DD is destroying her fingertips

[dbias]

15yo DD has recently ran into a problem of her index and middle fingers giving her fits. She keeps ripping the nail on the index finger throwing the rise ball... been a minor problem in the past but seems much worse this year. Now she is somehow ripping or cutting the skin on the side of the middle finger toward the index finger that runs from the tip of the finger to just past the bottom of the nail bed. Had to call time out and clean hand up last night as blood was literally dripping off of her finger. We do the nail hardners, super glue, tough skin etc but last night things really got ugly quick. Any other ideas or suggestions?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

See a manicurist and try acrylic or powered gel nails. I wore them at least 15 years during the height of my coaching days. A good manicurist will be invaluable to your DD.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

One time I took a line drive off of the fingernail from one of my sons, and it split the acrylic nail and my finger was fine. I did excite the boys, a little, when I took ahold of the nail and pulled it off.

Good luck, to your DD, dbias.

 

[Steve Huff]

One time I took a line drive off of the fingernail from one of my sons, and it split the acrylic nail and my finger was fine. I did excite the boys, a little, when I took ahold of the nail and pulled it off.

Good luck, to your DD, dbias.

Now if you had this event set up properly, and had artificial blood squirting out all over everybody, you would have given them a good story for school.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

DD here tried the fake nails, short, and that did not work. Her PC recommended that that worked for her. But torque on DD's spin just too much for any kind of fake nail in any kind of shortness.

In the end there were only two answers to this problem for us:
1. Make sure pitchers build up to the volume of pitches needed. (the body always hates immediate ramps of pitch-counts)
2. Any heavy pitching stints I will place super-glue in the creases of the subject fingers.

 

[dbias]

DD here tried the fake nails, short, and that did not work. Her PC recommended that that worked for her. But torque on DD's spin just too much for any kind of fake nail in any kind of shortness.

In the end there were only two answers to this problem for us:
1. Make sure pitchers build up to the volume of pitches needed. (the body always hates immediate ramps of pitch-counts)
2. Any heavy pitching stints I will place super-glue in the creases of the subject fingers.

Overall it seems that superglue works the best, even to close up skin tear and bleeding on the side of middle finger. I think answer number 1 is probably the root of the problem. After a relatively quiet February HS ball exploded with a bunch of games within a two week period.
Yesterday though was still puzzling to us. DD pitched well with other team going three up three down through the first four innings, so her pitch count was pretty low but somehow the skin on the inside of her middle finger ripped or got cut and got to bleeding so bad time out was called to clean her and the ball up.

 

[jdp29]

I ahve seen some use new skin or other liquid bandages.

 

[MandM]

I would hesitate to use superglue if there is any break in the skin
Here is another product that you could try

Foot Care - prevent blisters, toughen your skin for sports, hunting or anywhere tough skin is required.

 

[XXXUROUT]

I had this problem too...I kept my finger nails (the first three fingers on my pitching hand -- pointer, middle and ring finger) very, very short and had acrylic put over the top of the nail. Had to keep the nails below my finger tips. Then I sprayed on tuff skin on my finger tips and immediately used rosin (rosin sticks to wet tuff skin)...something about rosin with the tuff skin together helps to toughen up your finger tips. The skin kind of becomes callused. Probably need to let the fingers heal a bit first. But this is what I did for years.

Of course, this is something to do at home...not during a game.