Mobility Screen

Ethan is categorized as a “loose” mover.  He sets up in a neutral spine position in his athletic stance.  In his pelvic tilt screen he was unable to create anterior or posterior tilt.  This indicated poor pelvic control and/or lower abdominal, lower back weakness.  He was limited in his pelvic disassociation screen but showed improvement with assistance (we held his shoulders).  This indicates some rotary stability issues.  He passed his torso disassociation screen.  He passed his overhead squat screen.  He was limited in his toe touch bilaterally.  He was also limited unilaterally in both legs respectively. 

Ethan created 75 degrees of thoracic rotation to the right and 70 degrees of thoracic rotation to the left.  In his thoracic side bend screen he was able to tilt to the right 45 degrees and able to tilt to the left 45 degrees.  In his scapular retraction screen he was able to pull his elbows rearward 6 inches.  In his scapular palpation screen we were able to get 4 fingers under his scapulas.  This shows poor scapular positioning and weakness around the scapulas.  It was noted he winged in both scapulas.  This is an indication that he will need some strengthening in that area.  The thoracic rotation capabilities with a large scapular retraction and scapular weakness will need a larger loading mechanism and more time to allow for the slack to be taken out.  In his lower quarter rotation screen he created 70 degrees of right internal hip rotation and 65 degrees of right external hip rotation. He created 70 degrees of left internal hip rotation and 80 degrees of left external hip rotation. 

Ethan has adequate range of motion internally and externally in his right and left shoulders.  He passed his lat length/shoulder flexion screen by raising his arms overhead and touching the wall.  He passed his reach, roll, and lift screen showing adequate scapular strength in the upward rotated position. He passed all impingement, wrist deviation, wrist flexion/extension, forearm supination/pronation, and cervical screens.

Ethan was able to balance for 8 seconds on his right leg in the single leg balance screen (eyes closed).  He was able to balance for 7 seconds on the left leg.  In his single leg glute bridge screen he was able to hold himself up in each leg respectively while demonstrating sore stability.

Force Plate Swings

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

Ethan creates a heel pressure load in the the rear foot.  He creates 95% bodyweight (770 N) of vertical force in the rear leg.  He maintains that well into his advance.  His torque in the rear leg is good at 44 N.  His vertical force in the lead leg is 188% bodyweight (1521 N).  This is a good overall amount and it has an average rate of force production.  His horizontal force in the lead leg is 73% bodyweight (590 N) and again is a good overall number and average rate of force production.  His x-axis timing is about 30% which means he is absorbing a lot on the lead leg before being able to fire.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Ethan presents as an overlapped in sequence swing (pelvis, torso and upper arm peak simultaneously, wrist).  He overly inward rotates his torso in his advance and into launch.  He is inwardly rotated in his torso -48.77 degrees into heel strike and it increases to -49.50 degrees into first move.  This means he’s trying to take the slack out by inwardly rotating instead of loading/resisting his scapula.  He, as noted in his screen, has a wide range of motion and scapular weakness.  This is the reason we see this happening in his k-vest data.  His pelvic speed is 693 deg/sec.  That is an average speed for his hip size.  He has slow acceleration and deceleration in his pelvis.  The torso speed is 897 deg/sec.  The speed and overall gain will increase with better deceleration patterns from the pelvis.  The upper arm speed is 1055 deg/sec.  This is a small gain and is prevalent because there is a lack of scapular load/resistance and an overturn of the torso.  The arms are speeding up around the torso because they are stuck behind it.  Wrist speed is 1807 deg/sec., but comes with a slower time to impact and longer path.

Bat Sensor Data

Ethan’s bat speed is 60-62 mph. This is an overall low number.  His time to impact was slow at 180-190 milliseconds.  This is slow and will lead to early committal. By having better rotary stability and taking the slack out with a scapular load he should be able to decrease this time.  His rotational acceleration was 3-4 G’s, which indicates there is looseness in the turn.  His attack angles are 9-19 degrees which fall into the proper degrees.  His vertical bat angle is -26 to -44 degrees, which again fall into the range we’re looking for (-20 to -30 degrees at the top of the zone and -30 to -40 degrees at the bottom of the zone.

Summary & Recommendations

• Dead bug progression to improve lower abdominal strength and pelvic control.

• Anti-rotational work to improve rotary stability.

• Rotary medicine ball throws.

• Increase scapular strength and create a better scapular load as opposed to inward torso rotation.

• Time to impact is a concern because at this speed he will be a one pitch hitter (fastballs) because he will need to commit early.  Overall rotary stability and scapular strengthening should help decrease that time.  We like PVC check swings for this as well.