Norton's new sports facility will host the Louisville Slugger Hitting Science Center

Norton Healthcare’s new Sports Health Performance & Wellness Center, located on Westport Road, will host a Louisville Slugger initiative which uses technology to pair baseball players with bats that match their swing style. The Louisville Slugger Hitting Science Center will be a hub for exercise scientists and athletes. The hitting center analyzes baseball player data including swing and reaction time to pair them with bats based on their hitting style. This includes barrel size, handle style, length, weight distribution and type of wood. The hitting center will welcome professional and amateur players and offer various training programs. Chad Miller, founder of the Louisville Slugger Hitting Science Center, has a background at the intersections of baseball, medical devices and technology. Miller said beyond scientific bat fitting, the Hitting Science Center also educates athletes on their strengths and weaknesses. Miller said the core of his business is the educational and instructional arm of Louisville Slugger. “We don’t make your bat, we make you swing it better,” Miller said. The hitting center wing of Norton’s new facility will be about 8,500 square feet. It will include a pitching lab, indoor dirt mound, batting tunnels and virtual batting cage. It will utilize kinetic sequencing technologies and host a full-scale biomechanics lab. Though the hitting center is housed in the Norton facility, it is a separate entity. That said, everyone who joins the hitting center will have a monthly membership and access to the Norton facility. The new Norton Sports Health Performance and Wellness Center is in a shopping center at 9451 Westport Road, in space previously occupied by Louisville Athletic Club. According to Jefferson County Property Valuation Administrator records, the shopping center is owned by Goose Creek Properties. This new location will replace the current Norton sports performance center that is in leased space at 12101 Sycamore Station Place. The new space is considerably larger than the old, at about 40,000 square feet. The extra space will be used to include more resources for both the performance and wellness divisions. Within the next few years, Norton expects to acquire additional square footage to expand rehabilitative resources. Scott Watkins, Norton Healthcare senior vice president of operations, said the previous space catered mainly to athletes and could seem intimidating to some. The new center will allow for casual exercisers as well. It is a facility both for Norton patients and standard gym users. “Everybody is welcome,” Watkins said. The new location will help the facility attract more people and families, Watkins said. Construction on the project began in mid-September. The facility is expected to open in January 2022. Costs for refitting the space are about $800,000. Norton leasing part of its space to the Slugger initiative is the first of its kind, but Watkins said Norton would be open to hosting other subtenants in the future. But within the current space there isn’t enough room for additional tenants. “If this model works, we are we are not opposed to looking at this somewhere else in the Louisville market,” Watkins said.