Baseball Injuries

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The most common arm injuries found in youth baseball players include, arm pain, Muscle tears(strains), ligament tears(sprains/avulsions), hip pain, tendinosis, and nerve injuries.

Baseball is considered a minimal contact sport, some contact can occur sliding into a base, running into another player or wall, and getting hit by the equipment such as the baseball bat or baseball itself.  

While serious injuries are rare, they include little league elbow, medial ulnar collateral ligament (MUCL) injury, rotator cuff tears, commotio cordis and more. These serious injuries are the result of high rotational forces exerted on the athlete’s bodies and due to the dangers of the ball and equipment flying at high speeds. These serious injuries can result in many weeks and months of lost playing time. On average, an MUCL injury can result in 17.1 months of lost playing time. (Melugin, 2018)

One of the main predictors of baseball injuries can be pain. The aforementioned authors reported that most “youth baseball players (8-18) report some degree of arm pain while throwing.” (74%). This is a staggering number and one that should make coaches, parents and clinicians take a pause when their baseball athletes report arm pain when throwing, especially before full skeletal maturity which usually starts is completed during high school or college. It was reported in 2012 that 5 percent of the youth pitchers in the study experienced a serious elbow or shoulder injury. (Melugin, 2018)

There is no clear answer as to why these numbers are so high, but scientists and authors theorize that the amount of youth involvement has increased over the past 5-10 years and the increased push for athletes to play one sport and specialize early have been contributing factors. (Melugin, 2018) Another factor to consider is that training techniques and strength regimens are being introduced into the youth athlete’s life earlier and earlier. This has brought increased throwing velocity and in turn increased arm torque on young athletes’ developing anatomy.

Are you tired of not being able to play baseball because of an injury, pain or fatigue? We can Help, schedule an appointment today.

Types of Baseball Injuries

There are two types of injuries that occur Baseball:

1. Traumatic baseball injuries:

   These include getting getting whiplash from diving for a fly ball, spraining your ankle after sliding into a base or getting hit in the head from a flying baseball. These can require emergency medical care and intense care to recover or standardized care for bruises, whiplash and more.

2. Overuse injuries:

   This is your typical arm soreness, sprain, strain injuries that occur due to the highly repetitive nature of baseball with throwing and hitting. These are by far more common than traumatic injuries but can be more difficult to take care of.

While traumatic injuries likely require immediate assistance, the rehab process requires a movement specialist of some kind. The overuse Injuries on the other hand, can be treated in many different ways. Through exercise, manual therapy, chiropractic adjustments and skill-based education and evaluation. We can help with the rehab portion of traumatic injuries or help you through the entire overuse injury recovery.

How We Treat Baseball Injuries

In our Burnsville, MN practice we take a detailed history of your injury, followed by a functional exam and movement assessment that is unique to every individual. Our goal is to meet your goals as an athlete, and identify the best ways to help your body recover from your injuries. We do this in a 4 step model.

• Step 1 - Provide evidenced-based education surrounding your injury.

• Step 2 - Reduce the symptoms - (pain, dysfunction, etc.)

• Step 3 - Introduce movement back into the symptomatic region.

• Step 4 - Introduce sport or movement-specific skill based patterns.

Early on we expect your body to respond well, by reducing your symptoms. After that happens, we advance you through different stages of movement detailed below. once this is going well, we focus on skill specific movement patterns surrounding the sport of baseball and getting you back to the sport, the same or better than when you were injured.

The below diagram is referred to as the “Stark Pyramid” and is the pattern in which we treat.

At Vector Sport and Spine: Chiro & Rehab, we are well versed in the above-mentioned treatment techniques and would love to help any injury or skill based needs you may have. Call 952-222-5770 or schedule an appointment if you would like us to help you.

References:

Melugin HP, Leafblad ND, Camp CL, Conte S. Injury Prevention in Baseball: from Youth to the Pros. Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2018 Mar;11(1):26-34. doi: 10.1007/s12178-018-9456-5. PMID: 29353376; PMCID: PMC5825337.