Casey Upperman Combines Direct Current Therapy and Rotational Athlete Training
When a pitcher walks into Rotational Athlete Solutions in Scottsdale, Arizona, they’re not just getting a throwing program, they’re stepping into a full rotational athlete training system built to answer the hardest questions in baseball:
Why do some talented arms stall out?
Why do some careers end early?
Why do others keep climbing?
Founded by former pro pitcher and ex–Oakland A’s Director of Throwing Performance Casey Upperman, Rotational Athlete Solutions blends high-end data, individualized programming, and NerveOTX direct current therapy to attack those questions head-on. Their model is simple but powerful: assess deeply, train precisely, recover intelligently, and build a foundation for long-term baseball pitching performance and injury prevention for pitchers.
This isn’t a “just throw harder” shop. It’s a place where biomechanics, tech, and NerveOTX direct current therapy work together to help rotational athletes—from high school arms to big leaguers—stay healthier, move better, and perform longer.
From Pro Pitcher to Rotational Athlete Solutions Founder
Upperman’s playing career ended with more questions than answers. Like many pitchers, he felt there were “unanswered questions” about why injuries happen, why some players with big talent never make it, and what separates durable arms from fragile ones. Instead of walking away frustrated, he built Rotational Athlete Solutions in 2018 to chase those answers through smarter rotational athlete training.
Born and raised in Phoenix, he came home after pro ball and front-office experience with the A’s to create a facility specifically designed for pitchers and other rotational athletes. Today, Rotational Athlete Solutions works with:
- High school and college pitchers (both in-facility and remote)
- Professional pitchers during their off-season
- Position players, quarterbacks, golfers, and other rotational athletes
The mission: use technology, coaching, and NerveOTX DCT to build repeatable baseball pitching performance without sacrificing health. That focus on both performance and injury prevention is what separates the facility from generic “velocity factories.”
Why Rotational Athlete Training Needs More Than Just Mechanics
Most pitchers show up saying the same three things when asked why they came:
- “I want more velocity.”
- “I want a better breaking ball or overall process.”
- “I want better health, durability, and recovery.”
At Rotational Athlete Solutions, those goals drive the entire assessment and programming process. Rather than hammering mechanics in isolation, the staff looks at the entire system that supports baseball pitching performance:
- Movement quality
- Strength and power
- Arm care metrics
- Recovery capacity
Then they layer in NerveOTX DCT to address weak links the eye can’t see. That’s the key: training here isn’t just about how a delivery looks; it’s about how the body and nervous system are actually functioning under load. That’s also where real injury prevention begins—before the MRI, not after.
A World-Class Intake: How They Assess Pitching Performance
Every new pitcher goes through a detailed intake assessment that feels more like a pro performance lab than a typical lesson. The process at Rotational Athlete Solutions includes:
- Movement screen with tests specific to high-level rotational athletes
- Arm care testing (internal/external rotation, scaption strength, pinch grip, ER/IR range of motion)
- Review of their current pre-throw routine (which is often… nothing)
- Bullpen session on TrackMan with high-speed cameras
- Proteus testing for power, speed, and stop-start ability across 14–15 different patterns
Only after all that does the staff, medical, strength, and performance coaches sit down with the data and connect it back to the pitcher’s top three goals. This is where pitching performance metrics cross paths with injury prevention, and where NerveOTX direct current therapy becomes a targeted tool instead of a random add-on.
NerveOTX Direct Current Therapy vs. Traditional Recovery Tools
Before adopting direct current therapy, the facility used other common devices like Mark Pro. Once they saw what true direct current could do, they started phasing those out. In Upperman’s words, the comparison isn’t even close.
Traditional devices are often limited to passive recovery—they may improve circulation or give a temporary “better” feeling, but they don’t fundamentally change how the nervous system controls movement. NerveOTX DCT, on the other hand, allows athletes to:
- Actively move in sport-specific patterns while under current
- Identify weak links and hidden dysfunction through a “discovery phase”
- Use the same technology for performance, recovery, and injury prevention
That’s why Rotational Athlete Solutions leans so heavily into direct current therapy as part of their rotational athlete training system. It doesn’t replace coaching or strength work—it amplifies both.
The “Gumby” Moment: A Back Case That Changed Everything
One of the facility’s biggest aha moments came when they first started experimenting with direct current therapy on their own staff. Their Director of Pitching, Kenny, was a former pro with significant back issues, so stiff he could barely bend past his hips.
They used the direct current therapy device in “discovery mode” to scan his lower back and surrounding tissue, found a major hotspot, and ran him through a few specific movements under current. Within minutes, he went from rigid to “Gumby”; bending freely, moving without the same restriction, and even wanting to get back on the mound.
For Upperman, this was a turning point. After years of seeing therapists and trying different methods with limited success, Kenny experienced a dramatic change in a single session. That moment cemented direct current therapy as a core tool at Rotational Athlete Solutions, not just a gimmick. If it could unlock stubborn patterns in a beat-up ex-pitcher, what could it do for active arms?
Using NerveOTX to Unlock Performance
One of the most powerful on-field examples involved a pitcher who struggled to decelerate his pelvis. It wasn’t just a lead-leg block issue; his entire pelvic deceleration pattern was off, and it showed up as problems up the chain—into his thoracic spine and overall sequencing.
Coaches could see the issue on high-speed video, but the “why” behind it was still an educated guess. That’s where direct current therapy came in. During a discovery session on the mound, they scanned the pitcher and found a muscle group he had essentially never “met” before, one that wasn’t doing its job in the deceleration pattern.
From there, the staff at Rotational Athlete Solutions:
- Activated that area using direct current therapy
- Built drills to reinforce the pattern with the current on
- Integrated the new feel into his mound work
The results?
- Velocity jumped from 88–90 mph to 92–94, touching 95
- Measured elbow torque went down, not up
That’s the sweet spot: better pitching performance with less joint stress, and a big win for injury prevention. All because rotational athlete training was combined with precise NerveOTX direct current therapy rather than guesswork alone.
Sierra’s Approach: Forearm Soreness, Rotator Cuffs, and Reality Checks
Performance coach Sierra brings another powerful perspective. She sees a constant stream of high school and college pitchers who show up with biceps or forearm soreness and assume the problem is “right here where it hurts.” Using the search protocol with direct current therapy, she often finds the first major hotspot not in the forearm or biceps at all, but in:
- Rotator cuff muscles
- Pec region
- Front deltoid
That’s where the “chain” conversation becomes real. She explains to athletes that everything in rotational athlete training works up and down the chain—what they feel is rarely the whole story. Weak or overworked small stabilizers around the shoulder can easily show up as forearm pain during high-intent throwing.
Her typical weekly structure:
- Post-bullpen: Strength session with direct current therapy on (keeping high days high)
- Same day: Recovery session after strength work
- Later in the week: Standalone recovery session
This rhythm aligns NerveOTX DCT with the demands of pitching performance and creates built-in injury prevention rather than emergency troubleshooting.
Hand Baths, Foot Baths, and Nervous System Recovery
For some athletes, especially pros who have heard about it from teammates, the idea of hand baths and foot baths with direct current therapy is both intriguing and intimidating. At Rotational Athlete Solutions, they lean into it carefully and intelligently.
One pro pitcher requested a hand bath recovery session after hearing about it from another player. Sierra walked him through it: hand in the water, gentle direct current therapy flowing, followed by two or three simple exercises while immersed. He reported feeling the current all the way to his fingertips and a deep sense of “reset” afterward.
Foot baths, similarly, give pitchers a way to address lower-leg fatigue, foot and ankle stiffness, and systemic nervous-system overload after heavy volumes of throwing and training. Within the overall rotational athlete training model, these baths become targeted tools for sports performance, nervous system recovery, and injury prevention.
Beyond Pitchers: Rotational Athlete Training for Quarterbacks and More
Even though Rotational Athlete Solutions is built around pitchers, the underlying principles of rotational athlete training and NerveOTX direct current therapy apply to any sport that relies on rotational power:
- Quarterbacks
- Tennis players
- Golfers
- Catchers and outfielders
Upperman’s background includes mentorship under legendary throwing coach Tom House, known for working with top NFL quarterbacks and MLB pitchers. Many of the foundations and protocols at Rotational Athlete Solutions come from that same lineage, simply tailored to the athlete in front of them.
Add NevrveOTX DCT to that framework, and you get a system that can support rotational athletes of all types—while keeping the core goals the same: improved performance, smarter recovery, and better injury prevention for pitchers and other throwing athletes.
Why Direct Current Therapy Belongs in Modern Pitching Development
When you zoom out, a clear picture emerges:
- Baseball pitching performance isn’t just about throwing harder—it’s about how efficiently the entire body moves and decelerates.
- Rotational athlete training has to address weak links, not just repeat the same drills.
- Injury prevention for pitchers must be proactive, not reactive.
- Direct current therapy is uniquely positioned to connect all three.
At Rotational Athlete Solutions, direct current therapy is not a side show—it’s integrated into assessment, training, and recovery. It helps coaches validate what they see on video, uncover hidden dysfunctions, and give athletes a feel for positions they’ve never truly owned before. It also gives pitchers a tangible way to manage their workload, keep high days high, and support their nervous system in between.
For serious pitchers and rotational athletes, that’s the new standard.
If you’re ready to move beyond guesswork and build real baseball pitching performance with long-term injury prevention, take a page out of Rotational Athlete Solutions’ playbook. Look for ways to integrate NerveOTX direct current therapy into your rotational athlete training, your assessment process, and your weekly recovery—so you’re not just chasing velocity today, but protecting your career for tomorrow.
