Wake Forest biomechanist Kristen Nicholson discusses evolution of pitching lab, MLB interest

The Wake Forest pitching lab strives to be on the cutting edge of the intersection between biomechanics and sport, with Dr. Kristen Nicholson leading the charge. Nicholson, who holds a PhD in biomechanics from the University of Delaware, has been with the Demon Deacons program since October 2018.

As Wake Forest opened up its time at the 2023 College World Series in a low-scoring duel with Stanford, Nicholson spoke with the ESPN broadcast about getting involved with the Wake Forest pitching lab — the game entered a weather delay at the end of her interview. It wasn’t an obvious fit for Nicholson to join the Wake Forest pitching lab, but one that’s grown to be perfect over the years — her speciality with upper extremity biomechanics proving particularly valuable.

“So obviously the most prevalent pitching injuries we see are in the shoulder and the elbow, which is the upper extremity. Pitching is a full-body motion but the injuries are primarily focused in the upper extremities and so as an upper-extremity biomechanist, they thought that I could make an impact in their pitching lab,” Nicholson said.

What was occurring in Winston Salem was so cutting edge that over the course of time, basically every major league team has come by to learn from what the Demon Deacons were doing.

And along with trying to pick up on processes, equipment and theory, teams would’ve been quite happy to hire away Nicholson. She’s quite content to keep up her work with the Wake Forest pitching lab, though.

“Yeah, almost all of the major league teams have come through our lab, trying to build a similar setup and figure out what we’re doing. Some of them have tried to maybe steal me away from Wake Forest,” Nicholson said, “but I’m pretty happy here and not looking to move on.”

After more than four years with the program, Nicholson has become an integral part of the Wake Forest operation. Wake Forest made the College World Series for the first time in a generation in no small part due to elite pitching. She’ll celebrate a five-year anniversary working with the Demon Deacons this fall and continues to also work locally in Winston Salem at a hospital.

And she wasn’t even that much of a baseball fan to start.

“I was a baseball fan, but I wouldn’t say a baseball expert or fanatic, by any means. But I’ve learned a lot in the last four years. I’ve really been accepted into the team and worked closely with the player development coordinator, Mike McFerran, and the pitching coach, Corey Muscara. And so I’ve learned a lot and we work together and I guess people say I’m a pitching expert now, so here we are,” Nicholson said.