No One Ever Drowned in Sweat: Using Functional Movement Screening in Preseason Physicals

With preseason football comes preseason physicals. Preventing injury is tightly linked to predicting injury. One of the tools commonly used is Functional Movement Screening (FMS).

But can preseason FMS predict injury?

Separating players based on the criteria of big, combo and skill, the authors of the study Preseason Screen Cannot Predict Injury over Three Years of College Football used FMS total score, and individual component test scores over three years with NCAA Division 1 football athletes and correlated these with injuries. There was no significant relationship between total FMS score and likelihood of injury when analyzed by the total team or by position group.