Functional Movement Screen Analysis

In general, Functional Movement Screens have become a part of pre-participation exams for many collegiate and professional sports to identify athletes at risk of injury (Schneiders et al., 2011). Athletes need muscle strength, flexibility, and proprioception to perform the complex movements that they do on the field (Kiesel, Plisky, & Voight, 2007; Cook, Burton, & Hoogenboom, 2006). The Functional Movement Screens “take into account all of these movements using a score that can determine if an athlete is more at risk of injury compared to other athletes” (Teyhen et al, 2012; Cook, Burton, & Hoogenboom, 2006). Certain fitness tests are used by several evaluation agencies, such as the National Football League, to determine the value of an athlete

According to Schneiders, Davidsson, Horman, &Sullivan (2011), “the Functional Movement Screen was developed as a comprehensive pre-participation and pre-season screen tool that challenges an individual’s ability to perform basic movement patterns” (p.76). Cook et al., (2006) developed the FMS when there was not a functional evaluation standard to make rehabilitation protocols that take into account how a patient functionally moves. The FMS is an evaluation tool that is “comprised of seven fundamental movements to assess an individual’s mobility and stability” (Cook et al., 2006, p.63). Observation has indicated that athletes cannot perform these simple movements and still be able to perform at a high level (Cook et al., 2006). The review will focus on the lower extremity tests of the FMS to determine the validity of each

Each test is meant to test a specific movement that will require the body to fire a proper sequence of movements in the kinetic chain (Cook et al., 2006). The body’s proprioceptive abilities are an important aspect of the kinetic chain because this will tell the body where the joint’s position is in space to perform a certain movement (Cook et al., 2006). According to Cook et al., (2006), the correct movement patterns were initially formed “during growth and development, but due to weakness or dysfunction in the kinetic chain, a poor movement is isolated by the FMS” (p.64). If an individual’s development is disrupted it will affect how to move properly, and they are more likely to experience an injury (Cook et al.,