Youth Baseball and Softball Injury Prevention Tips

Countless youngsters and their families will spend hours on end at local baseball and softball fields this spring and summer. But what’s meant to be a fun experience can result in injury, followed by weeks or months of rehab.

To reduce the likelihood of injury and help softball and baseball players play to their potential, here are some tips to follow before, during and after practices and games from Athletico physical therapists:

• Upgrade your arm/shoulder workout: Rather than static pregame arm stretches, research now supports a dynamic warmup to wake up the arm muscles. Theraband resistance exercises are a perfect way to warm up the arm, elbow and shoulder. The external rotation warmup (shown below) is one of a handful or recommended pre-game exercises or PT can walk you through.
• Don’t forget the lower body: the majority of power for throwing and hitting comes from the lower body, but oftentimes players focus solely on the upper-body warmup. PTs recommend a dynamic lower body warmup, such as a series of walking lunges with arms overhead and lateral lunges, to loosen the lower body muscles ahead of activity.
• There’s an app for pitch counts: the risk of injury significantly increases when pitchers exceed recommended pitch counts. There are now pitch-count apps, making it easy for coaches and parents to keep track of total number of pitches, as well as balls and strikes.
• Post-game cool down: too often players’ post-game routines include arm and shoulder strengthening exercises, which stresses muscles that are already worn out. To speed the healing process, conduct light stretching followed by icing sore body parts.

If you'd like to learn more or if you'd like to schedule a free assessment, visit Athletico.com