One of the most common issues we see in our athletes is a lack of ankle mobility and strength / stability, more specifically dorsiflexion range-of-motion. Whether you’re a pitcher, position player or catcher, since the foot and ankle are the first to hit the ground, your ankles are essentially “ground zero” for all things that happen later in any movement.
So, improving their mechanics (through mobility and strength / stability) is crucial for helping athletes learn how to distribute force more effectively through their feet and eventually up the kinetic chain.
This distribution is crucial for reducing the impact on any single joint or muscle group, not only helping to prevent injuries but also for enhancing performance in sports like baseball that require quick, multi-directional movements. In addition, ankle mobility is one of the main players in producing a good hip hinge which we all know in baseball, is essential in loading the back leg during both pitching and hitting.
Like anything else in performance, if we don’t have mobility and stability at a joint, we have to compensate at the joint above or below. For example, research has shown that a lack of ankle dorsiflexion can increase rotational torque at the knee and / or hip. If you lock up a joint that should be mobile, the body will look elsewhere to create that range-of-motion. And this will usually be at a joint that promotes stability and doesn’t “like” a lot of movement.
In Part 1 of this article, we are going to take a look at the importance of ankle “mobility”. In Part 2, we’ll look at the other side of the coin and talk about training strength / stability.
Why is Ankle Mobility Important?
Pitching
Often we’ll see pitchers with poor ankle mobility “push” through the toe instead of the heel with their back leg when driving down the mound. This contributes to creating a quad-dominant delivery instead of a significant contribution from the posterior chain musculature and there goes using your lower half.
Hitting
One of the keys to using ground reaction force for rotational power when hitting is the ability to create a stable platform with the back leg so that the hitter can better load into their back side and drive their weight to their front side more efficiently.
Catching
Having good ankle mobility / stability allows catchers to get into the deep squat or “primary position” and stay there more comfortably. Without this mobility, a huge strain will be placed on the already taxed hips. It is also crucial so they can “sway” to the left or right without too much movement of the receiving arm. Here’s a great exercise that can help.
Med Ball Sways
Poor Squatting / Back Issues
A lack of ankle mobility once again, particularly ankle dorsiflexion can have a profound effect on hip flexion and internal rotation. This can lead to athletes going into excessive rounding (flexion) in their lower lumbar in order to get the needed ROM.
We know that combining lumbar flexion with compressive loading such as seen in squatting can be a recipe for disaster (injury), so we’ll recommend that athletes modify or eliminate squatting altogether until we can get back some of that ankle dorsiflexion. A good alternative in this case would be reverse sled pulls which btw are also great when rehabbing knees.
Rev Sled Pulls
Some Common Causes
Postural Disconnects Above – We carry our center of mass too far forward thanks to postural distortions such as anterior pelvic tilt and forward head posture. Often, addressing these issues during training is all that is needed.
90-90 Glute Activation
Supine Chin Tucks
We Don’t Utilize Extensive Dorsiflexion in Daily Lives – Whether it’s in a full squat or high-speed running, we need to make sure we are getting adequate grooving of the pattern during workouts. Exercises such as Rocking Ankle Mob work great to not only train ankle dorsiflexion but avoid knee flexion while in dorsiflexion.
Rocking Ankle Mob
Summary
A lack of ankle mobility, especially dorsiflexion is one of the more common issues we find when assessing our athletes. This can lead to increased rotational torque further down at the knee and / or hip. By the same token, ankle mobility can be negatively affected through quad dominance from issues above such as anterior tilt or a forward head posture. And finally, we need to make sure we are getting adequate ankle dorsiflexion during our workouts to compensate for the amount of sitting most of us do- either at work or in school throughout the course of a day/week.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where we discuss the other side of the coin, Ankle Strength and Stability
See ya’ in the gym…
By Nunzio Signore (BA, CSCS, CPT, NASM, FMS)
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