Mobility, Flexibility & Stability Screening

Overall, Max is in the “neutral” category for movement. Max’s thoracic mobility falls in the “neutral” category, approaching “tight”. He turned 45 degrees to his right and 45degrees to his left. His hip mobility falls in the “neutral” category, as well. His right hip IR was 45 degrees, and right hip ER was 40 degrees. His left hip IR was 45 degrees and ER was 45 degrees. In terms of patterning his loading mechanism, moderate moves will suit him best.

He failed the pelvic tilt test, which may limit his ability to quickly transfer energy from the legs to the core. He passed the torso rotation test, but failed the pelvic rotation test, indicating a lack of upper body stability. This should be a focus of his mobility/prep plan, as proper disassociation will lead to proper sequencing.

He failed the overhead squat test due to lack of thoracic flexion and extension. He passed the squat test when his arms were behind his head, indicating proper hip, knee, and ankle mobility.

His scapular region is under-developed and should be a major focus of his strength plan. His scapular retraction was 3.5” on the right side, and 3.5” on the left side, which would put him in the “tight” category. He will require a low range of motion to get into a scap load. Shoulder flexion was good, and external rotation was good. He was hyper mobile in terms of internal rotation. He passed his reach, roll, and lift test, but had instability in the scapula.

His lower body showed good stability during the glute bridge test, however he showed minor core instability during anti-rotation. This should be a focus of his strength plan. He failed his single leg balance test on both legs on the first try, which points to a lack of lower leg stability. This can affect his loading mechanism, because if he is on one leg for an extended period of time, he could rush the loading mechanism which would affect timing. Also, instability in the landing leg will inhibit quick energy transfer from the ground. He showed good flexibility in his hamstrings, and proper ability to hip hinge during the toe touch test.

All wrist, forearm, and cervical screens were a pass. His side bend numbers were tight, reaching 30 degrees on the right and 25 degrees on the left side. This may affect his ability to correctly tilt to low pitches.

Force Plate Jumps

Max is fairly balanced unilaterally.  The bias was minimal at 1-2% each jump. Counter movement jumps were much less explosive than the squat – pause jumps at 245% BW for CMJ and 278% for SJ. This shows his body prefers to conduct speed over a longer amount of time.

Force Plate Swings

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

Max loads into his whole foot but still creates an adequate amount of back leg loading force at 104% BW, which is outstanding. He holds force into the ground very well in his positive move. He creates minimal hip counter rotation during that forward move so his torque number is slightly lower at 11 Nm of torque. Brooks’ creates speed in all phases but has a slow rate of force production. He tested at 171 Nm of torque force. Horizontal force was excellent at 72% of BW but with a low rate of force production. Z axis vertical force numbers were lower than the horizontal and torque forces but still very strong at 172% BW. Only 2% of guys so far create speed in every vector. X-axis timing was the biggest issue in his ground force. It showed he’s pushing away from his back leg and getting into his front leg before rotation. This limits adjustability in the swing. He needs to gain ground while still attached to the ground with his back shoe.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Max creates slightly below average turn speeds but can add to it still, as well as adjustability, with a longer scapular load instead of turning his torso inward so much. His hips and core are connected, and the arms and bat are connected, but those two big segments are disconnected. The core instability from the movement screen showed up in the K-vest data with limited speed gains from hips to torso.  Hip rotational speeds are at 710 deg/sec which rates as “good” on Real Speed graph. Energy transfer to the core was “fair” at over 889 deg/second. Lead arm values lag are good though would be better if connected to the core (1159 deg/sec). Holding the scap longer will give him additional adjustability. Wrist speeds are “fair” at 1500 deg/sec.

Bat Sensor Data

Max’s bat speed was “fair” at 62-65mph. Rotational acceleration was “fair” at 9-11 G’s..  Time to impact was “average” at 170 milliseconds. Attack angles to the ball were good at 9-11 degrees. From the graphic below, you can see he slightly cuts off his arc early out of the zone, which is to be expected if the swing isn’t sequenced.

Summary & Recommendations

• Gain ground while staying connected to ground with back shoe. This will lead to adjustability in his swing.

• Watch torso inward rotation. Try to create scap load instead of torso rotation to improve sequencing.