Case Study: When Power Doesn't Reappear – Diagnosing Lateral Re-Expression Deficits in a Professional Golfer
The Limits of Peak Testing
A common assumption in power training is that if an athlete can produce strong peak outputs across several movement patterns, their explosive profile is well balanced, but peak output alone does not always reveal how power behaves under repeated exposure.
This distinction becomes particularly important in rotational sports such as golf, where explosive actions must be reproduced consistently across long competitive rounds.
Recently, while profiling a professional golfer using the Evans Velo Zone™ diagnostic sequence, an interesting pattern emerged.
Peak outputs across vertical, horizontal, and rotational exposures were well aligned, but the re-expression profile told a different story.
👉🏾 If you’re working with athletes and want to apply this directly, you can explore the EVZ Certification here.
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What the Diagnostic Revealed
A Re-Expression Imbalance
Across multiple exposures, the athlete demonstrated strong re-expressionin most directions:
• Vertical re-attainment: 104%
• Horizontal re-attainment: 106%
• Rotational re-attainment: 101%
Each of these directions showed stable or improved output when power was re-expressed across exposures.
However, lateral power behaved differently.
Lateral re-attainment measured 95%, indicating that output declined slightly when the movement was repeated.
In other words:
• The athlete could produce strong lateral output initially, but the ability to re-express that output across exposures was reduced compared to other directions.
• This created a directional durability imbalance.
This athlete is not limited by capacity.
With an average club head speed of 118mph and a max speed of 124mph, his current output level was built through a structured training system focused on power development.
Despite this, performance inconsistencies were still present, particularly in how that output held across repeated swings. This is where capacity alone stops being the limiting factor.
👉🏾 What is the EVZ Wave™?
Apply This Diagnostic System In Practice
This type of pattern is one reason the Evans Velo Zone™ framework was developed.
The EVZ Practitioner Certification (Level I) teaches coaches how to diagnose:
• Power retention patterns
• Re-expression under fatigue
• Directional durability in sport movement
The course is NSCA CEU Approved (0.7 Category C).
Enrollment for the founding cohort enrollment closes Monday, March 30 and is limited to 25 practitioners.
👉🏾 Learn More About the Certification
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Why This Matters for Golf
The Role of Lateral Power in Rotational Sport
Golf is often described as a rotational sport, but effective rotational force transfer depends heavily on lateral stability and re-expression.
During the swing:
• Ground interaction shifts laterally
• Force must be stabilized through the lead side
• Rotational acceleration depends on lateral deceleration control
If lateral output cannot be re-expressed consistently, the athlete may experience:
• Reduced late-round explosiveness
• Inconsistent ground force transfer
• Reduced rotational sequencing stability
These limitations may not appear during peak testing, but they often appear under repeated exposure.
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What Traditional Testing Might Miss
Traditional testing might show:
• Strong vertical jump
• Strong peak rotational velocity
• Strong peak power outputs
From that perspective, the athlete appears balanced, but retention mapping adds a behavioral layer.
Retention mapping evaluates how output behaves after the first expression and in this case, peak capacity was not the limitation, directional durability was.
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Programming Implications
Once the pattern was identified, training adjustments emphasized:
• Lateral re-expression under controlled fatigue
• Exposure sequencing across directional demands
• Improved stabilization under lateral loading
• Re-attainment consistency across sets
The goal was not to raise peak power, it was to stabilize lateral output behavior across exposures.
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The Broader Coaching Lesson
This example highlights an important coaching principle:
Two athletes can display similar peak outputs across multiple directions, but their durability profiles may differ significantly.
Peak capacity tells us what an athlete can produce.
Retention mapping helps reveal whether that output holds.
And in many sports — especially rotational and repeated-effort environments — that distinction can meaningfully influence performance.
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The Diagnostic Layer
Cases like this are one reason the Evans Velo Zone™ framework was developed.
Peak power development remains essential, but understanding how output behaves across exposures adds another layer of performance clarity.
Retention mapping allows coaches to identify patterns that peak testing alone may not reveal.
Inside the Evans Velo Zone™ Practitioner Certification coaches learn the full diagnostic sequence used in this analysis.
The course includes:
• 8 structured learning modules
• Applied diagnostics and visual labs
• Real-world case study integration
• Final practitioner assessment
• NSCA CEU Approved • 0.7 CEUs.
Participants also receive a digital copy of The Power Playbook and priority access to the upcoming EVZ diagnostic app tool.
The next EVZ certification cohort enrollment closes on Monday, March 30th and is limited to 25 practitioners. 👉View Practitioner Certification
Because in sport, performance is rarely determined by the first expression of power, it is determined by whether that power holds.
