Softball arm injuries versus baseball

[FlSoftball]

I'd argue overuse is what caused Jordyn Bahl's broken arm.

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It was the leap that caused it- hard landing


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[FlSoftball]

And I'm not saying it never happens I just don't think it is as pervasive as it is made out to be- in baseball I see HS kids getting Tommy John surgery! That's a huge difference from tendinitis.
Corrick at USF was overuse IMHO- they road her like a rented mule her senior season and it finally caught up with her.


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[GunnerShotgun]

I just don't see tons of girls "suffering from overuse".

I haven't had any pitchers suffer from overuse injury so I guess I am lucky as well. We see the typical ACL/MCL knee injuries from position players and I am more likely to have a position player with an arm injury than a pitcher.

In fact, I have the opposite experience of pitchers (and pitchers' parents) asking to pitch MORE and not less.

The one overlooked fact about all of these "crazy travel coaches" is that they aren't stupid (for the most part). You win and lose with your pitching so why would you abuse/overuse it? I just don't see it.

Now school ball is a different story and you need to be careful there. Of course, there isn't enough pitching for the school teams so you will never see pitch counts there.

 

[Gtrips07]

It was the leap that caused it- hard landing


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Lol. Spiral fracture. The extreme torque she puts on the arm along with basically pitching two years straight.

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[LEsoftballdad]

And I'm not saying it never happens I just don't think it is as pervasive as it is made out to be- in baseball I see HS kids getting Tommy John surgery! That's a huge difference from tendinitis.
Corrick at USF was overuse IMHO- they road her like a rented mule her senior season and it finally caught up with her.


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But you can't compare baseball to softball. The sheet number of players in baseball is so much greater than it is in softball. You'd need to compare percentages, not actual numbers. Also, roster size in baseball is much greater in baseball than it is in softball.

I just looked at a local D1 school near me. They have 36 players on the baseball roster, and 19 on the softball roster. I would venture a guess most teams would have similar numbers. It's similar at the HS and travel levels too. Our HS has 19 boys on both JV and varsity, but our softball team had 13 girls and no JV team. As a vendor, I sell easily 8-10 times the baseball equipment than I do softball equipment.

While I will agree Tommy John surgery is much more common for boys, I would bet there are far more arm injuries, percentage wise, for girls than you would think. Just because they don't require surgery doesn't mean they're not injured.

 

[FlSoftball]

Yea 30 something players on a hs baseball team down here but only about 20 actually play regularly- my daughters hs softball varsity carried 15 girls with 2 pitchers used - for 140 ish innings between them over 3 months then another 8 or so for a pitcher floating between JV and V. JV carried 12 with 1 pitcher but played less than 8 games.
The baseball teams locally all had players with injuries needing surgeries- of every high school softball team I knew or saw one that had a hip issue but has had odd mechanics for years and IMHO it was a matter of time and there were a few others with tendinitis issues but that's all I know about. I know there are more but we talk with the majority around her or my daughter does and I just asked her- she knew of 1 that had tendinitis. All took 4/6 off and some did PT and have not had recurring issues.


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[FlSoftball]

Yea 30 something players on a hs baseball team down here but only about 20 actually play regularly- my daughters hs softball varsity carried 15 girls with 2 pitchers used - for 140 ish innings between them over 3 months then another 8 or so for a pitcher floating between JV and V. JV carried 12 with 1 pitcher but played less than 8 games.
The baseball teams locally all had players with injuries needing surgeries- of every high school softball team I knew or saw one that had a hip issue but has had odd mechanics for years and IMHO it was a matter of time and there were a few others with tendinitis issues but that's all I know about. I know there are more but we talk with the majority around her or my daughter does and I just asked her- she knew of 1 that had tendinitis. All took 4/6 off and some did PT and have not had recurring issues.


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[Gtrips07]

And I'm not saying it never happens I just don't think it is as pervasive as it is made out to be- in baseball I see HS kids getting Tommy John surgery! That's a huge difference from tendinitis.
Corrick at USF was overuse IMHO- they road her like a rented mule her senior season and it finally caught up with her.


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Carrick was rode from the time she arrived on Campus.

2018 171.3 innings 24 games
2019 214.3 innings 30.6 games
2020 97.3 innings 13.9 games
2021 228.3 innings 32.6 games
2022 274.3 innings 39.2 games



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[RJARMS]

So there was a study dome that arm and shoulder injuries occur at the same rate in softball as in baseball. I'm thinking we will see a pitch count or should see a pitch count introduced at the lower levels.

Comment?

New Study: The Disparity between Softball and Baseball Pitching Research — Raymer Strength & Rehab

Take a look at baseball pitching and softball pitching research side by side in this new paper that shows the r eality that shoulder and elbow injury rates are comparable between softball and baseball pitchers

raymerstrength.com

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I haven't read the entire study or checked out the sources it pulls from yet, but I've read enough to know that this study is more about the number of articles published related to baseball pitching injuries compared to the number of articles published about softball pitching injuries. It doesn't really distinguish between a softball player having some tendonitis or minor injury, and a baseball player completely tearing his UCL. Not all injuries are created equal. Just cause you use words like "meta-analysis" in a paper, does not mean your analysis actually holds more merit.

 

[DonnyS]

There are also some people that believe the earth is flat...because they "just don't see it" being round.

Protect your daughters. There might not be an official pitch count, but my DD is on one, now. It's not set in stone and changes based on a variety of factors, but it is an issue that absolutely deserves attention.