Lower Extremity Pain and Biomechanics
Today we are going to an article that illustrates how we may need to look at pain through several different lenses. Oliver et al. (2021) Lower Extremity Pain and Pitching Kinematics and Kinetics in Collegiate Softball Pitchers measured 37 collegiate pitchers to determine the kinematic and kinetic differences of pitchers with and without lower extremity […]
Upper Extremity Pain in D1 Softball Pitchers
Sorry for the delay. We are traveling to California this week to take on the Bears. Today’s article features Oliver et al (2018) Upper Extremity Pain and Pitching Mechanics in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Softball. The authors measured 55 collegiate softball players in 2 groups: with and without upper extremity pain. They […]
Forearm Muscle Firing Patterns for each Pitch
I had a good question about abdominal muscle activation this week, which, unfortunately, I could not answer because there have not been any published studies regarding the core musculature and softball pitching. That said, I may bring some studies from other sports and see if we can find some answers. I was inspired to bring […]
Functional Tests and Baseball Pitching Performance
I am sorry about missing last week. With post-season softball going on, it’s sometimes difficult to bring good content. However, today I had a little time to get one out. I am trying a couple of new things and would love your feedback. Today I am reviewing a 2013 article by Lehman et al. titled […]
I’m a Little Crazy
I have been resonating with Morgan Wallen’s new song “I’m a little Crazy” lately. Now that our season is over, I am a full-time youth baseball coach for my 8-year old’s kid pitch team and 5-year old’s tee ball team. My wife and I design the practices, and I am constantly reminded of old techniques […]
Hill et al. (2004) Influences of Injury Incidence
This week’s article titled “Female Collegiate Windmill Pitchers: Influences to Injury Incidence” by Hill, Humphries, Weidner, and Newton (2004) investigates injury patterns among collegiate softball pitchers and the factors contributing to these injuries. Published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, the research utilized a web-based survey targeting 181 collegiate softball pitchers from NCAA […]
Old School: Upper Extremity Kinematics
For this week I want to take you back to 1982 for Alexander and Haddow’s article “A kinematic analysis of an upper extremity ballistic skill: The windmill pitch.” Four elite pitchers participated throwing pitches in an old school motion capture lab. They used the 2 best pitches from each pitcher for their analysis. In the […]
Shoulder and Scapular Kinematics and Fatigue
Today’s article comes from Backes et al. (2013) Shoulder and Scapular Kinematics during the Windmill Softball Pitch: The Effect of Fatigue. 7 participants threw 7 sets of 15 pitches to simulate a 7-inning game. Motion capture set up measured 3D angular rotations of glenohumeral, scapulothoracic, and thoracic joints for every pitch. They found: Ball Speed: […]
Biomechanics and Upper Extremity Pain
Today’s article comes from Oliver et al. (2019) Association of Upper Extremity Pain With Softball Pitching Kinematics and Kinetics. 37 adolescent pitchers ages 12-18 were divided into two groups: those pitching with pain (pain group) and those pitching without pain (no pain group). Each threw 3 pitches in a motion capture lab. Pain groups were […]
Pregame Throwing Routine in College Softball
In an interesting small group study of collegiate softball pitchers, an article by Oliver et al. (2018) titled The effects of a pre-throwing program on collegiate NCAA Division I softball pitchers’ biomechanical measures of hip and shoulder range of motion measured athletes over the course of a season to determine changes in range of motion. […]