Body Composition and Pain and Injury
Softball pitchers have been studied from different perspectives and today I want to highlight a thread of studies by Freisen and colleagues with respect to body composition. Specifically, Freisen et al. (2021) studied the effects of body composition on pain and injury reporting. This research used dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans to determine body fat […]
Propulsion and Body Fat Percentage
I wanted to keep building on the thread of studies by Freisen and colleagues with respect to body composition. Next up is Friesen et al. (2022) Softball Pitching Propulsion and Performance Differences According to Body Fat Percentage. This research used dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans to determine body fat percentage, and classify pitchers into high […]
Rate of Force Development
This week’s article will pivot away from the body composition conversation (I will be back soon) to a novel concept called Rate of Force Development (RFD). RFD is the increase in force over time. In their article, Drive Leg Ground Reaction Forces and Rate of Force Development Drive Leg Ground Reaction Forces and Rate of […]
Paradoxical Training
This week’s article moves away from biomechanics entirely to discuss a concept I have been exploring with my own pitchers call Paradoxical Training. This concept refers to using opposing logic to train athletes, such as drills that encourage a hitter to pull the outside pitch or having pitchers aim at random targets far from the […]
Learning to be an Ecological Coach
This week I am going to shift a bit to start a conversation about a concept from Rob Gray’s newest book titled Learning to be an “Ecological” Coach: Developing Attuned and Adaptable Coaching Skills. He introduced a concept called invariants, or, specific biomechanical movements that all players must have to be successful. Research suggests that […]
“Force Signature” of the Softball Pitch
This week’s article builds on the concept of invariants from last week. A somewhat recent article by Nimphius et al (2016) called Variability of a ‘‘force signature” during windmill softball pitching and relationship between discrete force variables and pitch velocity measured the force of the drive leg and stride leg during the launch phase together […]
Range of Motion and Injury
In one of the early seminal papers on pitcher inury and prevention, Shanley et al. (2012) measured 12 pitcher’s passive range of motion (ROM). Passive range of motion is measured using a goniometer as the researcher stretches the pitcher as far as they can. Active ROM is where the pitcher moves as far as they […]
Fleisig et al. (2002) Injury Incidence
I wanted to go all the way back to possibly the most influential report of softball pitching injury. The reason why this article is so important is because it became the evidence for many researchers to get funding for softball pitching research by showing that the softball pitch isn’t the “natural motion” we all were […]
Arm Strength and Performance
Today we are going old-school once again with an article from the early 2000s on strength. Pugh et al (2001) measured 16 pitchers for arm, leg, grip strength and throwing speed within two different groups: experienced vs. inexperienced pitchers. The inexperienced pitchers were college undergrads who had never pitched before. Experienced pitchers had thrown in […]
Carrying Angle and Softball Pitching
Today we are going to a unique article regarding the elbow carrying angle. The carrying angle of the elbow is the angle formed between the long axis of the upper arm and the forearm when the arm is fully extended, and the palm faces forward. This angle allows the forearms to clear the hips during […]