Upper Limb Force Plate Tests and Return to Sport Decision Making

Ben uses the countermovement push-up, the ASH test in I, Y and T positions, the press jump and the box drop land. These tests are reliable, but what they tell us is still unclear, so he uses them for late-stage and performance measures. Peak force and rate of force development are cued differently depending on whether the athlete is still in rehab or returning to performance. Good ASH scores from his experience are about 1.8 times body weight in I, 1.6 in Y and 1.4 in T, with three 3-second contractions and 20 seconds rest. Cheats include bending the elbow, tilting the shoulder forward, rotating the pelvis and moving the legs. Return to sport is framed as a decision process: a clear diagnosis and prognosis, criteria-based return to play, load management, shared ownership of the injury across the team, and the high-performance context. He closes with test batteries for overhead athletes and for collision athletes with anterior or posterior instability, noting that no single test captures every demand of a sport.