How We Test
Your athlete jumps on two plates bolted flat to the floor, throws in front of a radar, sprints through a set of timing gates — and comes home with a report full of numbers. This page explains what those numbers mean in plain English: what we measure, why it matters, and how it shapes the program your athlete actually trains on.
Why we test
Two pitchers can both sit at 82 mph for completely different reasons. One is strong but slow to produce force. The other produces force quickly but doesn’t have much of it to give. Same radar reading — opposite training needs.
That’s the problem testing solves. The radar gun tells you the result. Testing tells you the cause. And the cause is what you train, because velocity is an output, not a drill.
Every PSP athlete starts with baseline testing at their evaluation, retests at regular intervals, and gets the results in a report parents can read. You see the same numbers we do.
The tools, in plain English
Force plates (VALD ForceDecks)
Think of them as two extremely fast bathroom scales. Your athlete stands on them, jumps, and lands, and the plates record how hard each leg pushes into the ground about 1,000 times per second. From one short session we can see how much force an athlete can produce, how quickly they produce it, and whether the left and right legs are sharing the work.
Radar (throwing and exit velocity)
Pitch velocity off the mound and exit velocity off the bat. These are the scoreboard numbers — the ones on recruiting profiles and the ones college coaches ask about first.
Timing gates (Dashr)
The 60-yard dash and its splits, timed electronically to the hundredth of a second. No stopwatch guesswork, and the splits tell us whether an athlete needs to be faster off the line or faster at top speed — two different problems with two different fixes.
The weight room
Squat and deadlift numbers. The simplest measure of the base everything else is built on: total force.
The numbers, translated
Jump height
The headline number from a force plate test — how high the athlete gets off the ground on a countermovement jump. It’s a clean read on lower-body power, but it’s also the least interesting number on the report, because two athletes can reach the same height in very different ways. The numbers below explain the how.
Peak force
The most force the athlete can put into the ground — the “how much” number. This is the foundation. It’s what squats and deadlifts build, and it’s why the strength numbers on our Results page move before the velocity numbers do.
Rate of force development
How quickly the athlete gets to that force — the “how fast” number. A pitch, a swing, and a first step each happen in a fraction of a second. An athlete who needs a full second to reach their best push never gets to use it in a game. For baseball, how fast matters as much as how much.
Left/right asymmetry
Whether one leg is doing more of the work than the other. Some difference is normal — throwing is a one-sided sport. A large or growing gap is an early flag: fatigue, a mechanical habit, or something worth addressing before it turns into a sore elbow or a lost season. This is the number that connects testing to arm care.
Throwing velocity and exit velocity
The outputs. These move when the numbers above improve, and we measure them the same way every time — so a gain is a real gain, not a hot gun.
The 60-yard dash
The standard baseball speed test, gate-timed with splits. Acceleration and top speed are trained differently, and the splits tell us which one your athlete needs.
Squat and deadlift
Strength is the raw material for everything above. When the squat climbs, force plate numbers follow, and the ball speed follows that.
What counts as a good number?
It depends — on age, body weight, level, and training history. A 38-inch vertical means one thing for a college senior and something else entirely for a high school sophomore. So we don’t grade athletes against one universal chart. We benchmark against age and level, and most of all against the athlete’s own baseline. The direction and rate of change tell us more than any single test day.
How the numbers build the program
Testing isn’t a report card that gets filed away. It’s the input for everything that follows in the PSP Method: Assess, Plan, Train, Measure, Showcase.
- Baseline. Full testing and movement screening at the evaluation, before any programming is written.
- Program. The plan targets what the testing found. A strong athlete who’s slow to produce force trains to express strength faster. An athlete short on raw force builds it in the weight room first.
- Retest. Regular retests confirm the program is working — or tell us to adjust it. Dips during heavy training blocks or mid-season are information, not failure.
- Report. Athletes and parents see every result. Progress is also tracked in the PSP app, so the numbers are never a mystery between test days.
- Showcase. When recruiting starts, the same verified numbers become your athlete’s case. Our college recruiting support helps present them.
What this looks like in real athletes
Jayce Devine (Bentley ’25) took his vertical jump from 35 to 38.3 inches and his broad jump from 107 to 121 inches — force production, measured. Over the same arc his exit velocity went from 96 to 107 mph. The jumps moved first; the ball speed followed.
Sachin Gopal (Naval Academy ’25) built his squat from 225 to 430 lbs and his deadlift from 275 to 495 lbs. His fastball went from 81 to 91 mph. The velocity didn’t come from chasing velocity — it came from force.
More arcs like these, with the numbers, are on our Before/After Metrics page.
What testing is not
It’s not a tryout, and there’s no score to fail. The first test is a starting point, and every retest measures progress — it doesn’t hand out a grade. Athletes who test “behind” on day one are exactly who the program is built for.
Common questions from parents
How often does PSP test?
Every athlete gets a full baseline at their evaluation, then retests at regular intervals through their training. Team programs include baseline testing and quarterly reports.
Do parents see the results?
Yes. Reports are transparent by design — you see what we see, and your athlete can track progress between test days in the PSP app.
Is force plate testing safe for younger athletes?
Yes. It’s standing, jumping, and landing on a flat platform — nothing is attached to the athlete and nothing loads them beyond their own body weight. Radar and timing gates simply measure from a distance.
Does my athlete need to prepare for a test day?
No special preparation — normal sleep, normal food, athletic clothes. We want an honest baseline, not a peak performance.
What if the numbers go down?
Numbers dip — during heavy training blocks, mid-season, or a growth spurt. A dip is information: it tells us to look at workload, recovery, or mechanics, and the program adjusts. One test day is never a verdict.
See your athlete’s numbers
Baseline testing is part of every PSP evaluation. Book an evaluation or call 781-269-5329 — and leave with numbers you can actually read.