My 8 YO DD was warmiing up her throwing arm (overhand throws) and she started experiencing a ittle pain and tickling sensation at the tip of her elbow. It only hurts her throwing overhand, and does not seem to have any pain pitching windmill. Has your DD had a similar experience; could it be an overuse injury or hyperextension; and what are your recommendations. Thanks.
Elbow Pain in Throwing Arm?
- Thread starter SoCalSoftballdad
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My 9 year old experienced something very similar to what you are describing. She pitches and started experiencing pain when overhand throwing.(she had awful overhand mechanics) It eventually bled over into her pitching. After a while it kept getting worse and worse until one day it hurt when she hit a hard line drive. We took her to a very good Dr. here in our area for MRIs and Xrays. Long story short they diagnosed her basically with "little leagers" elbow.(tendonitits). We took a solid month off. No throwing, under or over hand and even restricted her batting. (made her a heck of a bunter though. ) When we brought her back the first thing we did was fix her overhand mechanics. Then started her back pitching. We have been very careful with rest,stretching, ice etc since and have had no issues.
- Jul 28, 2008
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Warm up in order to throw. DO NOT THROW TO WARM UP! This pains me when I see kids grab a ball and start throwing to warm themselves up. Jog, stretch, do some isometrics and then gradually start working into throwing. Then ice down after practice.
I had this same problem last month. Its defenitly sounds like tendonitis. (or golfers elbow as my physio called it) It worries me that an eight year old is experiencing this, as I'd been pitching for about ten years at that point.
I fixed it this year by modifying my style. I wasn't turning my body far enough and this was putting pressure on my elbow as I was compensating for not having enough shoulder movement.
I fixed it this year by modifying my style. I wasn't turning my body far enough and this was putting pressure on my elbow as I was compensating for not having enough shoulder movement.
Thanks for the responses. My DD has been playing a lot of softball this past year and I think she probably needs to rest the arm more and as you suggest, change her throwing mechanics.
My 12 yo dd went through something similar and I think I posted something about it here. She had no problem with overhand throwing but every now and then she would get a tingling sensation in her pitching elbow after a pitch. It wasn't painful and didn't linger and happened randomly (wasn't associated with any particular pitch she threw) but it concerned me enough that I took her to the doctor (I was going myself anyway because I tweeked my knee).
The doc told us the majority of elbow related baseball and softball throwing problems are due to loss of flexibility in the throwing shoulder. He recommended a couple of stretching exercises, primarily one he called a "sleeper stretch" in which a person will lie on their side with the throwing shoulder down and extend their arm straight out and then extend their forarm upwards in an L shape. Then using their opposite hand to guide it move the upward extended throwing hand downward towards the lower half of the body. If you try it yourself you probably wont be able to touch the ground with your throwing hand and you'll feel your muscles stretching right under your shoulder blade.
I have to bug my dd to remember to do this daily but even with her forgetting to do this every day she's had no recurrence of the tingling sensation she used to get. Your milage may vary so you may want to consult your dd's own doctor.
The doc told us the majority of elbow related baseball and softball throwing problems are due to loss of flexibility in the throwing shoulder. He recommended a couple of stretching exercises, primarily one he called a "sleeper stretch" in which a person will lie on their side with the throwing shoulder down and extend their arm straight out and then extend their forarm upwards in an L shape. Then using their opposite hand to guide it move the upward extended throwing hand downward towards the lower half of the body. If you try it yourself you probably wont be able to touch the ground with your throwing hand and you'll feel your muscles stretching right under your shoulder blade.
I have to bug my dd to remember to do this daily but even with her forgetting to do this every day she's had no recurrence of the tingling sensation she used to get. Your milage may vary so you may want to consult your dd's own doctor.
Thanks for the responses. Quick update: after about a week the pain went away and she has been fine ever since. I think she hyperextended her elbow throwing hard overhand. However, this is a wake-up call for her and me to make sure that she warms up properly and throws using proper mechanics.
My 11yr old DD has had some elbow pain recently as well. She is catcher and outfielder. Since the 10th of June when all stars were announced we have practiced every day 5:30 to 7:30-45 with two one day weekend breaks. Plus a little select practice in there to. She nor I have had this much softball for so long and I feel like it's affecting her throw. She is adjusting it to keep it from hurting but it's really made her throws weak. Hope to get a month break in mid July and see if we can get it well.
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Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
I'd guess its a combination of increased usage and mechanics. DFP member Austin Wasserman's posts and ebook are what I would look at if you are concerned about throwing mechanics.
I'm working on fixing my DD overhand mechanics. We do very slow throwing motions while working on them. We also exaggerate the finished arm. I have only done one "warm up" session before pitching practice like this and she started to understand the motion and was doing it properly after a few minutes. I'm sure it will take her awhile to fully engrain it into her memory so she doesn't revert to her old ways.
