Elbow or Shoulder Pain and Professional Baseball Pitchers
It’s fair to say that a good baseball game can lie in the hands of the pitcher. According to an article by the American Journal of Sports Medicine, 50 percent of professional baseball pitchers experience elbow or shoulder pain due to the way they throw the ball. Because not much research has been done on professional baseball athletes, the purpose of this publication was to find at what point in the pitcher’s technique does most of the damage occur. The study began by taking 40 pro-baseball pitchers, all ranging from the age of 23-33 years old with relatively the same height and weight. Also, thirty-two of the 40 selected are right-hand dominant. Then they placed 3 cameras in different parts of the field. These cameras would take still frames of the pitchers and their technique when throwing the ball. They found that at the point where there is maximum rotation (aka the cocking phase) the distraction force was low.
Also, it was stated that because of the elbow angle at foot stride and ball release that the shoulder joint was affected more so than at any other time. Finally, in order to understand why the injuries occur we should learn the joint ranges of motion so we can develop better preventive methods for injuries.
I don’t believe that this article is very reliable, because the way the chose their subject wasn’t very scientifical. First, The range of age is too broad, and it doesn’t mention how long the pitcher has been in the sport. For example, the could have chosen a 23 year old with a good arm, but bad technique compared to a 33 year old who has been pitching for years and has loosened the ligaments in his arm. Also, they selected 32 that were right-hand dominant. That became the majority. I believe that the data would be wrong if the numbers of right-handed to left-handed pitchers weren’t equal, because they are the control group in the experiment, which makes the variable the pitchers’ technique. Overall, this experiment shouldn’t be considered a reference for students or others to depend on.
When it comes to the relevancy of this article to the field of athletic training, I believe that it is somewhat helpful. In order to understand and prevent injuries, an athletic trainer must understand why and how the injuries happen.
Pitching overhand is a particularly stressful motion; the strain it puts on a player's joint is commonly injurious. Pitchers such as Kerry Wood, Matt Morris, John Smoltz, Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon, and Eric Gagne all have a four inch scar on their pitching arms as evidence of this career saving surgery.
Wasser (2016) stated, “The acceleration phase involves increasing angular velocities of the body segments (pelvis, trunk, shoulders) and crosses to prepare for ball release.” The trunk follows a progressive pattern of flexion throughout the throwing motion, thus, influencing the power behind the ball’s trajectory. The turning of a player’s shoulders to align with their hips is what creates the momentum for the ball’s speed and direction upon release. At the beginning of the acceleration phase, as shown in the lacrosse shot analysis, the trunk exits the preparatory stage and enters a phase of rotation. According to Plummer and Oliver (2015), this phase is vastly important because the alterations in action and purpose of involved muscles could be
The game of baseball can be divided into three broad categories: hitting, pitching, and defense. No other facet of the game gets as much attention as hitting. For example, every year the MLB puts on a home run derby. No other part of the game draws as much attention. The traditional statistic that measure hitting ability is batting average (BA or AVG). To find a players batting averag...
When pitching, the pitcher needs to understand the different ways to use their body and learn about all of the different ways to throw the ball. Most people choose which way to throw based on how comfortable it is to them, but injury risk is also a huge factor. Biomechanics show people the best way to throw to achieve the highest success and avoid injuries.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the softball swing anatomically, mechanically, and analytically. By analyzing each move one makes when...
Before looking at his coaching philosophy, it is first important to be introduced to Wooden’s background and the early achievements he reached. John Wooden was born in 1910 in Hall, Indiana to Joshua and Roxie Wooden. Later in his life, his family to to Centerton and then to Martinsville (both in Indiana). Coach Wooden grew up with three brothers and two sisters. Legendary basketball player, Fuzzy Vandivier, was his role model as a child. At Martinsville High School, he led his team to three state championship games, winning the state title in 1927. Wooden also was a three time All-State selection (coachwooden.com).
When one throws a baseball properly they are using there entire body to generate a large force to propel the baseball. A general throwing position starts with a person rotated 90 degrees from there target with there throwing arm 180 degrees from the target and parallel to the ground. The person then starts rotating their body back towards their target while there throwing arm starts bending until it is almost 90 degrees to their elbow, while the arm is bending at the elbow the throwing arm is rotating such that the arm rotates back almost 180 degrees from the target. Meanwhile the person is leaping forward with the leg that was initially pointed at the target while there other leg is planted into the ground. The person is bending at their waist and the other arm is rotating into their body. Around the point where the driving leg strikes the ground the throwing arm is rotating foreword at a tremendous angular speed and the person lets go of the ball. At the point where the ball is let go the persons body pulls the planted leg forward and the throwing arm finishes its motion towards the driving leg.
Those who are uneducated in what exactly the Rastafarian lifestyle contains may think that Rastafarians are people who have dreads, people who only wear pan-Africanism colors, and people who inhale narcotics while listening to reggae music. True Rastafarians are those who follow the doctrine of Haile Selassie I, even though Haile Selassie I never regarded himself as a god, nor did he adhere to the Rastafari lifestyle. Marcus Garvey is the one people are holding responsible with the adaption of Rastas regarding Selassie as a god. I was also surprise that Skopal only mentioned Ethiopia but once or twice when, Ethiopia is the foundation of the Rastafari ideology. Rastafari’s believe that Hallie Selassie I was the second coming of my Christian savior
Baseball is considered America’s past time. Legends like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, and many more have come and gone. Throughout baseball’s history certain players have excelled more than others, and like any sport they were successful by exploiting their strengths. It isn’t the rules, uniforms, stadiums, and fan base that make baseball a beautiful sport; it’s the players. Anyone competing, whether it is at a professional level or not, has their own unique mechanics that allows them to perform the best they can. No pitcher throws the ball the same way as another and no batter hits the ball the same way as another. Every baseball player has a routine in everything they do that makes them special. It has been said that hitting a baseball is the hardest task in all of sports. To accomplish that task, all factors come in to play; the type of pitch being thrown, the release point of the pitch, the break of the ball, etc. All those factors occur before the batter’s swing is fully initiated. As mentioned earlier, no batter swings the same way as another however, the mechanics of a swing is a different thing entirely. The mechanics of one’s swing begins when a batter enters the box and ends when a batter exits, what happens in between is up to the batter. By perfecting a batter’s mechanics while in the box, their chances of making contact increase greatly.
For those who are unaware, the act of throwing overhand is an unnatural motion. For this reason, baseball players need to strengthen and build up the tiny muscles in their rotator cuffs (shoulder), and the deep muscles of the shoulder blades. The best way to carry out this is by performing exercises like shoulder stability movements.
John Wooden was born on October 14, 1910, in Hall, Indiana. He was raised on a farm and was a very hard work for a little bit of money. John Wooden in 1948 took the job of head coach at UCLA. During his time as head coach John Wooden taught his players how to be respectful and to be successful. As the head coach of UCLA’S basketball team UCLA went 664-162 in John Wooden’s 29-year college coaching career. Also as him as the head coach UCLA won 10 national championships. John Wooden’s legacy was seen as a man who was inspirational, motivational, and had words of wisdom for many players and people.
Why is Sport Medicine Important? Sports medicine is important to schools, trainers, coaches and most of all it should be important to anyone who is an athlete. That includes any athlete no matter their skill level; it could be a beginner or a professional. Sports injuries can happen to anyone, but getting injured is not fun and some of these injuries can affect your life for a short or long term period. Sports injuries need to be treated appropriately because they cause a great deal of damage to your body. This can ruin your sports chances later on in life, not to mention that it can also lower your quality of life. If an athlete gets injured, they should get help from someone who is specialized in sports injuries so t...
Despite the often negative image projected in the press and other writings, the Rastafarian movement has grown at a rapid rate. In 1977, an estimated 75,000 native Jamaicans were followers of Rastafari (Davis and Simon, Reggae Bloodlines, 63). By 1988, Barrett conservatively calculated the membership of the worldwide movement to be 300,000 (2). Forsythe observed that Rastafarianism "represents a growing force wherever sizable West Indian communities are found--in Britain, Canada, the USA and in the Caribbean" (63).
didn’t yell at his players or try to intimidate them. He, like Wooden, believed preparation
In general, Functional Movement Screens have become a part of pre-participation exams for many collegiate and professional sports to identify athletes at risk of injury (Schneiders et al., 2011). Athletes need muscle strength, flexibility, and proprioception to perform the complex movements that they do on the field (Kiesel, Plisky, & Voight, 2007; Cook, Burton, & Hoogenboom, 2006). The Functional Movement Screens “take into account all of these movements using a score that can determine if an athlete is more at risk of injury compared to other athletes” (Teyhen et al, 2012; Cook, Burton, & Hoogenboom, 2006). Certain fitness tests are used by several evaluation agencies, such as the National Football League, to determine the value of an athlete