what is functional movement screening?

Function movement is a whole-body task or performance ability based on a patient's, client's or athlete's goals.

In manual therapy, it's often said;

"If you're not assessing, you're just guessing."

Assessment can be carried out in several different ways, such as Range of Motion (passive and assisted), Special tests, patient histories, video analysis.

Unfortunately, there are three significant downfalls to these types of assessment:

1. While we assess the range of motion for, let's say a knee, how often do you cary out any activity that only involves bending your knee without any movement in the hip or ankle.

2. Most often, these passive assessments are carried out unloaded. By this I mean and using the previous example, we have you lay on a table and test the knee without any body-weight loading it to create a ground force. 

3. These tests are all subjective; by that I mean three different therapists may interpret the results in 3 different ways. 

Using the MAT method, we can quantify results by measuring a loaded movement. 

This method allows us to collect objective movement data, allowing identification of movement dysfunction. From here, we can implement an individualised, evidence-based treatment and rehabilitation plan.

The MAT assessment for teams.

The MAT assessment tool is perfect for team assessments. We can utilise it as a pre-season tool to;

Identify members carrying injuries.

Identify those at risk of developing injuries during the season.

Create "base line" levels which give us crucial information if an when injuries do occur.