Overhead athlete return-to-sport decision support
A two-part framework for overhead athletes: quantify the physical capacity they bring to sport, then standardize how the sport movement itself is observed.
01 · Quantitative / capacity-focused
Sport-weighted testing across mobility, strength, power, dynamic stability, and endurance. Presets are available for baseball, volleyball, and swimming, with custom weighting for other overhead athletes.
02 · Observational / task-focused
A structured 2D observational screen for baseball throwing, volleyball hitting, and freestyle swimming. It standardizes the camera views, rating language, and task-specific movement features clinicians observe.
Why I built this
I’m Benjamin Blackstone, a DPT candidate and CSCS with a background in sports performance and orthopedic rehabilitation. I built this tool to answer a practical question: how can we make return-to-sport decisions for overhead athletes more objective without losing the value of clinical observation?
The site combines a quantitative shoulder RTS index with structured movement-quality analysis for baseball, volleyball, and swimming. The aim is simple: assess whether an athlete has the capacity to perform, how well they use that capacity during the sport task, and whether the overall picture supports progression back to sport.
Use together
Physical resources available to the athlete.
Task-specific movement findings that still need context.
Progress workload using symptoms, response, and clinical judgment.
Important: This is a clinical decision-support and educational tool, not a validated clearance algorithm. The composite RSSI weighting and the combined movement-quality framework remain proposed. Use them alongside clinician judgment, athlete context, and progressive sport exposure.