An NHL athlete with a bilateral reactive strength deficit in both hips since 2022. Years of the same complaints: tight, stiff, never feels loose. Then the outputs dropped. Less pop. A step slower.
When there’s no bottom-up tension in the tissue, the nervous system outputs tightness instead. It shields. That’s what a bottom-up reactive strength deficit looks like at the level of competition.
His history showed no reactive strength treatment or training in place. So we installed it, mostly from the table. The feedback loops are moving the right way:
The closing angle block is gone. What he thought was pelvic instability was joint function, which drives neurological tightness at the hip joint level.
Camp volume spiked, tightness didn’t. The highest volume block of the year produced significantly less tightness.
Tightness turned into soreness. Adductors and glutes, exactly what we want sore in a hockey player.
The game slowed down. He can see things on the ice he couldn’t before.
Output is still diminished. This is a long play. And during his latest Point A, one isometric showed how deep the problem went.
The Point A PIMA Feedback Loop
