Mobility Screen

Tyler is categorized as a “neutral” mover.  He sets up in an “S” posture spine position in his athletic stance.  In his pelvic tilt screen he was able to create posterior tilt but not anterior tilt.  This is common in athletes that sit in an “S” posture with the pelvis already into anterior tilt.  In his pelvic disassociation screen he was limited but showed improvement with assistance (we held his shoulders).  This shows a lack of rotary stability, a good anti-rotation program should help this.  He was also limited and showed improvement in his torso disassociation screen.  This suggests some rotary instability in the lower half as well.  He passed his over head squat screen and his toe touch screen. 

Tyler created 55 degrees of thoracic rotation to the right and 55 degrees of thoracic rotation to the left.  In his thoracic side bend screen he was able to create 50 degrees of bend to the right and 50 degrees of bend to the left.  In his scapular retraction screen he was able to pull his elbows rearward 7 inches.  We were able to get 4 fingers under his scapula in the scapular palpation screen suggesting some weakness in the muscles around the scapula.  The weakness and the wide range of scapular retraction makes a scapular load difficult.  In his lower quarter rotation screen he created 50 degrees of right internal hip rotation and 20 degrees of right external hip rotation.  He created 40 degrees of left internal hip rotation and 30 degrees of left external hip rotation. 

Tyler showed adequate range of motion both internally and externally in his right and left shoulders.  In his lat length/shoulder flexion screen he was able to raise his arms overhead and touch the wall.  He passed his reach, roll, and lift screen showing good scapular strength in an upward rotated position.  He passed all impingement, wrist deviation, wrist flexion/extension, forearm supination/pronation, and cervical screens.

Tyler was able to balance on his right leg for 6 seconds in his single leg balance screen (eyes closed).  He was able to balance for 12 seconds on his left leg.  Tyler passed his single leg glute bridge screen but did show some core instability.

Force Plate Swings

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

Tyler creates a ball of foot pressure load.  We wan to see a more heel centric load.  He creates 100% body weight (682 N) in vertical force in his rear leg and maintains that well during his advance forward.  He creates 50 N in rear leg torque which tells us there is a good counter move into the rear leg.  He creates 151% of his body weight in rear leg vertical force.  This overall number is low as is his rate of force development.  In his front leg horizontal force he generates 84% body weight (569 N).  This is a good overall number but a slow rate of force development.  His x-axis timing is about 30% which tells us he is transferring weight off the back side without the front side being able to accept it.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Tyler presents as an out of sequence swing pattern (torso, upper arm, pelvis, wrist).  Of note is that he has a lot of inward rotation of the torso.  Into heel strike he is inwardly rotated -38.11 degrees.  As he goes into the launch of his swing he is -39.97 degrees inwardly rotated.  He is still inwardly rotating as he launches to take out the excess slack in his torso.  A better scapular load will assist in taking out the slack before launch.  Tyler creates 591 deg/sec. of pelvic speed. This number is low for his hip size.  He also shows a slow deceleration pattern in the pelvis.  The torso speed is 714 deg/sec., which is also low and due to the fact he was still taking slack out of the torso as he fired.  The upper arm speed is 832 deg/sec., which again is a small gain and indicative of a lack of scapular load to transfer energy from the torso to the arms.  His wrist speed is 1660 deg/sec. but also comes with a slower time to impact due to having to work around the torso. 

Bat Sensor Data

Tyler’s bat speeds are 54-55 mph.  His time to impact is 170 milliseconds, which is on the slow side.  This is due to the lack of scapular load and the arms trying to accelerate around the body.  His rotational acceleration is 5-8 G’s which tells us there is some looseness in the turn.  His attack angles are 6-9 degrees which are lower than we would like to see for ball flight patterns.  His vertical bat angles are -32 to -42 degrees, which are in a good window.  We like to see -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 help improve lower abdominal strength and put him back into a more neutral spine position (currently sits in an “S” position).

• Anti-rotational work to improve rotary stability.

• Overall force production and rate of force production gains in the weight room (both bilaterally and unilaterally).  We like to use a rotational medicine ball program for this as well.

• Create a better scapular load to assist in taking the slack out of his torso.

• Time to impact is an issue that should be helped with a better scapular load.

• Bat path attack angles should be monitored as he is steep now in his current push pattern (should improve with ability to create a scapular load).