Mobility Screen

Lexi’s thoracic mobility falls in the “hyper mobile” category.  During the t-spine rotation test, she turned 75 degrees to her right side, and 80 degrees to her left side. She showed good motor control in the disassociation of her pelvis and torso during the pelvic tilt, pelvic rotation, and torso rotation tests. However, she showed a lack of stability in both her upper back and glutes during the tests.  These should be a major focus of her strength plan.

She was able to pass her squat test with her arms behind her head, but she failed the overhead squat test, which points to an inability to hold thoracic extension.  This should be a focus of her mobility/prep plan. She showed good hip and ankle mobility during the test.

Her scapular region was under-developed on her right side, which should be a focus of her strength plan.  She showed adequate muscular development on her left side, and since she is a right handed thrower, the lack of development should be flagged for a possible injury risk, particularly during throwing. During her reach, roll and lift test, she showed good stability of the scapula in both arms during overhead movement. She showed adequate mobility in external and internal rotation of the shoulder, but a lack of strength kept her from holding external rotation in her shoulders when she was in athletic posture.  This can cause her to be steep to the ball if strength does not improve. Her scap retraction mobility falls in the “loose” category, and given that her thoracic mobility is “loose”, she will require a larger upper body loading mechanism during the forward advance.

Her hip mobility falls in the “neutral” category, as she turned 50 degrees internally on the right side, 65 degrees externally on the right side, 65 degrees internally on the left side, and 50 degrees externally on the left side. She failed to pass her single leg balance on both legs, with her right leg only holding for 6 seconds. Her loading mechanism should not include significant time spent on one leg until her lower leg stability improves.  Single leg, unilateral movements should be included in her strength/prep plan. Her left leg was able to hold longer, at 14 seconds, suggesting that her stability in her lower leg was good on her plant leg. This will lead to quicker energy transfers through her front leg. Her hamstring flexibility was limited in her right leg, which should be addressed during her prep plan.  Poor hamstring flexibility often leads to posture loss during the turn. During her glute bridge test she showed instability in her core. Glute activation should be a focus of her prep plan, and given her lack of stability during the pelvic control tests, glute strength should be a focus of her strength plan as well.  Core instability was more present on one side than the other during the bridge test, which suggest anti-rotation exercises should be a focus of her strength plan as well. Given that she is a loose mover in her upper body, core stability is incredibly important to control the larger moves that she will require during her load.

All wrist, forearm, and cervical screens were passed showing no limitations.  She also showed greater than 30 degrees of range to each side during the side bend test, which shows no thoracic limitation when bending side to side.

Force Plate Swings

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

Lexi has great force plate metrics that show good efficiency. She holds her pressure well in her rear foot and creates good torque (48-56 N), and has an above average rate of force production with her front leg, both horizontally (71%-75%) and vertically (167%-169%).  Her area of improvement would be on the x-axis timing, where her weight leaves her back foot too soon during the load.  This will hinder adjustability. If she can hold her back foot pressure during the forward advance longer, adjustability will improve.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Lexi has a swing that is decently efficient, but can definitely improve with added rotary stability.  Her pelvis speeds peak at 642 deg/sec, which calculates to a real speed of 20.54.  This falls in the “below average” category.  She gets a good gain to her torso, which peaks at 997 deg/sec, which factors to a real speed of 40.88, which again is “below average”.  She gets a good gain again from her torso to lead arm, and then gets to an overall hand speed of 1955 deg/sec, which is slightly above average.  When we couple this data with her mobility assessment, we see rotary stability as being the reason for the below average pelvis and torso speeds, because her speed gains are good.  This should help decrease her time to contact.

Bat Sensor Data

Her bat speed peaked at 67.2 mph, and averaged 64.2 mph, which is “average”.  Her exit velocity peaked at 64.8 mph, which is “below average”. Her attack angles were good, sitting at 13 degrees on average.  Her average time to contact was 0.165 seconds, which is on the low end of “average.” Her rotational acceleration averaged 7.4, which is “below average”. With her improved rotary stability and added strength, we should see her TTC and RA improve, as well as her overall bat speed. Her vertical bat angle was good, with the average VBA at -36.5 degrees. We like to see between -20 and -30 on pitches up in the zone and between -30 and -40 on pitches down in the zone.

Summary & Recommendations

• She needs to improve her overall strength and stability to be able to manage her hyper-mobility.
• She could benefit from the check swing series and the med ball series to improve overall stability and deceleration rates.