The Importance of Screening Athletes

There are many ways to train athletes and prepare them for sport. However, before we start looking at program design, power, speed and agility, we must look at the evaluation process. All Sports Pro Fitness is one of a few gyms that incorporate a 3-prong evaluation per athlete. The evaluation has 3 steps in the process of its evaluation; 1^st a Par Q questionnaire, 2^nd an FMS screen and 3^rd an athletic profile.

The Par Q questionnaire is a simple yet affective form that evaluates the athlete’s medical background. This information will help us look at any internal issues you as an athlete may have. Some things that we are concerned about when reviewing your Par Q are asthma, recent surgeries, any type of medical conditions dealing with joints, and other symptoms that might be an issue during training.  If there are any concerns we will make sure to ask your parents and/or doctor if you’re ok to exercise.

The FMS screen is a battery of tests designed to evaluate the athlete’s body awareness, mobility, flexibility and strength. This test uses a battery of 7 movements that will help us recognize movement patterns that need to be fixed. Why is this important? Well we want to design our programs so that your weakness that you may have whether its balance, flexibility, mobility or strength become something of value to you. Based off the FMS screen we can look at your results and create a fix for those problem areas. It is also important that we can see if there are any issues that might lead to injuries. For instance, when doing a test called the inline lunge we can see if there are some issues with your knee and its movement pattern. This is important especially for our female athletes to correct so we don’t have an acl tear.

The final phase in our testing is the Athletic Profile. This profile uses a battery of tests that evaluates their physical abilities. We use 5 major movements that test your power, strength, speed, agility and core. These tests include 10-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, dynavision and fit light.  Again we want to have some base numbers so as your strength and conditioning coaches can write your program based on your needs not strengths.

The three-prong evaluation for All Sports Pro Fitness is very unique and beneficial to the athletes new and returning. We believe that an athlete needs to work on their weakness and turn them into strength. Whether it’s an issue with balance, strength, power or flexibility we will design a program based around getting you better. The 3 phases of the evaluation will not only assure that your able to handle the class in a safe manor because of the Par Q but also will help us recognize what areas we can work on with you to bring you to your full potential.

By: Brad Leshinske MS CSCS