Assess or Guess

Family Update

Well Brennen is officially 1 year old. The next thing you know he will be asking to take the to the movies- well maybe not too soon. Guess what one of his first gifts from us was??? No, it had nothing to do with academic developmental learning...IT WAS A TODDLERS BASKETBALL AND HOOP- Yeah!!! Actually, I use it more than he does:).

My oldest dughter, Jae, has had 4 games cancelled this year so far due to snow days. Bailee has had practices canceled as well. I am so sick and tired of the snow and cold. I have asked before, but if you or someone you know lives in a warm climate and has a spare bedroom, I am looking to get away (I will accept Hawaii, Bahamas, Miami, Arizona for starters).

That's pretty much it for now for Team Taft.

Assess or Guess

I have spoken and written on the topic of assessment/evaluations before. Not only is it important for you to do each time you first meet a new athlete or team, it is also important you assess each workout. The athlete will bring something new to the table each time you workout. Sometimes they are sore (and didn't tell you), tired, or injured themselves slightly. These issues will show up during the workout. You have to be prepared to assess what is going on.

Let me give you an example of why assessing is so important. The other night I had a new athlete start training with me. I asked him to touch his toes from a standing straight leg position, a simple basic toe touch stretch. He was able to touch the floor with most of his hand. Then I started to take him through the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). When he got to the supine straight leg raise his left leg was pretty good- it received a 3. Which is the best score, but the leg didn't move as easily as I would have thought considering how easy he touched the floor on the standing toe touch. Then I asked him to raise his right leg. It was only a two. Even he was surprised on the difficulty he had in raising the leg. We talked about how the hamstring might actually not be tighter but the abdominals might not be stabilizing his pelvis not allowing him to raise his leg correctly. Sure enough, I had him perform a core activation exercise and his left leg shot up about 6 inches more. TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT.... Because I took the time to assess him I was able to find an issue that will be easy to rectify. Had I not assessed, then the lack of stabilization of the pelvis due to uncoordinated abdominals would have most likely shown up in poor stability during running or cutting- which it actually did when I did leaps and hops as an assessment.

The point is, It doesn't matter how in-depth you get on your assessments, just know what you want to assess and what you are looking for. In my assessments I need to find out any potential reasons an athlete might not move as well, have the potential for injury, and why their posture is not where it should be according to the movement pattern. You might just be assessing how fast your team is or how strong an individual is. The bottom line is if you don't assess or at least have someone that knows how to assess come in and do it for you you are GUESSING.

My advice would be for you to learn how to perform the FMS. It is simple to administer and the results will save you a lot of work. You will be able to have better moving athletes from the get go.

Best of luck and keep assessing.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

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