Pitchers Secondary Position Leading to Injury

[Maaltri]

Recently my 11 yr old DD starting complaining that something didn't feel quite right when she was pitching. I also noticed a significant decrease in her speed. I took her to the Dr who said her rotator cuff was strained. She will rest for 2+ weeks before starting physical therapy.

After discussing the possible reasons for this injury, both the Dr and pitching coach attributed it to her secondary position (short stop) which requires alot of hard overhand throwing. Her pitching coach suggested moving her to 1st base, right, or left field.

Has anyone else taken into consideration their DD's secondary position?

 

[Lozza]

1st base is the most common secondary position for a pitcher, for this exact reason.

If she's suffering pain at 11, there's something wrong with her mechanics somewhere. Or she's playing too much. An 11 year old should not have a repetitive injury.

 

[lhowser]

The finest softball player in our community who is now a D1 Sophmore. Just was picked as player of the month for her conference with a 0.67 ERA. She has 4 HR's and played all last year at Short Stop. If she can do it let her do it. Work slowly on the throwing and try to figure out why she hurt the shoulder.

 

[Coach JV]

At 11 yo there are very few plays at SS where she will backhand a ball
deep in the hole and fire a bullet to 1B off balance. Normally (at 16U-ish)
I prefer they play 1B, or OF. By no means is it set in stone, especially at a young age.
Rotator strain can be serious, but is more likely attributed to overuse during
physical development. Physiology varies from player to player, it is difficult
to blame her injury on 2nd position

 

[sluggers]

Reminds of a story:

A guy goes out, and gets blitzed on Bloody Marys. He has 10 or 20 of them. Next day, he gets up and he can barely move. He has the hangover of hangovers. His head is about to explode, so he takes a bunch of Advil. Then, he goes to the bathroom and throws up. His wife comes in and say, "What happened to you?" The guy says, "I had too much tomato juice!"

So, the DD goes throws 100-200 pitches in practice, throws 200 hundred during a game at full force. She is probably throwing 200+ pitches 3 or 4 times a week. She is throwing those pitches at maximum velocity. She is probably learning some breaking pitches.

So, *OF COURSE* the problem is those 10 or 20 throws she makes from the shortstop position two or three times a week. What else could it be?

Did you tell her doctor exactly how much she pitches and how often she pitches?

Of course, her pitching coach is going to say that the problem is not with pitching. What else can the guy say? That is is his fault? Not likely.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Sluggers, I will drink to that. My DD played every position, except catcher - and no problems resulted from her overhand throw. But, we don't have any video to go from. Maybe her OH throw does need correction. Most do.

 

[halskinner]

Has she been taught to make the biggest arm circle when she pitches? To extend the shoulder up and throw with a straight arm and locked elbow? If so, there is just as good a chance that she has strained the rotator cuff by doing that and the overhand throwing mechanics just amplified it somewhat.

If she does not already, make sure she has a slight bend in the elbow throughout the entire arm circle.

sneakysoftballpitching.com

 

[starsnuffer]

At 12u and lower the pitchers are usually pitchers because they are the best athletes on the team. Short stop is a pretty common position for them.

As mentioned earlier, there's probably another problem that needs to be fixed here.

Even if the kid is playing SS, she might field what, 10 balls and make 10 game-speed throws? Is she warming up overhand with the team before the game? How many throws then? What about infield warmups, is she throwing then?

If overhand throwing is hurting her then she is throwing improperly. Improper overhand throwing is damaging and dangerous, this needs to be corrected NOW so she doesn't hurt herself for life. If your daughter ever wants to be able to lift her baby up and hold it when she grows up and becomes a mother, fix the problem.

-W

 

[Jojo]

Oh my< yes I have seen a lot of horrible overhand throws with kids these ages.
Kids are getting so much better with pitching and hitting because they all take independent lessons now. I even have one pitcher that takes, pitching, hitting and slapping lessons.

I have a 8yr old taking pitching and hitting lessons.

No one is taking fielding lessons. I have the most horrible overhand throwers! Some are 12yrs old and still have terrible mechanics. I've begun passing out overhand drill sheets for them.
I sent my own DD to a fielding instructor when she was 14. Her overhand mechanics were pretty good, but you'd be surprised how much better they can be with some refinement.

 

[jinjet95]

When my DD was 10, she was complaining of some shoulder pain. We looked at her pitching motion, we looked at her overhand motion, couldn't figure out why it only hurt sometimes - the motion hadn't changed. The doctor also mentioned rotator cuff issues - apparently there's more than one muscle/ligament involved. We finally figured out that when she did heavy uneven parallel bars workouts in gymnastics the day before, she had shoulder pain when warming up. Her muscles were too tight and needed extra stretching. Have you considered other activities she may do that could contribute to the problem?