Mobility, Flexibility & Stability Screening

Ashley is on the tighter side of the neutral mover category.  In relation to her swing mechanics, she is neutral in both scapular retraction (4.5”) and thoracic spine rotation (40-45 degrees), but is tight in her hip internal and external rotation (30 internal, 35-40 external).

She had a slight vibration in the pelvic tilt test, but was able to get through the movements.  This shows a slight imbalance between the lower back and lower abdominals, but she should be able to transfer energy into her core in the swing.  Passed both the pelvic and torso disassociation drills showing ability to create torque in the swing.

Overhead squat test was passed.

Right side external rotation changed in her hitting posture.  Her scapular mobility stopped the movement.  Shoulder internal rotation is good.  She showed good scapular strength in the Reach, Roll, and Lift test and we were unable to get under her scapulae in the palpation test.  Lat length test was passed.  Impingement test was passed.

Ashley is limited 1” on both legs in her toe touch test.  She was very limited in the single leg balance test at 3 seconds right side and 6 seconds left side.  She passed the glute bridge test indicating a hamstring feeling during the test and showing slight core instability.

Cervical, wrist and forearm tests were all passed.

Force Plate Swings

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

Ashley uses a ball of foot pressure load in her rear leg.  Having to navigate stepping from an open stance to load this is a task that needs to be monitored to allow her to stay in heel pressure.  Her vertical force in her rear leg spikes to 107% body weight as she picks up front foot, but then decreases due to her ball of foot load.  She does an okay job maintaining some vertical force in her advance.  Her vertical force in her lead leg is low and comes in at 127% body weight (264 lbf).  There is also a slow rate of force development.  Her horizontal force in the lead leg is low at 55% body weight but does have a faster rate of force development.  Her x-axis timing is about 70%, which is a fairly good number.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Ashley presents as an in sequence swing pattern (pelvis, torso, upper arm, wrist).  Her pelvic speeds were good at 673 deg/sec. and showed an average acceleration and good deceleration pattern.  Her torso speed was 972 deg/sec. and her upper arm speed was 1279 deg/sec.  There will be some room for growth with better scapular resistance.  This may also help eliminate some of the overly inward rotation of the torso to try to feel stretch (At heel strike the torso is -40 degrees and into launch it is -44 degrees).  This also shows up on her graph as she accelerates her wrist early to get around the overly turned in torso. Her wrist speed was 1757 deg/sec.

Bat Sensor Data

Ashley had bat speeds of 61-65 mph, which are average.  Her ball exit speeds were 65-73 mph, which is average to above average.  Her rotational acceleration was 10-13 G’s, which is good but shows some looseness in the turn.  Her time to impact is what stands out the most as it is 170-180 milliseconds, which is slow and will cause her to commit earlier than necessary.  By better taking out the slack and avoiding over inward rotation she should be able to cut this time down.  Her attack angles were 11-17 degrees which are at the high end but within incoming ball flight pattern. Her vertical bat angles were -24 to -38 degrees which are good (we are looking for -20 to -30 at the top of the zone and -30 to -40 at the bottom of the zone. 

Summary & Recommendations

• Ashley needs a better scapular load to remove slack from torso in advance.  She currently is over rotating into heel strike and launch to feel core tightness.
• Time to impact is a concern as she is in a higher range (see below). 
• Increased force production and rate of force production in the ground will allow her to transition energy faster up her sequence, cutting down time to impact. 
• Focusing on rotating her pelvis into landing will help to allow her to increase force and create less inward torso rotation.  This should assist in better time to impact numbers as well.

11.20 Live Retest

As to be expected, there was a softer front leg acceptance of energy on off-speed pitches – 128% (off-speed) to 165% (fastball).  Even though the total force on a FB is low, her ROFD makes up for it and is extremely fast.  I’d rather have that, then worry about total force. In fact, leg numbers were better live, than in training.  However, her ROFD was still super high on the off-speed pitch which tells me she was completely fooled and would need to work on spin recognition.  X-axis timing was 100% on the fastball.

3d rotational values were slightly lower in a live setting, but not enough where it affected bat speed.  The graph pattern is a slight “inward rotational pattern.”  Bat speeds were still 62-63 mph.  Time to impact was reduced to 160 ms.  Rotational acceleration has improved to 14 G’s.  Attack angles were scattered, based on timing.

Rotation Speed Data Charts

Bat Sensor Data Charts