It goes without saying that the best athletes in the world are elite-level movers. Whether we’re analyzing baseball players, track & field athletes or figure skaters, those at the top of their respective sport typically just move better than the rest.

Now what about amateur athletes?

Amateur athletes are amateurs for a reason, they either lack consistency or the requisite skill set to play at the next level. This is why athletes spend so much time and effort trying to hone their craft and end up seeking out training through services such as ours.

We see it time and time again, an athlete will come in for an assessment and explain to us all of the mechanical adjustments they’ve been trying to implement based on a their favourite professional baseballer or that have been assigned to them from a previous trainer or coach. While this is great in theory, most athletes become frustrated with the process of trying to make mechanical adjustments and often revert back to what feels familiar. After all, familiarity is comfortable.

So how do we reduce the amount of frustration an athlete may experience when making such mechanical adjustments?

With thorough assessments.

The true value in conducting an assessment with an athlete lies in the fact that is allows us the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the athlete and how their current physiology affects their skill-specific movements (eg., pitching or hitting).

In other words, we analyze the full picture.

We want to know how well athletes are able to move during very basic human-movements prior to looking at how they move when throwing or hitting a ball. By running athletes through a functional movement screen (FMS) or selective functional movement analysis (SFMA) prior to engaging in any further athletic endeavours, it affords our trainers an opportunity to understand WHY athletes may exhibit certain skill inhibitors.

FMS and SFMA provide extremely valuable clues as to WHY and HOW athletes move the way they do when throwing, hitting, running, jumping and while performing any skill-based activity. That being said, the real value in conducting these assessments lies in how it influences the development process that follows. Now, after conducting the assessment, when we observe inhibitors in an athlete’s swing or pitching delivery we will know what physiological constraints they are operating with and we can develop a systematic plan to address those constraints and increase the likelihood of making the adjustments we’re recommending.

Use Athlete A (shown below) as an example. Let’s assume they were working with a private instructor who observed a swing fault in which Athlete A had too much sway during their negative move (load) - a valuable observation. But, let’s also say that the instructor is simply trying to cue them into the right positions or using constrained drill work in order to reduce the amount of sway during their negative move. The athlete may make the desired adjustment while operating under the constraints of the assigned drill but then reverts back to old patterns once the constraints are removed. Why? Athlete A’s physiology hasn’t changed. Their body is moving in the only way it’s able to while hitting a ball.

*Frustration enters stage left*

*Athlete exits stage right*

Now let’s consider an alternative circumstance with Athlete A. Let’s assume that this time the instructor conducted an assessment including a functional movement screen prior to analyzing their swing. In that assessment the instructor observed slightly limited right hip abduction as well as poor ankle mobility and core control - all factors that can influence poor kinematics wile loading. Knowing this, the instructor was able to provide corrective exercises to address the limiting factors above. With some consistency and understanding of what’s holding the athlete back and this time they’re able to make the recommended swing adjustments. See below.

It’s easy to assume that an athlete just isn’t coachable. More often than not, they are but they just haven’t found the right coach. Take you time to understand the unique physiology of your athletes and how it impacts what you see in the box and on the mound. Watch how much more well received your coaching becomes.

About the author:

Tyler Soucie is the founder of Velo Baseball and the Velo Baseball Performance Centre. With a vision of creating a brighter future for Canadian baseball, he has come to be well respected within the baseball community and with the players he trains. He has playing experience at the Division I level as well as internationally.

Interested in working with Tyler? Send him an email.