Driving baseball performance in Texas

When COVID shut down MLB spring training last year, the Houston Astros’ lefthanded pitcher Brooks Raley looked to the HUSTLE3 training facility in College Station, Texas.

The 7,800-square-foot facility has the latest technology, which tracks the spin rate, velocity, and pitch locations during practice. In addition to professional athletes, the facility trains baseball and softball players age 8 through 18 and college athletes.

Founded in 2017 by Dr. Rocky Bilhartz, an interventional cardiologist who’s fascinated by human performance, HUSTLE3 was inspired by his late father, Dr. Terry Bilhartz.

While coaching his son and others in little league, the senior Bilhartz would say: “Hustle, hustle, hustle!” and the name HUSTLE3 or H3 was born.

“It’s a way to explain what we do, in sports as well as in life,” Bilhartz said.

Located about 1 ½ hours from Houston, Bilhartz knew he wanted to use Portolite Pitching Mounds while building his facility, which includes 104,000 square feet of lighted, multi-purpose fields with artificial turf.

“You need industrial strength when you’ve got competitive athletes using it all the time,” Bilhartz said. “To be honest, they’ve been great for us, very durable, some of the game mounds sit outside in the Texas heat all year round.”

Six Portolite two-piece practice mounds are in the bullpen because of how easy they are to break down and move. HUSTLE3 coaches will line Portolite’s practice mounds up for group lessons, allowing pitchers to compete not just with themselves but each other.

In addition to lessons, HUSTLE3 members compete on leader boards and use virtual technology to track swings and body rotation for athletes to optimize their performance.

That also includes batting and physical skills such as balance and depth perception. In one example, a machine shoots ping-pong balls with various spins and speeds that players catch with alternating hands while maintaining a balanced core.

"By using video analysis and technology that records and measures analytical metrics in athletes during competitive, group-based training sessions, you can drive excellence in human performance more efficiently," Bilhartz said.

Portolite Pitching Mound’s 10-year limited warranty says it all. Portolite has set the standard in lightweight, durable and portable pitching mounds since 1992.