The first step in studying a player is identifying their orientation. This is begun by establishing which spinal associated side of the body– anterior or posterior– is more developed.
For reasons that are not fully understood, every modern human favors development on one side of their body over the other (front or back). In fact, this study seems to suggest that these developmental patterns begin within the embryo. Identical twins (in a small sample to date) show opposite orientations in every studied example, despite identical DNA, further supporting this theory.
Nevertheless every modern human appears to favor either anterior or posterior development. Some broad characteristics can be sometimes inferred from this dominance, since anterior muscle groups tend to include quicker firing finesse muscles, whereas posterior muscles are often more enduring, stronger, and less quick to fire (having evolved in four legged ancestors to continuously oppose the force of gravity). Similar to canids versus felids, where the cat family mostly favors anterior (ventral in four legged animals) development and includes animals that are generally very quick agile ambush hunters, whereas the dog family generally favors posterior (dorsal) development and mostly includes animals that evolved as strong/ enduring distance runners/ hunters (wolf hunts for example often range over miles), anterior versus posterior dominant humans broadly share some of those same characteristics. However, much like the canid versus felids distinction, there are strong exceptions to these general tendencies within each group (for example hyenas in the canid family, and foxes in the felid family), and likewise automatically assuming an anterior dominant player is quick or a posterior dominant player is strong is not prudent. Individual players can and do strongly buck these tendencies, despite larger samples showing these statistical trends.
The next step in the process is identifying whether a player favors the development of bones and tendons closer to their spine– called ‘medial’, including pathways along the radius and the tibia– or farther away from the center of the body/ spine– which is called ‘lateral’ and includes pathways along the ulna and the femur. In combination with the above anterior versus posterior split, this leaves four broad orientations: Medial Centric Anterior Dominant,
Lateral Oriented Anterior Dominant, Medial Centric Posterior Dominant, and Lateral Oriented Posterior Dominant.
Study over time has shown that players within a given orientation tend to move in similar enough ways that comparing players within their orientation group is a far more effective gauge than comparing across orientations. So getting the orientation correct is the first most important step towards identifying a player’s developmental patterns and therefore their likely strengths and weaknesses.
Once an orientation is established, individual movements are studied to try to establish areas of independence, versus areas that are linked and tend to fire together. Generally speaking, players lead their movements from areas associated with their orientation, meaning a medial centric anterior dominant quarterback will likely initiate his throws primarily from the pathways linked to the inside of his thumb/ forefinger (and disproportionately use these muscle groups in directing the throw). So once orientation is confidently established (although errors and corrections do sometimes occur), study begins with the areas associated with orientation to see how independently they move, and how many other areas appear to be biomechanically borrowed/ linked to this area (to read more about biomechanical borrowing and how areas become developmentally linked to fire together, please see here).
In practice this means observing, for example, when a quarterback throws, does his head and neck move? In what way, and from which areas? Do his shoulders elevate? Which part of the shoulders? What about his legs/ feet/ hips? How and when do they move?
Studying each movement on film in depth to determine how freely/ independently each area can move yields a wealth of information. In addition, relative lengths are observed– which tendons/ bones are longer or shorter than the median for someone of that size, weight, and orientation.
All of these various small observations can help determine the efficiency of each biomechanical area: when an area fires quickly/ consistently, can move freely/ independently of other areas, and is relatively long (but not too long), it is very likely efficient, meaning that it is an area that can receive and be drained of blood quickly on command. It is also likely to be better controlled, and to have less risk of non contact injury. In the best case, an area can be said to be ‘Fully Efficient’.
Full efficiency is defined by complete fascial freedom and unencumberance from spinal derived movement. Meaning that when a motion is utilizing only spinal muscles and their tendinous pathways, fascia are completely relaxed and uninvolved in the movement, free and ready to insert their action on command. Without any chronic entanglements or attachments to other areas. When an area is fully efficient to its most distal areas– meaning that for example a quarterback’s medial anterior thumb/ forefinger (and the pathways leading from the chest through the shoulders and the arms) are able to move entirely through spinal/ tendinous action, without fascia in any way inserting their action involuntarily– this area will be under complete command at all times, and will be extremely unlikely to suffer non contact injuries. For athletes, areas of full efficiency are therefore very strong predictors of long term career success– particularly thoracic areas for quarterbacks, and lumbar areas for running backs.
In general, when measuring efficiency, one observes how far from the spinal originating point a motion may travel before fascia begin to intercede involuntarily and shape/ alter the movement. The more efficient an area, the further down the limbs (or up the head/ neck for cervical areas) a movement will travel before involuntary fascial action alters it from its purely spinal/ tendinous path.
It is strongly recommended to read the guides to biomechanical efficiency and biomechanical borrowing before reading this methods page. However, if you haven’t yet read these guides, they can be found here:
Guide to Biomechanical Efficiency
Guide to Biomechanical Borrowing
Thank you for reading!