ANSWERS TO SOME OF THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Movement capability is a fundamental component of human health. Oak Responders leverages proven Sparta Science assessments and data from force plates to objectively understand how individuals move in an efficient, repeatable way. This information can help us understand how well prepared a person is for different types of activities, which individuals are at a heightened risk for injury, at what type of activities a person is likely to excel, and how individuals can improve their movement capability.

The balance and plank scans are used to measure an individual’s ability to statically stabilize on a single limb. These results can be used to screen for potential injury risk, identify limb asymmetries, and provide objective measures of progress throughout rehabilitation. The jump scan is used to characterize an individual’s dynamic movement strategy, which relates to how they complete any force-requiring movement, such as jumping, walking, swimming, hitting, picking up a heavy box, etc. It is also used to identify potential risk of injury, to identify or classify individuals for a particular position or skill, and to assess individual readiness for activity.

The data used to calculate the T-scores presented in the software include all of the data from male and female populations collected over the years (millions of scans!). This allows for easy comparison between subjects and enables us to uncover powerful trends in human movement, which are universal. For example, the same underlying trends for hamstring injuries are found in soccer, football, and military populations. Aggregating these subgroups together creates a predictive model with greater statistical power. The database is, however, segmented into more granular groups (age, activity type), enabling us to create more specific predictions.

Individuals complete up to three unique assessments that provide objective data in a range of metrics. The software then pulls insights from the Sparta Science database of over a million scans to identify the individual’s potential risk for injury. Oak Responders then provides training recommendations based on each clients’ risk and the types of activities in which they engage.

The reliability of the Sparta assessments is at the core of our values. First and foremost, we want to provide our customers with reliable assessments and present only the most reliable variables within those assessments, filtering the signal from the noise. This data is then analyzed by independent, third-party statisticians to ensure an unbiased analysis. The assessments also have a unique error detection system which filters bad trials in real time.