“He’s gonna be a good one,” one scout wrote about MLB pitching great Greg Maddux. “This boy has all the tools,” another scout said about Hall of Famer third baseman Chipper Jones. “He’s accurate, throws a very catchable ball,” reads the scouting report about 3-time NFL MVP Tom Brady. And teen tennis phenom, Coco Gauff had sports analysts writing that she was “ready to contend” just a month before winning her recent U.S. Open title. Athletes are being evaluated in scouting reports, in the press, and most importantly in gyms throughout their careers. When it comes to actual athlete evaluations, know that they are a good thing for athletes. Athlete evaluations can help athletes to up their game by focusing on areas to improve and develop. Whether you’re getting ready for an NFL combine, a visit from a college scout, a weekend competition, or just working on improving your game, athletes of all sports can benefit from athlete evaluations. Read on to learn more about how athlete evaluations can up your game.
Know what you’re working with. An athlete evaluation can serve as a baseline for athletes to operate from. By going through an evaluation, an athlete can identify specific strengths and weaknesses. Evaluations can be sport-focused on specific physical abilities, skills, or techniques. They also often include full physical assessments with physical measurements like weight, height, muscle mass, and body fat. This information can help in the formation of a tailored training program that truly focuses on an athlete’s individual needs.
Get better every day. Another way athlete evaluations can help athletes is by identifying areas of improvement. Evaluators may provide tips and suggestions for an athlete’s training, drills, or workouts in order to reach performance goals. ROI offers programs for sports specific training to help athletes sharpen their skills.
Avoid problems before they occur. Injuries can be debilitating for athletes, and although there’s no way to guarantee injury prevention, an athlete evaluation can help to identify certain factors that can help prevent injury. After an evaluation, certain exercises, stretches, and adjustments can be prescribed to help with injury prevention.
Get back in the game. A great function of athlete evaluations is that they can help to determine whether an athlete is ready to return to play post-injury. For athletes who are looking to compete at higher levels, it is important to recover well. After a thorough evaluation process, an athlete can use evaluation data to focus on fixing trouble spots, then work on a gradual return to sport.
What’s my motivation? Getting to see another perspective of your athletic talents, skills, and performance can be so beneficial. The feedback that an evaluation provides can help athletes to focus on what to work on and to track their progress as they train to get better, with a clearer motivation in mind.
Get stronger. Strength is essential for athletes. Evaluations may measure quantifiable skills through weightlifting. Establishing a baseline measurement of strength through an athlete evaluation can help an athlete with goal setting and gaining strength. ROI works with athletes to focus on functional strength training as well as sport specific conditioning.
Endure. In all kinds of sports, enduring lengthy competitions can be a requirement for athletes. Overall endurance—sustaining physical activity like running for a long period—is something that athlete evaluations might focus on. Getting evaluated on endurance can inspire athletes to focus on pushing through rigorous training and competitions.
Get flexible. An athlete evaluation might measure flexibility in terms of both active and passive ranges of motion. At ROI, trainers work with athletes on implementing functional range conditioning. This helps athletes to improve in the areas of mobility and control.
Working on the whole person. While it’s great to be an athlete who excels at sport-specific skills, it is also essential for an athlete to work on mental health and character. An athlete evaluation might conduct interviews, questioning, or psychological-based testing that evaluates an athlete’s mental fitness. In addition, evaluations might also focus on assessing an athlete’s qualities like sportsmanship, leadership, work ethic, and attitude. Getting feedback on these key things can help an athlete to work on the intangibles that have the ability to really improve overall performance. Being an athlete means more than just having physical abilities. An athlete evaluation can help broaden an athlete’s focus to include improving tactical skills like quick, efficient decision making, intuition, and focus. Working on improving these unique skills can truly up an athlete’s game in any sport. ROI works with athletes on instilling professional conduct, and the integrated, holistic approach at ROI helps to bring focus to the whole athlete.
Are you aiming to up your game? Make your athlete evaluation work for you. Working with the experts at ROI means you have the chance to take part in customized services and programs to help you improve as an athlete. ROI’s trainers work hard to get to know the whole athlete, then develop specifically tailored programs that bring the best results. Reach out to ROI at 512-962-9141 to learn more.