Mobility Screen

Morgan showed an “S” curve in her posture during her athletic movements. This can be attributed to a natural dump of her pelvis forward (weak glutes), and/or her trap muscles being extremely tight.  Her thoracic mobility falls in the “neutral” category.  During the t-spine rotation test, she turned 65 degrees to her right side, and 55 degrees to her left side. She really struggled with the pelvic tilt test in getting to posterior tilt.  This needs to be a major focus of her movement prep plan until she can show adequate control over her pelvis.  She did pass the pelvic rotation and torso rotation tests, showing adequate range of motion and stability in both.

She barely failed the overhead squat test, but she passed the arms-behind-head squat test, pointing to a lack of ability to hold thoracic extension.  This should be a focus of her movement prep plan. Her hip and ankle mobility was adequate during this test.

Her muscles in her scapular region were under-developed, which should be a major focus of her strength plan. Her left scapula was slightly winged, which should be addressed with the PT and strength staff. During her reach, roll and lift test, she showed a good ability to stabilize the scapula during overhead movements. 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 left shoulder when she was in athletic posture. This could cause her to have a steep barrel path to the ball. Her scap retraction mobility falls in the “neutral” category on the right side and the “loose” category on her left side. Given that her thoracic mobility is “neutral”, a moderate move with her upper body is best during the load.

Her hip mobility falls in the “tight” category, as she turned 60 degrees internally on the right side, 50 degrees externally on the right side, 45 degrees internally on the left side and 55 degrees externally on the left side. She will require minimal rotation during the gather and forward advance portions of her loading mechanism. She failed to pass her single leg balance with both legs, but did decent. She held her right leg for 11 seconds and her left leg for 13 seconds.  This could possibly cause her to rush a longer loading mechanism, especially given her tight hip mobility.  Smaller lower body moves might work best for her. Her hamstring flexibility was good. During her glute bridge test she showed good stability in her core. Glute activation should be a focus of her prep plan, and given her lack of control during the pelvic tilt test, this affirms that glute strength should be a focus of her strength plan as well.

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.

Morgan loads in the toe, and pushes/ from her rear foot as she goes through her loading mechanism.  This can lead her to be rushed and start her upper body early, which causes her to make poor swing decisions as her adjustability is compromised. After she shifts her weight to her front leg, she gets an “average” rate of force production (130%-150%). A more forceful drive through her front heel would help speed up the rate of force production (ideal would be up around 180%-200%) and send energy into her pelvis. When combined with her inability to hold back heel pressure, her upper body picks up the slack that the legs are not providing, and that is why she turns her torso inward so much.  Her x-axis timing fluctuated between 40% and 100%, showing inconsistency when transferring her weight, again leading to timing issues. When paired with her K-Vest data, a lot of the upper body issues can be traced back to how she interacts with the ground.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Morgan has a “one-piece turn” style swing, with her pelvis, torso, and lead arm all firing and peaking at nearly the same time.  Her hip speeds were “below average”, peaking at 674 deg/sec.  Her torso gets a very minimal gain and peaks at 764 deg/sec, which falls under the “poor” category. This is evident by looking at her X-factor number, which shows that at first move, her torso and pelvis are only 5 degrees apart.   She showed a decent gain from her torso to lead arm, which peaked at 1078 deg/sec, again, falling in the “below average” category, and her overall kinematic speed peaked at 1797 deg/sec, which is below average.  When you pair this information with her mobility assessment, Morgan can really improve with some added stability in her upper body and core, as well as improving her motor control of her pelvis.  If she can increase her pelvis speeds, and increase her separation, her overall turn speeds and time to contact should improve as well.

Bat Sensor Data

Her bat speeds were between 61 mph and 64 mph, which is “below average”.  Her exit velocity was between 56-63 mph, which is also “below average”.  Her attack angles fell between 10-16 degrees, which is on the higher end of what we like to see (4 to 12 degrees is ideal).  Her time to contact was 0.17 seconds, which is slower than we like to see, and her rotational acceleration fell between 11-15 Gs, which is “average”.  With added rotary stability and separation, TTC and RA should be the areas that show the most improvement. Her vertical bat angles fell between -25 and -36 degrees, which a good number for pitches that are up in the zone.  We generally like to see between -20 and -30 degrees on pitches up in the zone, and between -30 and -40 on pitches down in the zone.

Summary & Recommendations

• Morgan needs to increase rotary stability, primarily by increasing glute strength and scapular stability.
• She needs to increase hip/torso separation, so disassociation drills should be done daily in prep.
• She needs to decrease time to impact.  This can be done in several ways:  holding back heel pressure throughout her loading mechanism, increasing her rate of force production, and increasing hip/shoulder separation.
• Mechanically, she needs to decrease her inward torso turn, instead better holding a scap load to create separation.  The check swing series should help clean up the scap load. She also needs to create and hold back heel pressure throughout the loading mechanism.
• The medicine ball series should help assist in force production rate and overall turn speed.