Is the FMS worthless or is this just another case of only knowing enough to get you in trouble?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KDxeJVIc7iM
I recently came across an article that got my Irish up by a trainer entitled “Is the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) worthless?”. He used the video above from the Nike Football Training Camp as the basis for his argument on the FMS’s usefulness in preventing injury. This guy basically said “look how many of the athletes featured in the video still got injured this year…”
Well, here are the 2 giant gaping holes in his argument, which unfortunately are all too common of many of the FMS critics:
1-He has not been formally trained or certified in the FMS system so automatically he is speaking out of his posterior chain. He also goes on to say in his follow up article that he uses “some aspects of the FMS” in his own assessment. The FMS is a SYSTEM so to use it partially will never give you results, which you would know if you actually knew the system you are criticizing.
2-The screen itself does not prevent injury. It only discovers movement impairments and imbalances. The corrective training program you design based on that information is what reduces (not eliminates) the likelihood of injury. More importantly, that program only works if the athlete actually does the program and does it correctly.
I personally have worked with one of the athletes you use in your argument (Have you???). You know how much corrective work he does??? NONE. I hate to burst your bubble folks, but even professional athletes can be lazy sometimes and no testing system in the world fixes that.