Is Ice Nice or Heat the Treat?

[halskinner]

Here is what I believe is the #1 cause of injuries to young pitchers; THEY REFUSE TO WARM UP TO THE POINT THEY ARE PERSPIRING!

I warmed up before a game with my jacket on. When my arm was sweaty, I knew I was warm enough to pitch. During the gamw, jacket on between innings, at least over my throwing arm. All the pitchers on my teams did this and we never had any injuries from pitching, with the exception of an ocassional sprain to a finger or thumb trying to snag a line drive.

If you are using ICE, then you are treating an injury because that is what ice therapy is used for. I used Icy Hot but I never iced. None of the other pitchers did either.

 

[tojo]

My DDs were taught the step style hello elbow when they first started taking lessons and after each lesson or practice their shoulders and elbows had discomfort and the PC advised us to get the Pro-Ice. We followed his advice and after pitching they used the Pro-Ice that covers the shoulder and elbow. Didn't know better at the time because back then in our area there were very few PCs and fastpitch was only beginning to become popular. My oldest DD eventually got tendenitis in her throwing shoulder. I knew something was wrong and chose to change.
We converted to the L&D and no more ice packs were needed. I am a firm believer that there should be no pain if you are using the muscles in the proper way in your pitching motion. Eddie Feigner pitched many years and his philosophy was to warm up and keep it warm as Hal says in his post. If you need to ice to relieve pain after pitching, you should not accept it as the norm for pitching. You need to re-evaluate and find out what in the pitching motion is causing the pain or discomfort. I am not suggesting that you cannot cause pain from over use.

 

[T.J.]

Ice is for inflammation, which yes, overhand throwers can get. You should not have any inflammation with the proper amount of softball pitching.

Very good, thank you. This makes sense and can be simply explained. Thanks again.

 

[T.J.]

Here is what I believe is the #1 cause of injuries to young pitchers; THEY REFUSE TO WARM UP TO THE POINT THEY ARE PERSPIRING!

I warmed up before a game with my jacket on. When my arm was sweaty, I knew I was warm enough to pitch. During the gamw, jacket on between innings, at least over my throwing arm. All the pitchers on my teams did this and we never had any injuries from pitching, with the exception of an ocassional sprain to a finger or thumb trying to snag a line drive.

If you are using ICE, then you are treating an injury because that is what ice therapy is used for. I used Icy Hot but I never iced. None of the other pitchers did either.

This is perfect, thanks...Combining what you said here with what screwball said really makes sense and puts it all together. I'll make a few changes based the info here. I feel I have a handle on all this now, thanks again for your time.

 

[luvsb]

After pitching 7 innings and throwing 95+ pitches your muscle is going to swell a little. If the team is going to call on your daughter to throw again that same day, ice is not a bad idea. It will help the muscle to recover a little quicker.

 

[SOFTBALLCRAZY]

DD was told to Ice only at the end of day not between games and that it was a good idea even if you dont have pain just to prevent any swelling that may occur. Keep shoulder and arm warm during games-heat gets the blood flow to the muscles. This is what were told by her ortho and pt.