TLDR
A pre-season physiotherapy movement screening checks how a young athlete’s joints move, where asymmetries exist, and which areas lack stability or mobility before competition begins. When gaps are identified early, a physiotherapist builds a targeted 4 to 6 week conditioning plan to address those specific issues before practice and game intensity increases. This process supports better movement readiness and helps reduce avoidable overload during the season.
Sports season brings a real shift in physical demand. After weeks or months of lower activity, young athletes move into regular practices, games, and drills that require sprinting, stopping, cutting, jumping, and absorbing contact. That transition puts load on joints and muscles that may not be fully prepared for what’s ahead.
A physiotherapy movement screening is a structured assessment that looks at how a young athlete moves before the season ramps up. It identifies asymmetries between sides, gaps in core control, balance limitations, and mobility restrictions in key joints. From there, a physiotherapist builds a targeted conditioning plan designed specifically around those findings.
With 4 to 6 weeks of focused preparation before competition starts, young athletes build a stronger movement foundation and step into the season with more confidence. This guide walks through what that process looks like, why it matters, and what parents and coaches can watch for along the way.
What Does a Pre-Season Injury Screening for Kids Actually Check?
A movement screening is not a fitness test, and it is not a pass/fail exam. It is a clinical look at how the body moves through a series of patterns that mirror the demands of sport.
The Functional Movement Screen is one widely used framework that assesses fundamental movement quality across multiple planes of motion. At its core, the assessment looks at whether joints are doing the right job: mobile where they need to be, stable where they need to be. When that relationship breaks down, the body compensates, and compensation under sport load is where problems often start.
A typical screening checks:
- Squat, lunge, single-leg stance, jump, and landing mechanics
- Hip, ankle, shoulder, and thoracic spine mobility
- Core stability during dynamic movement
- Left-to-right differences in strength, range of motion, and movement control
- Pain, stiffness, previous injuries, and any growth-related concerns
The goal is to identify modifiable movement habits and physical gaps before they become problems under load. As one way to think about it: the screening looks at how your child moves, not just how strong or fast they are.
Why Do Asymmetries Matter Before the Season Starts?
An asymmetry means one side of the body moves, absorbs force, or controls load differently than the other. Most people have some degree of asymmetry, and it does not automatically signal injury risk. What matters is the degree of the difference and how it shows up during sport-specific demands.
Sport puts repetitive, high-speed load through the body. Sprinting, stopping suddenly, cutting, pivoting, jumping, landing, throwing, and checking all require the body to coordinate quickly and absorb force efficiently. When one side is working harder to compensate for the other, that overload accumulates over a season.
Research published through the National Institutes of Health supports the role of functional movement assessment in identifying these risk patterns in young athletes before they progress into injury.
Some common examples a physiotherapist looks for include:
- A knee collapsing inward on a jump landing, which signals poor hip and knee control
- One ankle lacking the mobility to complete a full squat, causing the body to compensate through the knee or lower back
- Weak hip control during single-leg balance, which affects cutting and deceleration
- Uneven shoulder mobility in throwing or overhead athletes, which shifts load to surrounding structures
Identifying these patterns gives the athlete something specific and trainable to work on before the season begins.
What Do Core Deficits, Balance Gaps, and Mobility Restrictions Look Like in Young Athletes?
Three findings come up consistently in pre-season screenings and each one affects sport performance in specific ways.
Core Deficits
Core stability refers to the body’s ability to keep the trunk controlled while the limbs move quickly. It is not about how many sit-ups a child can do. It is about whether the spine and pelvis stay steady during a landing, a direction change, or a hard sprint. A deficit here often shows up as the upper body swaying, the hips dropping, or the lower back overworking during movement tasks.
Balance Gaps
Single-leg control is a foundational requirement across almost every sport. Poor balance on one leg means the body struggles to control landings, absorbs shock inefficiently, and fatigues faster during direction changes. Balance gaps are often more noticeable in athletes returning from a break or going through a growth spurt, when the nervous system is catching up to new limb lengths.
Mobility Restrictions
Limited mobility in the ankles, hips, shoulders, or thoracic spine forces nearby joints to move more than they should. An Oregon State University study on youth sport injury patterns highlights how restricted movement in one area consistently leads to compensatory loading elsewhere. Catching a mobility restriction early means correcting it before a full season of compensated movement reinforces the pattern.
Finding any of these gaps is not a cause for alarm. It is useful information that gives the athlete a concrete starting point.
How Does a Physiotherapist Turn Screening Results Into a Targeted Conditioning Plan?
The screening is the starting point, not the end point. Once a physiotherapist identifies the priority gaps, they build a conditioning plan matched to the athlete’s sport, age, and current physical capacity.
Two athletes on the same team playing the same position often need completely different plans. A sports readiness assessment for children is individualized by design because movement patterns, training history, and physical development vary significantly even within the same age group.
A typical plan draws from these categories:
| Training Category | What It Addresses |
| Mobility drills | Ankle, hip, shoulder, or thoracic spine range of motion |
| Core control work | Trunk stability during dynamic limb movement |
| Strengthening exercises | Glutes, hamstrings, calves, and upper body depending on sport demands |
| Balance and coordination training | Single-leg control, proprioception, and reactive stability |
| Sport-specific movement drills | Landing mechanics, acceleration, deceleration, and agility |
The plan progresses gradually, building from foundational control toward sport-specific application. Movement quality is checked again before the season fully ramps up.
Why Does the 4 to 6 Week Window Matter So Much?
The timing of a pre-season assessment directly affects what is possible before competition starts. Screening too close to the first game leaves little room to act on findings. Starting 4 to 6 weeks out creates a realistic window for meaningful preparation.
A well-structured plan moves through these phases:
- Week 1: Baseline screening, movement priorities identified, any pain or stiffness addressed
- Weeks 2 to 3: Mobility work, core control, and foundational strength exercises introduced
- Weeks 4 to 5: Sport-specific movement added, including landing mechanics, agility, and endurance
- Week 6: Reassessment of movement quality, warm-up strategy confirmed, season plan in place
This timeline is designed to fit around school, existing practice schedules, and family routines. Sessions do not need to be long to be effective, they need to be consistent and specific.
No screening or conditioning program removes all risk from sport. The goal is to reduce avoidable overload and improve movement readiness before competition demands peak.
What Should Parents and Coaches Watch for During Pre-Season?
Some signs suggest a young athlete would benefit from a physiotherapy movement screening before the season begins:
- Limping, favouring one side, or recurring soreness after practice
- Difficulty keeping up with peers after a break from training
- Poor landing mechanics or frequent loss of balance
- A recent growth spurt accompanied by coordination changes
- Previous ankle, knee, hip, back, shoulder, or concussion-related issues
- Pain that increases with activity or does not settle with rest
Acting early gives more time to address what is found. Waiting for pain to become consistent or severe limits the options available and often means missing the best preparation window.
For any severe pain, significant swelling, inability to bear weight, suspected fracture, head injury symptoms, or sudden neurological signs, seek urgent medical care right away rather than waiting for a scheduled appointment.
Key Takeaways
- A physiotherapy movement screening assesses joint mobility, stability, and movement patterns before sports season begins, not just strength or fitness levels.
- The joint-by-joint approach checks whether each area of the body is mobile or stable where it needs to be; when this relationship is off, compensations develop and load gets distributed unevenly.
- Asymmetries in strength, range of motion, or single-leg control do not guarantee injury, but they guide a smarter and more specific pre-season conditioning plan.
- Core deficits, balance gaps, and mobility restrictions in areas like the ankles, hips, and thoracic spine frequently appear in young athletes and are all trainable with the right program.
- A 4 to 6 week pre-season window gives enough time to identify movement gaps, build foundational control, introduce sport-specific drills, and reassess movement quality before competition ramps up.
- No program eliminates all injury risk; the purpose of screening is to reduce avoidable overload and improve physical readiness before the demands of a full season begin.
Ready to Move Into the Season with More Confidence?
A pre-season movement screening is one of the most practical steps a young athlete can take before the first practice. It replaces guesswork with specific, actionable findings and gives the season a focused starting point.
Book a pre-season physiotherapy movement screening at Harbourview Therapy in Winnipeg. Our team works with young athletes of all ages and abilities, identifying movement gaps, building targeted conditioning plans, and guiding them step by step before competition intensity increases.
Move better. Train smarter. Start strong.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should my child have a pre-season injury screening?
Ideally, book 4 to 6 weeks before the sports season starts. This gives enough time to identify movement gaps and begin a targeted conditioning program before practice and game intensity increases. The earlier you start, the more the athlete gets out of the preparation period.
Is physiotherapy movement screening only for kids who are already injured?
No. Screening is useful for young athletes who feel healthy, especially if they are starting a new sport, returning after time off, going through a growth spurt, or significantly increasing their training volume. Many movement gaps are present without causing pain until load increases.
Can a pre-season screening prevent all sports injuries?
No screening or exercise program can guarantee injury prevention. The goal is to identify modifiable movement patterns, support safer training habits, and improve physical readiness before a full season of sport demands begins.
