What Is a Physical Therapy Movement Screen — and How Can It Help Your Athletes

By: Kathy Ryan-Ceisel, PT MHS

Overhead Throwing Specialist

Athletic Edge and Wellness Physical Therapy

Whether you're coaching high-level competitors or guiding youth athletes through their early development, one thing is clear: movement matters. Strength, speed, and skill all depend on how well the body moves — and more importantly, how well it moves without compensation or risk of injury.

That’s where a physical therapy movement screen comes in. It’s more than just a check-up. It’s a proactive assessment tool designed to help athletes train smarter, perform better, and stay healthier over the long haul.

What Is a Movement Screen?

A physical therapy movement screen is a systematic series of tests used to evaluate how an athlete moves through key functional patterns — such as squatting, lunging, rotating, or reaching.

Rather than isolating individual joints or muscles, a movement screen looks at the body as a connected system. Physical therapists use it to identify:

• Mobility restrictions

• Muscular weakness

• Core instability

• Poor movement control

• Asymmetries between right and left sides

These findings can reveal underlying issues that might not cause problems yet — but could lead to pain, poor performance, or injury down the road.

Why Athletes Should Get Screened?

You don’t need to be injured to benefit from a movement screen. In fact, the best time to do one is before a problem starts.

Here’s how a movement screen can support your athletes:

1. Performance Optimization

Efficient movement isn’t just safer — it’s also more powerful. A movement screen helps identify limitations in mobility or stability that may be holding an athlete back from moving faster, lifting heavier, or throwing harder. Correcting those limitations can unlock better athletic output. You can’t have great performance with poor movement.

2. Personalized Programming

No two athletes move the same. A movement screen gives coaches, trainers, and physical therapists the data they need to individualize training plans, warm-ups, and recovery protocols to fit each athlete’s needs. What a baseball player needs is different from what a football player needs. Furthermore, a pitcher has different needs than a catcher.

3. Objective Baseline

Screens provide an objective snapshot of how an athlete moves at a specific point in time. This is especially helpful in the off-season or post-injury, when tracking progress matters most. It creates a roadmap to monitor improvement or regression over time. In our growing athletes, muscle imbalances can quickly create movement dysfunction; as little as 1” of vertical growth or adding 5# of lean muscle mass can change how you move.

4. Improved Body Awareness

Movement screens involve coaching and feedback. Athletes become more aware of their own bodies and movement patterns, which leads to better self-regulation, form correction, and safer training habits.

5. Injury Prevention

Many injuries stem from poor movement mechanics — think overuse injuries, ACL tears, or shoulder impingement and elbow pain. A screen highlights those mechanical red flags before they become breakdowns, allowing you to address them early with targeted exercises or mobility work.

What Does a Movement Screen Include?

While screens can vary based on sport, level, or goals, they many include:

• Overhead squat

• Single-leg balance

• Shoulder mobility tests

• Hip internal/external rotation

• Core activation drills

• Jump landing mechanics

• Functional tests like lunges, push-ups, or rotation

These are often combined with video analysis, range of motion measurements, and manual assessments from a licensed physical therapist.

⚾ Why Baseball Athletes Need Movement Screens

Unlike many sports, baseball requires athletes to:

• Perform high-speed, single-sided actions (pitching, batting, throwing)

• Repeat those motions thousands of times per season

• Maintain stability and mobility through key regions: shoulders, hips, and trunk

This combination often leads to overuse injuries, particularly in the shoulder, elbow, and low back. A movement screen helps catch the compensations and imbalances that creep in before they turn into bigger problems.

🧩 What a Movement Screen Looks in Baseball Players

1. Shoulder & Arm Care

• Shoulder Flexion & Rotation (IR/ER) → Ensures proper throwing range

• Scapular Control → Evaluates if the shoulder blade stabilizes during movement

• Overhead Reach Test → Detects restrictions that may affect throwing mechanics

2. Hip Mobility & Strength

• Hip Internal/External Rotation → Critical for pitching stride and batting mechanics

• Single-Leg Squat or Step-Down → Reveals hip/knee stability for fielding and baserunning

• 90/90 Hip Mobility Drill → Screens rotational freedom

3. Core Stability & Rotation

• Plank Variations / Dead Bug Test → Measures control in anti-extension and anti-rotation

• Seated Trunk Rotation → Assesses symmetry and mobility in the thoracic spine

• Medicine Ball Rotational Throws → Functional power and sequencing check

4. Lower Body Mechanics

• Overhead Squat → Looks at ankle, hip, and thoracic mobility

• Single-Leg Balance (Y-Balance Test) → Identifies asymmetries for baserunning and fielding

• Jump/Landing Mechanics → Shows control in explosive movements

When Should You Screen Your Athletes?

Movement screens are ideal:

• Pre-season / Off-season → Establish baselines and guide training

• Mid-season check-ins → Monitor workload and asymmetries

• Post-injury / Rehab → Confirm readiness for return-to-throwing programs

• Youth development → Identify risk factors before they develop into chronic issues

• At season transitions, to monitor cumulative effects of training or competition

What Movement Screens Can Uncover in Baseball Players

• Shoulder-hip disassociation problems (hips and trunk move as one instead of separately)

• Side-to-side asymmetries (dominant vs. non-dominant arm/leg)

• Core weakness leading to over-reliance on arms

• Hip mobility restrictions that force stress into the low back or shoulder

• Scapular winging or poor posture that disrupts throwing mechanics

FINAL THOUGHTS

Think of a movement screen as a physical blueprint — a map that shows where an athlete is strong, where they need support, and how to move forward safely and efficiently.

At the end of the day, talent and hard work are only part of the equation. Great athletes are built on strong, functional movement foundations. A physical therapy movement screen ensures your athletes aren’t just training hard — they’re training smart.

INTERESTED IN GETTING A MOVEMENT SCREEN FOR YOUR ATHLETE?

CALL US AT 224-505-EDGE FOR AN APPOINTMENT!

Athletic Edge and Wellness, Illinois Baseball Edge, and 1Top Prospect in Algonquin IL are your professional throwing partners in elite baseball/softball performance and arm care through the continuum of ages and competition levels.  We offer team and hyper-personalized private instruction to help players move better, maximize training progressions, and more efficiently navigate the college recruitment process.  Our services include player centric training on elements such as velocity, command, secondary pitch, arm care, recovery (including Normatec), physical therapy, performance therapy, strength and mobility, and consulting that provides personal attention to student-athletes on their collegiate recruiting journey.  These services are offered under one roof.  Come experience the difference with a professional staff that is world class, tightly aligned, and able to collaborate for superior results.

Located at 1213 S. Main St. Algonquin, IL @ 224-505-3343