Mobility Screen

Jordan is categorized as a “neutral” mover.  He sets up in a “neutral spine angle in his athletic stance.  In his pelvic tilt screen he was unable to create anterior or posterior tilt.  This suggest a lack of pelvic control and/or a weakness in his lower abdominals or lower back.  Jordan was limited in his pelvic dissociation screen but showed improvement with assistance (we held his shoulders).  This suggest there is some rotary instability in the torso.  His hips were noted as swaying versus rotating.  Jordan was also limited in his torso disassociation screen, but showed improvement with assistance (we held his hips).  This suggests lower body instability.  He was limited in his overhead squat screen but passed the squat screen with his hands behind his neck.  This is an indication of limited thoracic extension and or shoulder flexion.  Jordan was limited in his toe touch screen unilaterally coming up 2 inches short on the right leg and 3 inches short on the left leg.

Jordan created 50 degrees of thoracic rotation to the right and 45 degrees of thoracic rotation to the left.  He created 35 degrees of thoracic side bend to the left and 35 degrees of thoracic side bend to the right.  He was able to pull his elbows back 3 inches in his scapular retraction screen.  We were able to get 4 fingers under each scapula in the scapular palpation screen.  It was also noted that he was winged in the scapula.  In his lower quarter rotation screen he created 45 degrees of right internal hip rotation and 30 degrees of right external hip rotation.  He was at 40 degrees of left internal hip rotation and 35 degrees of left external hip rotation.

Jordan has adequate range of motion internally and externally in his right and left shoulders.  In his lat length, shoulder flexion screen he was slightly limited with the ability to raise his arms overhead to just past his nose.  In his reach, roll, and lift screen he was able to pass his right arm which shows good scapular strength in the upward rotation position.  He was however limited in his left as he was able to lift but not hold.  Jordan passes all impingement, wrist deviation, wrist flexion/extension, forearm supination/pronation, and cervical screens.

Jordan was able to glance on his right leg for 12 seconds in the single leg balance screen (eyes closed).  He was limited on his left only managing 6 seconds.  In his single leg glute bridge screen he was able to hold up but did show show some right leg weakness.  He also noted that he felt muscle activation through the quad.

Force Plate Swings

Below is video of the swing analysis. I will walk you through this matched up with video.

Jordan creates a heel pressure load in his rear foot.  He creates 102% body weight vertically in his rear leg, but starts to extend his back knee as he pushes out of the ground in his advance.  This is seen in the force plate video as the number immediately trails off below 90%.  He creates 45 N of torque in the rear leg, which means he’s creating good counter rotation against the rear leg.  Jordan creates 130% body weight vertically (941 N) in his lead leg.  This number is low as is his rate of force production vertically.  He creates 64% body weight horizontally (464 N).  This is closer to the output we would like to see and comes with a better rate of force production.  His x-axis timing is about 25% efficient, which tells us he’s landing and then turning versus turning into his landing.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

The 3d readings are on kinematic sequencing and rotational speeds.

Jordan presents as an in sequence swing (pelvis, torso, upper arm, wrist).  He does a good job managing the amount of counter rotation he creates, but lacked the ability to take the slack out of his torso headed into launch.  This was evident as his torso was still counter rotating as he launched.  Torso at heel strike was -20.76 degrees and into launch was -21.36 degrees.  His pelvic speed was 616 deg/sec, which is slightly slow for his hip size.  It did have a slow acceleration and deceleration pattern.  By correcting that he will be able to launch later and move energy quicker through his sequence.  His torso speed was 936 deg/sec.  This speed is good, but as noted earlier it is still trying to take the slack out heading into launch.  This suggest lack of scapular load and is evident as his upper arm peak speed was 1073 deg/sec, which is a small gain.  A better scapular load will increase the amount of speed transfer and help take out the additional slack from the torso.  His wrist speed was 1946 deg/sec.

Bat Sensor Data

Jordan’s bat speeds were 54-59 mph.  His time to impact was 150-180 milliseconds, which is a broad window that generally suggests an athlete is having timing issues.  Time to impact is seen through transfer speeds as well as contact point in the zone.  His rotational acceleration were between 11-16 G’s, which suggest an decently tight turn.  His attack angles were 12-19 degrees which are consistent with incoming ball flight patterns.  His vertical bat angles are -19 to -35 degrees which are also in a good range.  We look for -20 to -30 at the top of the zone and -30 to -40 at the bottom of the zone.

Summary & Recommendations

• Dead bug progression to improve lower abdominal strength and pelvic control.

• Anti-rotational work to improve rotary stability.

• Improve overall force production and rate of force production. This should be done in the weight room (work bilaterally and unilaterally).  We also like to use a medicine ball throw routine to assist this.

• He has a smaller range of thoracic rotation which means it will take less time and distance to take the slack out of his torso, but this needs to be worked as he is currently not taking the slack out (might be due to the lack of overall core strength and rotary stability).

• Time to impact is a concern but should be assisted by increasing rate of force production and utilizing a good scapular load to assist in taking the slack out of his torso in his advance.