Pre-Participation Physicals: Closed Chain Dorsi-Flexion

CKC DF is another part of a comprehensive Return to Sport Testing & Pre-Participation Physicals. Below are a few highlights of the CKC DF test.

Hoch et. al. 2011 & Hoch et. al. 2012: The weight bearing lunge test (WBLT) explained a significant portion of the variance within the anterior reach distance signifying this direction of the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) may be a good clinical test to assess the effect of dorsiflexion range of motion restrictions on dynamic balance. The Y Balance Test was developed in order to improve methodology and testing efficiency of the SEBT.

Marcrum et. al. 2012 Results- Altering ankle DF starting position during double leg squat resulted in increased knee valgus and medial knee displacement, decreased quad activation & increased soleus  activation. These changes are similar to those seen in individuals with PFPS.

Keep up the great work; Your building a better testing system.

Behind the Scenes at TankGym- filming day

up next: Side Sit Bridge

 We had a great day filming today. Thanks to Tom Gorman & Back Light Pictures for all their work today.  I am excited about getting the first few videos loaded up and out for you viewing. Stay Tuned.....

Ready to FMS

Back Light Pictures

Tom checking sound

Dynamic Shoulder Stabilization

Tomorrow we will be shooting footage for the continuation of our Dynamic Shoulder Stabilization project.
Part 1 was the webinar with StrengthandConditioningWebinars.com

Part 2 was the follow up podcast with Joe Heiler at SportRehabExpert.com

Part 3 is our video series that will complement and expand upon the material.

I'll keep you posted on the progress and be on the look out for updated and new videos on TankGym TV on Youtube

Pre-Participation Physicals (What if the Athlete is in current Pain?)

Thank you for checking in with me again. Today I want to take a minute to make a distinction between painful and non-painful movement.

When I am talking about Pre-Participation Physicals I am describing what we do with all athletes to identify movement limitations/asymmetrical patterns in the non-painful athlete. These screens and tests allow us to categorize an individuals musculoskeletal injury risk (that is there potential for future injury compared to their peer group) . As we test individuals we include pain provocation tests to help us capture outliers, those that may have unknown or un-diagnosed pathology. When we identify pain in an individual we evaluate them differently and here is a great link to help you understand why: The Influence of Pain on Movement, by Dr. Kyle Kiesel. 

What's Next? Pre-Participation Physicals and Return to Sport testing

Keep up the good work, you are on the right path to make a major improvement in how you prepare athletes for the upcoming season. You are also about to revolutionize your decision making ability and optimize your most precious resource: Time. By utilizing a well thought out plan and objective measures you will quickly and accurately determine what an athlete needs  and directing them to the correct professional.

You will be able to deliver the Right Intervention, to the Right Person, at the Right Time. And to top it off you will communicate confidently to the athlete, parents, coaches and sports medicine team about the recommendations and follow up needed for each individual.

So, our next step to to begin to introduce you to the Functional Movement Screen. Dr. Lee Burton, co-developer of the FMS, has put together a great intro video that is must see tv: check it out Here

Return to Sport Testing- focused on the part and missing the Athlete in front of us

I get it, I really do. I too only want to research and write about what I think the cool thing is but we really as a profession (pick your favorite or not so favorite sports medicine professional) have to do much better.I Just read another hot off the press peer reviewed pub about a singular injury/surgery, Why are we still selling the sex and sizzle of the Return to Sports Testing and criterion progression for (......................) fill in the blank injury/surgery?

I treat ATHLETES not injuries/surgeries, I treat athletes after injury, I treat athletes after surgery and I test all the athletes using the same EVIDENCE BASED, INJURY PREDICTION TEST(S) AND ALGORITHMS, and then I compare them to the SAME: AGE, GENDER, SPORT AND COMPETITION LEVEL;  not the same surgery group, unless of course they are returning to the All Girls, 14y/o , previously reconstructed ACL, Freshman high school soccer team.  

Large Group Pre-Participation Physicals

A few days ago I told you that the military is beginning to adopt a new way to screen movement in the Warrior Athlete and here is a link to check out how we are contributing to that.Automation to Improve Efficiency of Field Expedient Injury Prediction Screening.  You can replicate this with your high school and college athletes, all of them, in a day, really half day if you want. And to make things even better you can know exactly who you need to send to the Ortho doc for follow up, who to send to the athletic trainer/physio for rehab, who to train one on one and who to turn loose with a few individualized corrective exercises.
If you have not already checked into the Y Balance Test  videos to see how fast and easy it is to test an athlete you owe it to yourself to do so. Again, part of my goal as a Certified Athletic Trainer is to provide a better, more meaningful way to contribute to sports physicals. For several years I covered a large Indiana high school and had to plow through hundreds of athletes during a mass physicals nightmare. We did what every other school did, the check list. At best the form covers Past Medical History; and previous injury is by far and away the leading predictive variable of future injury, no doubt. But we can not modify previous injury, we need information that allows us to be proactive, we need to do better than a check list for our athletes.

Pre-Participation Physicals continued

FMS and UQ & LQ YBT

Our Team

Great work so far! We are covering alot of ground quickly in an effort to get you up to speed to the fall school/sports year so hold on tight. By now I hope that you have checked out the Y Balance Test . I also hope that you have looked around the web, read other pre-participation screening research, talked with your colleagues and started to formulate your own thoughts about what we should be looking at in our physicals. My hope is to provide a template for Standard of Practice for the screening of athletes from pre-season screening to return to sport testing. Lets strive to provide objective measures to our clients that are meaningful, lets show that our "sports enhancement/performance improvement/jump/landing/speed/agility/skill/fancy name" make you a better athlete training program really makes you better by lowering your individual injury risk classification and I will continue to guide you to the tools that do just that, we have the research to to it. By the way this is also the leading way to test the Warrior Athlete to help predict musculoskeletal injury risk.

Pre-Participation Sports Physicals

Holy cow, I want to change our physicals but have no idea where to start, Sound familiar? .......If you have read a few of my previous posts you already have taken the first few steps. Next, Learn the Upper and Lower Quarter Y Balance Test here...get a kit and start testing your athletes/clients prior to training or discharge from therapy.

How to perform the test is in the link above; How to begin to utilize and begin to interpret the UQYBT test can be found in the links provided; How to utilize and to interpret LQYBT. I gave you alot of homework, take a few days to look it over, ask lots of questions. And remember your goal should be to change how you practice and test athletes first. Change the rest of the world sometime after that.

Study Suggests New Screening Method For Sudden Death In Athletes

Study Suggests New Screening Method For Sudden Death In Athletes

This fits squarely into the Pre-Participation Physicals we have been discussing recently; Stay Tuned..

ppg

Dynamic Shoulder Stabilization

the follow up podcast interview is now up to our Dynamic Shoulder Stabilization Progression on SportRehabExpert.com Check it out