Friday, July 3, 2015

Does anyone read the research?

Sometime I am so confused by the research.  One article says this is good and this is bad.  Curve balls are bad to throw and fastballs are good.  Another article says that curve ball are fine and its fastballs that are harder on the arm.  So what's the truth?  Has there been actual research and biomechanical analysis done?

Here is the Article link from American Journal of Sports Medicine on biomechanic (Abstract)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19448049

The keypoints are in the Results, Conclusion, and Clinical Relevance.


These two articles just have Abstracts:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25251251
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19741352
Photo from zacharymagee.com


They are published articles with no bio-mechanical data just case studies and questionnaires to collect data.  So when reading and comparing data sometime its like apples the running shoes.  The research on one is correct and so is the other but its really hard to link them together.
If you just talk bio-mechanics with torque and arm velocity and stress then a fastball is more stressful than a curve ball.  That is what the data reports.  So do we stop throwing so many fastballs or do we find the real culprit......overuse.  Or is overuse the real culprit.  I know that the same muscles in the arm are made of the same fibers as those in the legs.  Runner train and train and keep increasing their speed and distance.  Do runners have overuse injuries?  Yes they do.  They have stress fractures, (the most common one), sprains and strains to joints but rarely the tendons and muscle tear like in the classic Ulnar Collateral Ligament tear in pitchers.  I personally think running 13.1 or even 26.2 miles is more traumatic then throwing 100 pitches.  There are some marathon runners that go out and run 6-8 miles the day after the have run a full marathon.
Training may be the key also.   Alan Jaeger says players do not throw enough.  I think he is right too.  I think he is right about older players that their bones have stopped growing.  After really studying the anatomy of the elbow and shoulder I am firm when I say this.  The combination of overuse, growing epiphysis, developing muscles and tendons and lastly inflammation are the real culprits.  Then the parents, coaches, and player ignore sound medical advice about dealing with an arm injury.  Feeding the young player anti-inflammatory pills is not the great fix all either.  It is probably a major contributor to the problem.  The elbow is a high tissue turn over area.  Meaning tissue in the synovial region is constantly being replaced and repaired.  Anti-inflams stop that turn over to reduce inflammation.  So the repair is slowed, but it needs to happen.  The young pitcher feels better because the inflammation has gone away and range of motion is restored so they think, "I can throw again!"  With out explaining this any farther are you seeing the problem?  It really is a combination of things that lead to the demise of that pitchers arm.    

Check or Zach Magee's article too.
http://zacharymagee.com/trouble-with-the-curve/

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