Matt Davidson Analysis

Mobility, Flexibility & Stability Screening

Spasms and limited control of pelvis indicates slight weakness in deep lower back and abdomen. This will affect the speed of hip extension at the end of hip rotation.

Torso disassociation was excellent, but pelvic disassociation was limited. Disassociation is the ability to stabilize one body segment while moving the other. This is the foundation of your upper body vs. lower body torque in the swing.

T-Spine flexion and extension was limited and thoracic rotation was on the low side of the “sweet” spot of mobility. I actually prefer this rotation number for a hitter because it makes it easier to take the slack out of the core in the loading mechanism.

Scapular strength was adequate but there is slight winging of both scapulas. I’m interested to what you’re doing for your upper back strength work, and we’ll talk about that in our meeting. Shoulder flexion was excellent.

Glute/Ham strength is excellent. Proprioception was outstanding which means you should be able to make mechanical adjustments easier. Internal and external rotation of both hips were at 60 degrees, which is perfect. Everything in the lower extremities checked out well.

Cervical rotation and all wrist screens were a passing score.

Force Plate Jumps

Unilateral forces between left and right legs were equal in all jumps. It seems you must do unilateral work in your strength training. Keep emphasizing that. Counter movement jumps were slightly more explosive than the squat-jumps – 125% BW vs 115% BW. This would indicate your body produces force over a shorter period of time.

Force Plate Swings

Below is video of your swing analysis. I will walk you through this explanation.

Back leg vertical force was excellent ranging from 90%-95% body weight in your back leg load. I’m looking for a number between 90%-100% there, so you are right in that range. However, the front leg stabilizes but doesn’t add to the force production. I look for the front leg to accept the back leg weight and add it’s own force on top of it. Therefore, the front leg number should double the back leg number. We have a lot to gain there – as your front leg numbers ranged from 130%-150% when we are looking for 180% or greater.

You tend to load on your whole back foot, and a lot of the pressure come from the front of your foot from the ball and the toes. We want more mid-foot to heel pressure consistently to be a direct line to your femur (big leg bone). The foot is also turned out some which reduces your back leg torque numbers. The minimum torque number we need is 30 Newtons and you were just under that at 28 N, but I prefer that number get closer to 40 N still and that can be done by having your back shoe straight ahead.

Your X-axis numbers were good for the most part. This is the speed of the energy transfer. I look for the forward advance to stay under 10% BW pressure in the back foot, which it does. When a few pitches were in, you used more force in the front shoe to retract the front hip instead of just blocking the front leg. We need to do this every time and create more space between you and the ball. This also gets your glute to fire into your landing instead of landing, relaxing the back glute, then turning. I’ll explain this on the call and make it clear to you.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

When you look at the graph below – there is a lot of room for sequencing improvement, and thus rotational speed gains. In the graph, the red line signifies your hips, the green is your torso, the blue is your front arm and the brown line is your bat. In the upper left hand corner of the photo, there is an example of an efficient graph. In efficient sequencing, each “hump” accelerates and decelerates in order, feeding the energy and adding onto it as it travels up the body.

What your graph shows is that your arms and bat are completely disconnected from your legs and torso. Thus, we aren’t adding the leg and torso forces into the bat. The arms and bat are essentially on their own. The power you are providing into the ball right now is through your 240 pound frame – you are hitting just with your body weight behind the ball. If we can improve sequencing and speed, we can use your weight, but add power through a faster bat coming through the zone.

The time to impact readings were inconsistent. They ranged from .216 to .248. Under .195 is elite for professionals. .216 would be average and .248 is on the poor side. Our goal should be to get this time down to the .200 or .205 range which is close to 1/8 of the entire flight of the ball you could wait to commit and still get to it on time.

With the blue line peaking out before the green, this shows a lack of any torque in the swing. Your arms are turning your core instead of resisting (staying back longer) to create core stretch and a tighter turn. The tighter turn increases turn speed. Your swing would be considered a “push” swing – taking your hands to the ball without the benefit of the body. Rotational speeds on the segments were slightly below average for a professional.

Another example of a pushing swing. Notice the blue line peaking out before the torso and the arms and bat are disconnected from the legs and core.

Bat Sensor and Exit Velo

When removing the outliers the bat speed numbers ranged between 57 and 62 mph. There is certain room for improvement here with improved sequencing and speed. Improved bat speed for you is more of a benefit to have to commit to the ball later versus providing additional power.

Exit velocity readings are excellent – averaging 94 mph when squared up which is excellent for a front toss pitch. So to restate, the need is for a “quicker to impact” bat versus a hotter ball – although exit velocity will still improve with bat speed gains.

Recommendations

• Slight adjustment to back foot positioning in stance for added leg torque, and loading more to the midfoot and heel versus the toe
• Improved front leg mechanics for more ground force. The retraction versus blocking of the front hip will create more space between you and the ball. This will also aid in a faster hip turn.
• Creating better sequencing through a scap load. The hands slot early neglecting any core stretch and force. We need the hands to stay back longer and the scap to stay loaded to keep the core tight. This will be the biggest difference maker on improving the time to impact metric. Rotational speeds will increase and you’ll have to commit to the ball later.

There is definite room on the mechanical side for a more efficient swing. With your frame plus added speed and decreased commit times, you will add offensive production.