Huge Bruise on Hip Bone and Inner Elbow

I know that this topic is discussed on here numerous of times. My dd has a huge bruise on her hip and inner elbow on her throwing side. She told me last night that its too painful to pitch so we stopped immediately. In May of this year we totally broke down her mechanics and slowly have rebuilt her. Working on ir and reverse posture and basically tackling one issue at a time. In August, I noticed a jump in speed and decrease in control (missing to the right---hitting batters alot) but we stayed the course and continued to work hard and now the control is getting there. Two weeks ago she says to me "every time I make contact with my hip I get better whip and I can put the ball where I want it" . I nodded and smiled as I thought she had found BI on her own. However now its like she is trying to force a lot of things in the last part of her motion and I think that is why she is banging her arm but I am not really sure. One problem we have tried to get rid of is over rotating her shoulders at release instead of keeping her shoulders still and allowing the arm to whip. Do you think this "spinning like a top action" could cause her arm to be banging against the hip??? We are working on staying open and now for the most part she gets it..... I just think if she trying to force arm to make contact with her hip that could unintentionally facilitate the urge to throw with her shoulders. We go for a pitching lesson on Sunday. But was hoping for some insight from you guys. Thanks so much!

bmd said:

I know that this topic is discussed on here numerous of times. My dd has a huge bruise on her hip and inner elbow on her throwing side. She told me last night that its too painful to pitch so we stopped immediately. In May of this year we totally broke down her mechanics and slowly have rebuilt her. Working on ir and reverse posture and basically tackling one issue at a time. In August, I noticed a jump in speed and decrease in control (missing to the right---hitting batters alot) but we stayed the course and continued to work hard and now the control is getting there. Two weeks ago she says to me "every time I make contact with my hip I get better whip and I can put the ball where I want it" . I nodded and smiled as I thought she had found BI on her own. However now its like she is trying to force a lot of things in the last part of her motion and I think that is why she is banging her arm but I am not really sure. One problem we have tried to get rid of is over rotating her shoulders at release instead of keeping her shoulders still and allowing the arm to whip. Do you think this "spinning like a top action" could cause her arm to be banging against the hip??? We are working on staying open and now for the most part she gets it..... I just think if she trying to force arm to make contact with her hip that could unintentionally facilitate the urge to throw with her shoulders. We go for a pitching lesson on Sunday. But was hoping for some insight from you guys. Thanks so much!

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Regarding the bolded portion above, see Rick's post below.

Rick Pauly said:

mothgirl
Check DD's amount of hip rotation/where does it stop prior to release. If the hips are over rotated it will typically cause the shoulders to over rotate also......this combo will often result in lots of pitches drifting inside (RHP/RHH). Use the old 45 degree standard (or slightly less) regarding hip rotation and make sure she is actually stopping that rotation prior to release.

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How is her spin BMD? Are you seeing a lot of bulletspin? two things I would check based on what you describe are the plane of her arm circle, she could be coming too far behind her body on the downswing. This will add to contact and promote an inside miss. Also if she is internally rotating late then the elbow can be in a position where you get more bone on bone contact with the hip. This is where you see a lot of bullet spin. If her circle is on a good plane coming down and she is internally rotating into contact then the fleshy part of the forearm will make contact instead of that little bony part of the elbow joint.

I would need to see video to confirm, but my guess is she is making contact with the elbow because she's releasing too far away from her thigh. How much gap do you see between the hand/ball and thigh at release? There should be little, if any gap at all. Otherwise, she can bump the elbow instead of brush/wrap/roll the forearm around the body. The inside of the elbow should make initial contact behind the hipbone, with the forearm wrapping/rolling around the soft area below the hipbone.

The simple fix might be to ask her to release as close to the thigh/pocket as possible. If her whip is otherwise decent, I would not be surprised is she is able to do this now--with no more pain (but let pain be the guide for when to start back at it.)

Another possible concern is as you mentioned; she might be getting too mechanical with her form. Allow whip/IR/pronation to happen by keeping the lower arm loose--down and into release. Forcing early IR can cause the forearm to hit vs wrap and roll.

Other culprits for bruising: overemphasis on pulling the elbow into the hip and arm too straight. A straight arm bonks the side more than brushes.

As you can see in these pics, the arm is behind the hip bone and wraps/rolls into a chicken winging motion around the hip/thigh:

Thanks guys!!! This is from a tape in August. I need to get a more recent clip. I hope these show up ok....sorry if they get too large, etc. I can see that the elbow is not behind the hip as Ken suggests.

The arm might be a little too straight which I think can also result in a bump vs a brush. Although it seems counterintuitive, elbow leading/pulling into the side is preferable at 7 o'clock:



As mentioned above, "pulling" the elbow in can be a problem if overemphasized/forced. Let whip happen.

Thanks Ken! The whole ir/whip vs. push has been a REAL struggle for my dd! We have been trying to get a little bit more bend at the elbow and I think she may be taking the cue to lead with the elbow to the extreme. She is very literal LOL but not LOL. Thanks Mr. Squeeze! You made an excellent point as well as I think that her arm sometimes goes too far behind her.

anyone know of a padded type sleeve that might help for new pitchers starting out with BI? The arm seems to be getting really red. No bruising or elbow bone going into the side or anything like that but pretty red. If not, I will invent one and everyone here will get a discount

I suppose this could be one solution.