Looking for Ghosts - Screening for Postural Dysfunction

A good athletic profile or screening will serve a guide for what you need to do next. I do not think an athletic profile, especially done by a coach should go searching for dysfunctions or malfunctions. Remember each sport has adaptive postural response. The longer an athlete participates in a particular sport, especially if it is one side dominant, the more evident the response will be. (An example is the hypertrophy in the forearm of a professional tennis player) It is much like when we were kids and sitting around telling ghost stories at a sleepover. As soon as the lights went out and everyone got quiet, there were noises and light flashes that everyone was sure were ghosts. The moral of the story is the same with postural dysfunction. Go to a conference on screening and dysfunction and then come back on Monday and you will see many more dysfunctions that you ever knew existed. We have to remember that the body is asymmetrical, we are not balanced and that the body is highly adaptive and self organizing. I use a variation of the Athletic Profile developed by Kelvin Giles, it is practical, easy to use and translated immediately into exercise progressions that are part of my training program.I am a firm believer that a sound well rounded training program that emphasizes training the whole kinetic chain using coordinated movements will allow the body to find it’s optimum performance level in the climate of repetitive stress. Too many people have gone the route of “corrective exercise” to the exclusion of actual training. If you are doing this, you are doing the athlete a disservice. This is quite prevalent in the NBA. The solution is to include remedial components in the strength training and movement programs that address the common problems that occur. It should be transparent. Understand the demands of the sport, the position and what the individual athlete brings to the table and design a program that addresses all those demands. Get out there and coach and train them, keep the ghosts in the closet.
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Vern Gambetta

Director at Gambetta Sports Training Systems

Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.