Andrew Paul is the Director of Performance and Rehabilitation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He is both a sports performance coach and a physical therapist.  Andrew has learned from a variety of performance and biomechanics experts and has a deep knowledge of individual factors in athletic movement, training, and performance.

Individual factors in athletic movement and understanding the nuance of training in the athletic equation are where the future of training and performance is heading. At high levels of sport, this understanding becomes increasingly important to maximize players' health and vitality while catering to their primary performance drivers.

Last time on the show, Andrew talked about the difference between propulsive and absorbing actions, as seen on court and in training. For this episode, we dig into Andrew's take on movement screens and how particular types of athletes tend to be biased to excel in those tests. We also deeply discuss forefoot and rearfoot-oriented elastic athletes and mid-foot dominant athletes and how these aspects play out in court movement and training. This was another fantastic discussion with a brilliant performance mind.

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Timestamps

2:50- Joint-specific Movement Analysis for Enhanced Functionality

5:19- Triple Extension and Force Absorption in Movement

9:29- Forefoot Elastic Athlete Performance Monitoring Techniques

13:00- Acceleration Strategies Based on Foot Elasticity

17:35- Hip Internal Rotation in Rearfoot Elastic Athletes

19:32- Foot Type-Tailored Training Strategies for Athletes

29:31- Tailoring Foot Loading Strategies for Athlete Performance

34:08- Optimizing Performance Through Tailored Foot Exercises

36:15- Enhancing Balance with Specialized Discs Training

48:10- Tailoring Warm-Up Routines for Athletic Types

58:53- Jump Performance Insights: Movement Strategies Unveiled

1:06:59- Versatile Athletes with Multiple Movement Styles

Quotes

(2:27) "And I think the evidence on that's pretty clear. I did go through a phase in my career where I was using (FMS) pretty heavily, particularly when I was in college, because I think the functional movement screen is meant to be used at scale. And in my current environment, we only deal with 18 players and so we don't really need anything that's utilized at scale." - Andrew Paul

(3:40) Propulsive movers tend to rely on deep ranges of motion. And the reason why they rely on those things is because they're using a long concentric pushing action to create momentum, they tend to have more access to range of motion. They tend, and something like the FM's score higher than, than someone who's very fascial or elastic in nature. - Andrew Paul

(14:42) "Rear foot elastics really use their tripod well when they go from horizontal to vertical." - Andrew Paul

(22:40) “The fore-foot elastic to me is built for the long jump. Yes, it's like these are the guys that jogged on the court and dunk from the free throw line, but they're also the guys that don't have, like, a power dunking ability. Like they need a lot of runway to get their way up there. And then the rear foot elastic is a lot what you're talking about there. They, they kind of have to move in a spiral”

(27:28) "I define the midfoot as when a majority of your weight is on the back side ball of your foot." - Andrew Paul

(29:47) “And we, in jumping drills, we'll go barefoot and we will define. If you land on your toes and you rock back to your midfoot, once your heel hits in the ground, you are no longer absorbing anymore, because for us, propulsion is moving away from the midfoot and absorption is moving towards the midfoot” – Andrew Paul

(49:00) “A stiff muscular is a fore or a mid-foot dominant, two-foot jumper tends to test well in static, like vertical jump. Their vertical jump is like their jam. Like, they will kind of wow you with their jump heights in a static stance”

(49:05) “The advantages of a muscular mover, it's not all bad. The advantages are they tend to hold their ground really well on their feet, and they move well from a dead stop”

About Andrew Paul

Andrew Paul is the Director of Performance and Rehabilitation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. In this position Andrew oversees all aspects of the Strength and Conditioning and Nutrition programs. Being a physical therapist as well, Andrew also assists the Oklahoma City Medical Staff. Prior to coming to Oklahoma City, Andrew worked as a Physical Therapist and Performance Specialist at EXOS in Gulf Breeze, FL where his primary clientele was members of the Special Operations Units in the Military. Andrew also spent over 6 years at the University of Missouri where he worked as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the football program as well as several Olympic Sports programs. Andrew received his undergraduate degree in Exercise Science from Missouri State University, is certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of Missouri.