Mobility, Flexibility & Stability Screening

Brooke is a “loose” mover.  She sets up in a slightly “S” posture.  In the pelvic tilt test Brooke was able to anterior tilt (arch) but was unable to posterior tilt (round). She was able to make it back to slight “C” posture but it did show vibration/shaking. This indicates a lack of lower abdominal strength and or control.  Brooke showed improvement with assistance (assessor held shoulders) in the pelvic disassociation test. This is an indication of a weakness or lack of control of the stabilizers (obliques/erectors). Brooke passed the torso disassociation showing good lower half stability. Brooke passed the glute bridge screen although it should be noted she felt tension in her quad when her left leg was the anchor and tension in her hamstring when the right leg was anchor. This shows a lack of glute strength and or control, or possible need for leg/hip variance to access the glute. Brooke failed the overhead squat (the bar went ahead of her footprint), but passed the squat test with hands behind head.

Recommendation would include strengthening the lower abdominals and anti-rotational work. Further exploration into glute strength or positioning for access.

Brooke is a loose mover through the thoracic spine with 70 degrees of rotation to the right and 70 degrees of rotation to the left. Brooke is also a loose mover in her hips with 60 degrees on right internal rotation and 60 degrees on right external rotation. She is also 60 degrees of left internal rotation and 60 degrees of left external rotation.  Brooke is neutral in scapular retraction at (3”).

Brooke showed external rotation in right shoulder of equal to spine and external in left shoulder of slightly less than spine. Brooke had less than one hand length of separation in her right internal rotation and one hand length in left internal rotation. Assessor was unable to get fingers under he scapula in the scapular palpation test. She also passed the reach, roll, and lift screen. Brooke was hands in front of nose on the shoulder flexion screen.

Brooke passed all wrist flexion, extension, deviation, and forearm supination/pronation screens.

Force Plate Data

Brooke creates a good loading number vertically in her rear leg at 104% body weight. However, her vertical force on lead leg only gets to 106% of body weight, we would like to see the front leg double the back leg number. The back leg produced 10% body weight in horizontal force. The lead leg created 29% horizontal force. The x-axis timing is 100%, which means she is shifting off her rear leg and pausing on lead leg before launching the swing. The rear leg produced 66n of torque, which is a high number. The front leg produced 69n of torque force. Her load in the rear foot on the pressure pad was into the front part of her shoe. The load should be in the heel to create stability and allow for proper loading.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Brooke creates a good sequence (hips/torso/arms/hand). Her hip speed is good at 693 deg/sec.  Her transfer to the torso is good and generates 884 deg/sec.  There is a slow deceleration pattern to the hips and torso, which indicates stability issues in the lower body and the torso.  With her being a loose mover it could also help to close off her lower half to help limit the range of motion and transfer energy quicker.  With increased braking capabilities the jumps between sequences will increase and time to impact will get faster.  Her arm speed is 1185 deg/sec., and her hands generate 1774 deg/sec.  Based off the k-vest data she is pushing or moving lead hand away from upper arm and torso before the torso accelerates.  This can lead to slower time to impact and possible rollover sequence. 

Bat Sensor Data

Brooke’s bat speed was 57-63 miles per hour.  Her attack angle was high at 16-20 degrees, which is consistent with a loose mover that has an early arm/hand move away from the body.  Her time to impact was slow at 150-160 milliseconds.  This time will decrease as her scapular load allows upper body to take out the slack of her “loose” movement capabilities.  That will faster deceleration of body segments will allow for her to make swing decisions later.  Rotational acceleration was 5-9g’s.  Exit speeds were recorded at 65-69 miles per hour. 

Summary & Recommendations

• Create a larger loading patter to allow for taking out the slack.  She’s a loose mover so there is a lot of slack to take out.

• Consider closing off the lead leg to create less room for internal lead hip rotation.  Should help with deceleration of hips and energy transfer. 

• Strength and stability work with focus on core stabilizers (obliques/erectors)

• There are path concerns with her moving arms around torso in launch.  These can be corrected with proper scapular loading.