A decade on the Plains: Gretchen Oliver reflects on time inspiring students

Gretchen Oliver’s life motto is “be better tomorrow,” and it’s a motto that she has been striving to instill in her students in Auburn University’s School of Kinesiology for the past decade.

She earned her undergraduate degree in kinesiology at the University of Arkansas and became certified as an athletic trainer. Upon graduation, Oliver worked with football players, swimmers and divers, and spent a lot of time studying the shoulder. She returned to Arkansas to pursue a master’s degree and was exposed for the first time to fastpitch softball in the Southeastern Conference.

Oliver was intrigued by the windmill softball pitch and realized that at the time, there was little to no research on softball at all. At the same time, she found in her work as an athletic trainer that she was easily able to diagnose injuries but was left wondering what could be done to prevent the injuries from happening in the first place. Before she was finished with her master’s degree, Oliver already knew she would be enrolling in a Ph.D. program focusing on biomechanics.

“I recognized the necessity of expanding my knowledge, as I found it relatively straightforward to diagnose the injury," said Oliver. "However, I questioned what measures were being implemented to prevent its recurrence, particularly considering that many injuries are primarily a result of significant overuse. This is when I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in biomechanics.”

At Texas Woman’s University, Oliver pursued her doctorate in biomechanics and wrote her dissertation on the windmill softball pitch. She began teaching a rehab class and discovered her desire to ask questions and solve problems — a desire to engage in meaningful research.

When Oliver was approached by Mary Rudisill, director of Auburn’s School of Kinesiology, and offered her own lab space on the Plains, the research opportunity was too great to turn down. In the spring of 2013, Oliver developed the Sports Medicine and Movement Lab (SMML) to focus on injury prevention and performance enhancement in youth throwing athletes.

The SMML uses motion analysis and functional assessments to gather data and can provide detailed feedback to athletes to help reduce the risk of injury and improve performance. Over the past decade, Oliver and her students have worked with baseball and softball players on every level, from youth to professional, including collegiate athletes from all over the country.

In 2023, under Oliver’s direction, Auburn baseball installed KinaTrax in Plainsman Park, becoming one of the very first NCAA programs to utilize the markerless motion capture technology. KinaTrax utilizes a 16 camera-operating system focused on the pitcher’s mound and homeplate to provide 3D imaging and biomechanical analysis from live, in-game situations.

“This technology represents the future of in-game data collection and positions us at the forefront of understanding the relationships between in-game and in-lab data,” said Oliver. “It’s really cool to be able to look at the same person from both a lab perspective and an in-game perspective.”

Since the inception of the lab, Oliver has placed high priority on mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students with a passion for research in the realm of sports medicine and movement. Through a system based on support and accountability, Oliver not only produces exceptional researchers but consistently contributes new data to various fields of study.

“I am for all students in my lab to develop into well-rounded individuals, researchers, and professionals. This encompasses the importance of teamwork, conducting research, analyzing data, mentoring peers, setting and achieving goals, and building self-confidence as researchers and professionals in the field,” said Oliver.

Students mentored by Oliver have gone on to enter medical school and physical therapy school, and some have even been accepted in the National Institute of Health’s training program. Her students have authored peer-reviewed publications and conducted nearly 100 academic presentations. Oliver’s impact on students’ intellectual and professional development cannot be understated.

“Dr. Oliver’s passion for research and exceptional mentoring skills made a huge impact on me during my time at Auburn,” said Regan Shaw, a former mentee who researched injury prevention in softball athletes in Oliver’s lab.

Oliver’s influence on the field of biomechanics is international, and she is recognized as one of the foremost authorities of upper extremity motion in the world. She is the leading researcher in softball pitching and injury prevention and has an international reputation in upper extremity research and its application to reducing sport injury.

She has been invited to present her research and work with teams of physicians around the globe and has authored nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications and given over 400 scholarly presentations. In August, Oliver completed her tenure as the president of the American Baseball Biomechanics Society and will now focus on serving the society as past president. She was invited to the 2024 International Society of Biomechanics in Sports Conference in Salzburg, Austria, and was named an ISBS fellow, the latest honor in a year that has proven to be award-winning for Oliver.

At the Andrews Injuries in Baseball Course, the American Sports Medicine Institute gave her the Dale Baker Career Service Award, which recognizes individuals who have provided a career of exemplary care to baseball players. She was also given the Provost Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring, the College of Education 2024 Outstanding Faculty Award for Research and the College of Education Dean’s Leadership Award.

It has been an extremely successful 10 years for Oliver in Auburn’s College of Education, but when asked about her accomplishments and what is next for her program, she gives an answer that personifies who she is as a researcher and an educator.

“If we’re still celebrating what we did yesterday, we’re not moving forward, right?”

Oliver hopes to keep the metaphorical fire burning in her lab and to keep pursuing her intellectual curiosities so she can instill the same mentality in all the students she mentors.

To learn more about Oliver’s lab, please visit the Sports Medicine and Movement Lab webpage, and visit this page to learn more about research opportunities in the School of Kinesiology.