Mar 26, 2015Pitching Injury Indicators
As detailed in an article on Healio.com, a study presented at last week’s American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting found a trio of factors could be to blame for shoulder and elbow injuries. The findings revealed height, pitch velocity, and playing for more than one team correctly predicted 77 percent of injury histories for adolescent baseball pitchers.
Dr. Peter N. Chalmers, a member of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Rush University Medical Center, and colleagues looked at high-speed video, pitching data, and the self-reported injury histories of 420 adolescent pitchers and found the following:
- Thirty one percent of athletes reported having suffered a throwing injury.
- Pitchers who played for more than one team were 22 percent more likely to experience an injury.
- A 10-inch growth in pitcher height resulted in a 20 percent increase in injury risk.
- A 10 mile-per-hour increase in pitch velocity was associated with a 12 percent increase in the likelihood of an injury.
