DD pitches and catchs-now having elbow pain

[gretchen473]

My daughter plays in a 14u league. They play 2- 5 inning games every Mon and Wed. She usually pitchs one game and catchs the next or vice versa. They practice on Tues/Thur and she throws at home daily. She played ball through school in the spring and started having some elbow pain then. We rested it, iced and Adviled it. Now this summer things are getting worse. She's working with a pitching coach and says the pain is actually worse when she catchs and throws overhand. You can now hear a tiny click when she bends the elbow and one time her bicep muscle got very tight. We are still icing, bracing and Adviling it. I'm pretty sure it's just overuse, but did call her doc today. Any suggestions on stretchs or warm ups. At only 13 she has a lot of pitching years ahead of her. She will be done with softball at the end of the month and will go right into volleyball. She also will pitch year round with the coach. How long of a "rest" is enough when giving the arm a good break?

Gretchen

 

[obbay]

My advice is to see a sports medicine professional (or a doctor) and stop catching and start playing 1B (seriously) and don't even think about catching (or OF, or 3B)again until she's had weeks or months off.

Sounds like my DD only yours may be worse. It's all overhand throwing. Pitching motion is only affected when it's already irritated from O.H. throwing. Has a great arm but sometimes lets the mechanics slip and she starts throwing with too much elbow snap (as opposed to wrist snap) and LIMITED to NO FOLLOW THROUGH.

first showed up at the end of spring season 2009 (she was 14). Met with a sports therapy guy and he gave her some rubber bands and exercises, but most importantly he stressed throwing more overhead than sidearm. Dave Weaver added to this in his Catching instruction that he has seen many girls with similar problems due to lack of follow-through. They kind of jerk their arm to a sudden stop after the ball is released which creates other stresses.

Anyhow, she took it easy, played 1B and sat out a lot during the summer. Played no ball in the fall and started up again in the winter. This spring the elbow problem has come back, BUT this time she let us know right away. She knows how she SHOULD be throwing so she can immediately adjust so it doesn't get worse. And when the elbow acts up, we ice it after all games until she's been incident-free for awhile.

You ought to post your question in the Catching Forum and maybe Dave can give you better advice.

 

[RichK]

My daughter is a catcher too and had the same problem last year. She actually got it after coming back to softball after a fall tennis season in high school. So it was literally tennis elbow (which is really any inflammation in the elbow).

We went to a sports doctor, who did treatment and showed us some exercises etc. We also rested.

Finally, she used a tennis elbow band, which puts tight pressure just below the elbow joint, for a while. It really helped because tennis elbow isn't an injury as much as an irritation that you either have to have completely heal or live with and hope it goes away over time.

Goes without saying you should try to correct any throwing flaws too.