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Heart Rate Training Hits MLB

Kind of an amusing development: a local paper talks with Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling about using heart-rate monitors in his pitching conditioning. Schilling, while not without his faults, is an interesting figure in his willingness to turn to modern technology in an otherwise stubbornly anti-tech sport. He's long used computer imaging and video, apparently, to hone his technique and study opposition, and his love of internet chatting is legend.

But his focus this past offseason on his heart rate is interesting in that it potentially could bring the Joe Friel method to field sports. Well, not literally, but Schilling apparently is studying how to maximize his pitching fitness by adjusting to the changes in heart rate, as well as the max's, during a game, where you exert, sit down, exert, sit down, etc. The fluctuations from 120bpm to 180 is apparently at the focus here.

Schilling is relatively old for his sport, so he needs whatever advantage he can get. But baseball players are copycats, so if this is considered a breakthrough, you can bet every pitcher will have straps on their chest by the time they report for spring training next February.

It makes some sense. There's a lot of data on guys who tend to tire and lose their fastball after x number of pitches. And starting pitchers, though they sometimes look like professional golfers, are sort of endurance athletes, at least by baseball's sedentary standards.