Snap! Another pitcher goes down with Tommy John Surgery. It’s a common occurrence in baseball and presents an interesting paradox. Medical procedures are advancing to repair the UCL, but our ability to prevent injuries is not keeping up. As part of this, motion capture tech companies are capitalizing on baseball’s throwing injury epidemic, but is monitoring throwing mechanics the best way to prevent injury?
If you go on Google Scholar—the most accessible academic library for peer-reviewed research— you will find more than 12,000 hits for “Baseball Pitching Biomechanics and Injury.” This may shock you, but none of this data shows a path to better outcomes for the sport.
Throwing Mechanics are Mostly Useless for Assessing Injury Risk in High-Level Pitchers
Biomechanical efficiency is the number one spoken word used to describe the desired delivery amongst coaches, players, and front offices, but what does that mean?
In simple terms, it’s the highest velocity that can be achieved with the lowest forces on the elbow and shoulder. But what’s interesting is that two pitchers throwing at the exact same velocity likely don’t have the same joint loading. This makes it difficult to state what optimum mechanics should be (ref).
A study featuring youth and adolescent athletes identified 5 parameters related to efficient mechanics (ref):
The green checkmarks indicate movement that lowers joint loads relative to velocity.
Efficient pitchers:
- Lead with their hips,
- Have their elbow at shoulder height at foot contact,
- Take the ball out of the glove with the hand on top,
- Have a stride that is in line with home plate,
- And have closed shoulders at foot contact.
The problem is that most high-level pitchers (the ones most at risk for UCL tears) display these mechanics. Therefore, it’s ineffective for monitoring the risk of injury beyond adolescence. So we have to do more digging.
Is the”Inverted W” Bad?
The inverted W means the throwing hand is below the elbow at foot contact. It’s thought to increase the risk of injury, but research says otherwise.
In a study of 250 MLB pitchers, the injury rates between inverted W pitchers and the control (hand at elbow height or above) were no different (ref). Even more frustrating is that biomechanics between professional pitchers with surgically repaired elbows were virtually identical to the healthy controls for joint angles, velocities, and forces (ref).
Why don’t mechanics reduce the risk of injury in pitchers?
Why don’t mechanics reduce the risk of injury in pitchers?
The answer lies in joint strength. Take the same Google Scholar search engine, and you will find 102,000 articles for “throwing arm strength and injuries.” Strength deficits are researched more heavily, and data is easier to interpret and linked to all injuries occurring to the throwing arm. The bottom line is your strength resists tissue damage and stabilizes your shoulder and elbow to throw hard.
In reality, fatigue is the number one injury risk factor. In a study evaluating responses from adolescent pitchers, those who threw under states of fatigue were 36 times more at risk of injury (ref). If fatigue is the number one risk factor, then strength is the number one factor to consider in addressing one’s ability to throw hard with greater pitch counts.
The Importance of Strength
As athletes throw, their arm experiences massive forces applied in several directions, and poor strength reduces the ability to manage these loads. As a result, most throwing injuries are not a result of being too tight but rather increased laxity and poor stability related to weakness or fatigue.
Arm lag is one major issue tied to poor stability and occurs when the throwing arm moves too far behind the body. Too much arm lag increases tension on the front of the shoulder and inner elbow and can create circulation issues that lead to tingling and numbness of the hand and fingers.
While arm lag may look like a mechanical issue, the solution is to solve the strength deficit behind extreme laxity (ref).
There are many ways strength establishes safe, high-velocity pitching. Maximum strength, maximum rate of torque development, and maximum strength endurance are all metrics of strength related and essential to pitching performance.
Maximal strength is the most force that can be exerted in a single effort.
The maximum rate of torque development is the maximum amount of force produced in the shortest time. In pitching, torque must be developed under 150 milliseconds from the time the foot hits the ground to release.
Lastly, maximum strength endurance is the ability to sustain repetitive, maximum strength efforts with brief recovery instances, such as 15 seconds between pitches.
If any of these strength metrics are limited, it can take someone with “clean” mechanics and put them in a vulnerable state of health, not to mention a loss in ball velocity.
Focus on Strength First
Your performance and health count on your strength. It provides resistance to injury and the opportunity to throw at a higher velocity. We encourage you to spend as much focus and attention on this part of your training as you do your throwing program.
