How Basic Mobility work can help athletes.
One thing that we’ve seen in our facility when doing assessments is that most amateur athletes are lacking significant Thoracic Rotation ability, and the ability to bend to the side, along with many other common denominator movements when it comes to the swing.
This can impact the swing and specifically disassociating the lower half from the upper half and how much “stretch” you might be trying to make without going too much into detail, mobility can impact how athletes move effectively in the batters box dynamically. Even if they can force the issue off a tee, can they do so comfortably or dynamically against velo or organize themselves in the way they or we expect to?
While too much mobility or “hyper-mobility” can impact the swing as well (which is why we recommend assessing athletes individually before prescribing drills or programming) the amount of data we’ve collected can safely assume that “most” young athletes need to improve their mobility and flexibility in general and it should be a large part of your hitting program.
While we could debate the reason for this, sitting in desks all day, increase in screen time, general growth, bad strength and conditioning programming, etc. incorporating movement-based training into your coaching shouldn’t be a debate. I’d be very surprised if somebody wanted to argue that moving better in general would inhibit hitters from progressing.
We like to look at; pelvic tilt, pelvic rotation, torso rotation, toe touch, one legged balance, overhead deep squat, 90/90 movements, cervical rotation, wrist hinges, wrist flexion and extension, forearm rotation (pronation, and supination), seat trunk rotations, lower quarter rotation, dorsi flexion, single leg bridges, and lat reaches. While it sounds like an awful lot, it doesn’t take long to go down the list and check the boxes of “hit” or “miss.” As the athletes progress we can then use goniometers to actually get specific degrees or even use our 4D motion sensors with some movements. I think the “hit” or “miss” method is probably the most efficient and most practical in most situations.
Depending on if you’re doing one-on-one sessions, small group sessions, or large groups there are ways to incorporate this into your programming. Here are some basic examples:
One-on-One Sessions
Step 1: Assessment
Step 2: Build a program and go over that program with the athlete, give them things to do over the course of the week when they aren’t with you, have them warm up before your sessions and monitor their movements, make corrections, and maybe even have them take video of what they do at home for review.
Step 3: Re-assess/Repeat
Small Group Sessions
Step 1: Assessment (this can be done in your small group or you can have the players come in one-on-one)
Step 2: Build a program that you can manage the athletes together where you group players with similar deficiencies together, or are able to manage the individualization easily.
Step 3: Re-assess/Repeat
Large Group Sessions
Step 1: Assessment
Step 2: Build a broader program that works on several facets of mobility and general movements while also putting players in groups with different deficiencies.
Step 3: Incorporate a variable station where each group knows what specifically to work on. One group might be for thoracic mobility, while another group might have a stability station. So, while several stations all players will participate in, the variable station(s) are to simply incorporate individual work.
Step 4: Re-assess
Wrap Up
Now, assessments take time and can be as in depth as makes sense for your programming capabilities. Outsourcing assessments or bringing in a specialist I think is going to be a large part of the future in baseball. Professional teams, college teams, and even High School teams are starting to outsource their hitting programming (of course for more reasons beyond basic mobility). After the assessments have taken place if the programming is correct, the environment, exercises and drills can be retested after a certain period of time to account for any outliers or anything that may have been missed in the first assessments.
If you’re not able to do your own assessments, outsource assessments, or get too individualized at your level due to time, space and other variables, but are looking for programming, many programs can reflect the mass data collected by facilities like ours, and many others especially when compiled properly. For example, what are the staple exercises that collectively will help “most” players, what kind of overload bat and underload bat schemes will help “most” players? From there you can build a program, or have a company/coach build you a program based on the requirements or parameters you set. i.e. “We have cage time for an hour and fifteen minutes, twice per week and need to accommodate 15 players, we also have gym time for two hours once per week” From there, a coach can build a general program specifically for your team that will help your team continue to advance.
Again, in a perfect world assessments will happen first but I realize that’s not always possible (although in 2018 and with the use of technology it certainly can be) but either way better movement and swing programming in general, can drastically impact teams offensive production, and teams will continue to compete against teams who are maximizing movement information, it’s not too late to get ahead of the curve.