The Athletic Evaluation Process: Beginning to End

First impressions can have a huge impact on individuals. This experience will help shape how we look at people, the interactions we have with them in the future and the amount of trust, loyalty, openness we allow this person to experience from ourselves. For athletes and coaches, the athletic evaluation process is typically the time that we experience this first impression. This is the first time that we will spend any length of time with the athlete and also the first opportunity to really break down their movements and assess their abilities. With this being such an impactful time in the coach-athlete relationship how much thought and time do you actually place in the evaluation process? What tools do you use? At what point do you terminate the evaluation process?

Over the past year as I have begun working with a different caliber of athlete I have noticed my evaluation tools and ideas changing and evolving. As I have spent time in other private and college facilities I have spent a deal of time working with different staffs, digging deep into their own processes. Recently, while discussing this subject with a colleague at USC I began to truly see clearly the new evolution of my evaluation process. Throughout this article I will discuss different evaluation ideas and some of the thought processes that I go through during an evaluation.

There are many tools on the market to be used to evaluate our athletes. I have seen programs that evaluate simply by using a 1 RM strength assessment. And then I have seen programs that use a number of tools including a Functional Movement Screening, PRI analysis, DNS assessment, strength tests, and mobility/stability tests designed by team therapists. With the amount of analysis tools out there how do you know which to use? How often do you use it? I think both of these are great questions and I hear them all the time. However, I believe the real question is “What information does the test give me and what do I do with that information?”

For a number of years I was sold out of the FMS system and would incorporate its corrective strategies with my athletes during every training session. I saw great success with it as my athlete would gain mobility, stability, and their movement patterns were cleaned up within weeks. However, at some point these methods had to evolve into something different. Either I found myself at the end of a progression creating my own drills to continue improvement, or I would see athletes walk away from training for a season then come back with the same issues that we first began with.

Eventually, I began to stray from the FMS corrective strategy. It is a great program with excellent design, however I did not like the position it puts me in as a coach if I rely on it for a period of time then try to take my athletes further when I didn’t create the beginning of the corrective strategy in the first place. I still use the FMS as an evaluation tool with all of my athletes. However, now this is just the beginning of my evaluation. Following the FMS I will lead each individual through a 45 minute session which I explain as a dynamic warm-up. This session will consist of everything from rolling, crawling, walk, skipping, jogging, sprinting, and all multi-directional movements. During this time I am also paying close attention to their breathing patterns while static and dynamic. I will not correct any of the movements during this first run-through in order to see the athlete in their natural state. From these movements I will take notes in order to design a better informed speed/agility and strength/conditioning program that will target their specific needs. One thing to keep in mind during the evaluation is to continue to think outside the box. For example, if an athlete cannot effectively get into a full squat position, do not naturally assume that the limiting factor is the hamstrings. When I run into this issue my first question is, could this be a structural (skeletal) or functional (muscular/connective tissue) limitation. If you come to the conclusion that it is not the immediate structure then you should be looking at the musculature of the area and even the supporting musculature. In our example of the poor squat mechanics, your next test may be to perform a supine leg raise. If this shows that the hamstrings are flexible and you further assess that joint mobility is not limited then where is the next place to look? This is what I mean by looking at the supportive musculature. What about the ankle, adductors, lats? Have you evaluated those?

At the point that I have evaluated the athlete and have a firm grasp of any underlying issues I have a good idea of what my program will look like. Generally, this is where a strength coach would conclude their evaluation of the athlete’s movement patterns. However, this should be just the beginning. As strength coaches I believe we turn off our eye to analyze movements when the evaluation is done. Then throughout the program if the athlete is able to perform a movement with a certain amount of proficiency we are satisfied. I believe that we should be continually evaluating and re-evaluating as the program moves forward. What better way to re-evaluate than when the athlete is going through their speed and agility program or lifting routine? This is a time when they are moving in their most natural state as opposed to feeling like their every movement is being judged. This is the time to compare their movement patterns to those that you saw on their first day. It does not take a specific predetermined testing day to do this. From here assess your corrective strategies. If you believe a limitation is not improving then now is the time to look at the issue again from another angle.

When we evaluate an athlete our goal is to prepare their body for the demands of competition. There is no need for us to place so much focus on corrective programs that we are overlooking the true needs of the sport. However, we also should not be so focused on the needs of the sport that we miss the needs of the individual to be able to participate at a high level safely within the sport. In order to do this there should be a level of detail to your evaluations and those evaluations do not conclude with the first impression.