Mobility, Flexibility & Stability Screening

Grace is in the “loose mover” category.  Her thoracic mobility was loose at 70 degrees of rotation to the right and left.  She has pelvic control in his pelvic tilt isolation which will allow energy transfer into the upper body.  She has vibration in that test which indicates the lower abs are more developed than the lower back.  She was good in the pelvic rotation test, which indicates that she will have ability to disassociate his upper and lower body very efficiently. Torso disassociation was good as well.  This means she will have the ability to create energy transfer through torque.

Grace passed the overhead squat test which shows good overall body mobility.  She has core instability which will affect energy transfer speed up the chain.  This should be a of the offseason strength plan.

She has an under-developed scapular region, which will reduce torque through her upper body anchor.  Her scapular retraction was in the “neutral” category. Shoulder flexion was very tight, yet external shoulder rotation was hyper mobile.  This is a red flag for arm injuries for throwing.  Internal shoulder rotation was good on both arms.

Hip rotational mobility was “loose.”  She was able to turn 60 degrees in the right and left hip internally.  Externally, she was 65 degrees on the right and the left.

Her lower body showed good  left and right leg stability, and her glutes stabilized very well during the glute bridge test.  Side bend was adequate in both directions.

All wrist and cervical screens were a pass.

Force Plate Swings

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

Grace is an example where we can get a lot more speed creation and lower her TTI by getting a more forceful interaction with the ground.  She loads into her toes rather than the heel but still holds pretty good loading force in her back leg.  She gets only 83%of her BW in the back leg load and loses that as she gets into her initial advance.  We want to hold above 90% into the forward advance.  Back leg torque numbers are low at 11 Nm.  She’ll need more counter-rotation of her hips in the load.  45 Nm is what we are shooting for.   Her front leg post is very low and the rate of force development dissipates over a long period of time.  Front leg vertical force is well under the 200% BW we are looking for at 138%.  Her horizontal force is slower as well at 50% BW with a low rate of force development – 70% is considered good.   Her X-axis timing number (one of the most important we get from the force plate) is 33%.  80% is what I consider proficient.  She loses pressure into the ground into her turn and spins a bit, rather than getting anchored, forcefully, into the ground.

KVEST Sequencing & Rotational Speeds

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

Grace is underperforming in her lower half.  Utilization of her legs in the swing will add speed and reduce the TTI.   Therefore, she uses her arms to propel the bat and disconnects them early.  Pelvis speed is lower than ideal due to the under-utilized front leg.  Her pelvis speed is in the “below average” category on our real speed graph at 600 deg./sec.  Torso speeds are in the “below average” category on our real speed graph at 750 deg./sec.  The arms get some gain at 880 deg./sec and overall hand speed is in the “needs improvement” category at 1450 deg./sec.  Torque is very limited which limits the overall stretch in the body, which goes back using her arms independently early in the swing.

Bat Sensor Data

Bat speeds are below average at 52 mph.  Attack angles and side bend are flat.  She needs to create a posture that allows her to turn her torso under balls as she has very little side bend right now.  Rotational acceleration is average at 8 G’s.  Time to impact is high at 190 ms.  Rotational acceleration and bat speed will be improved with added torque and use of the lower body.

Summary & Recommendations

• Load into the heel vs. toes.
• Maintain back leg connection to the ground in advance and into the turn.
• Get a more forceful heel interaction with the ground to speed up pelvis numbers.
• Drill focuses on creating sequencing instead of using arms. Try to get scap load where hands and elbow are about the same height at footdown vs. the hands being much higher than elbow.
• Learn to turn under balls with the torso and side bend.