Minetos et al. (2023) Review of Injury Literature
In a review of several articles regarding softball injury, Minetos et al (2023) performed a narrative review, meaning they collected and summarized existing academic studies on the windmill softball pitch—focusing on how it works biomechanically and how it may cause shoulder injuries. They looked at both biomechanics reports and shoulder injury data, especially in college […]
Which Pitches Create the Most Arm Stress?
This week’s article, Oliver et al. (2021) compares arm stress for different pitch types in college pitchers. The researchers studied 27 NCAA Division I softball pitchers. Each pitcher threw three types of pitches: the fastball, curveball, and changeup. While pitching, special cameras and motion sensors tracked how their bodies moved. At the same time, computer […]
Force Created by the Push Off Foot (Drive Foot)
Martinez and McLean studied five NCAA Division III softball pitchers to see how much force was put on their push-off foot (the foot that drives off the rubber) and their landing foot (the foot that plants when delivering the pitch). Each pitcher threw three types of pitches: fastball, changeup, and curveball. They measured the peak […]
Rojas et al. (2009) Biceps Activity during the Pitch
Rojas et al. (2009) studied how the biceps muscle works during the windmill softball pitch. They used 10 female college softball pitchers who didn’t have shoulder injuries. The pitchers threw fastballs while special sensors (electromyography, or EMG) measured how much the biceps muscle was firing during different parts of the pitch. At the same time, […]
An Overview of Pelvic Biomechanics
I am trying something new this week. I have collected PDFs of every biomechanics article for softball pitching for the dissertation. I wanted to try something, so I uploaded it to Chat GPT to see what it thought about the involvement of the pelvis during the softball pitch. I am summarizing in the newsletter but […]
Biomechanics of the Trunk Overview
I am trying something new this week. I have collected PDFs of every biomechanics article for softball pitching for the dissertation. I wanted to try something, so I uploaded it to Chat GPT to see what it thought about the involvement of the trunk (or thoracic spine) during the softball pitch. I am summarizing in […]
Range of Motion Overview
I am trying something new this week. We are discussing some potential options for research in the coming months and one of the topics of interest that came up with the research team was our movement screen. Movement screens are great because they can identify areas of immobility quickly but there are limitations on measurements. […]
Shoulder Muscle Firing Patterns
This week we’re going back to 1997 for Maffet et al. study on shoulder muscle firing patterns. In this study, the researchers wanted to see how the muscles in the shoulder work during a windmill-style softball pitch. They used eight healthy college-aged women who pitched at a competitive level. To measure which muscles were being […]
Freisen et al. (2022) Body Composition and Joint Angular Velocity
In their study titled “Athlete body composition influences movement during sporting tasks: an analysis of softball pitchers’ joint angular velocities”, Friesen et al. (2022) measured body composition and pitching kinematics in a group of softball pitchers to see how body fat might affect how their joints move. They recruited 40 high school and college pitchers […]
Fry et al. (2019) Review biomechanical and clinical studies
Fry et al. (2019) performed a literature review of existing biomechanical and clinical studies related to the windmill softball pitch (WSP). They searched for and collected the current evidence on how the lower body, trunk, and upper limb interact when pitching underhand, as well as how those movements relate to injury risk. Because it is […]