan Normoyle: rnormoyle@perfectgame.org