baseball

Young baseball and softball players who receive direct ball impact to the chest wall directly over the heart may develop sudden cardiac arrest, a condition called commotio cordis.  Teaching batters to turn away from an inside pitch, and pitchers to react as quickly as possible to a batted ball hit back at them can help reduce the risk, and an AED and a someone trained in CPR should be on-site.

A big difference between the forward range of motion of the throwing and non-throwing shoulder increases injury risk.  Here is a simple test to identify such difference and a stretching exercise to keep the shoulder balanced.

At Detroit's Comerica Park on the night of June 2, 2010, the nationally televised Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Indians game offered children - indeed, Americans of all ages - enduring lessons in compassion and personal responsibility. The teachers were a pitcher, Armando Galarraga, and an umpire, Jim Joyce, improbably thrust into the limelight after years in relative obscurity, and their dignity and grace created a "teaching opportunity" for parents, teachers and coaches who seek to shape children's values through sports.

Aim of the STOP Sports Injuries campaign is provide parents, coaches and athletes accurate information and tools to prevent, recognize and treat the long-term consequences of sports overuse and trauma injuries to children.

Often when dealing with umpires, parents, and kids (not to mention bosses and co-workers!), being right is only a piece of what's important for a coach. We have to balance correctness with our larger goals.  As adults, it is critical that we realize the opportunity every moment affords us, the "teachable moments."  As a coach and parent, we always have a choice in how we act and what we say.

The extra time high school pitchers living in warm-weather climates spend in baseball activities puts them at greater risk of injuries to their pitching shoulders than their cold-weather peers, finds a first-of-its-kind study published in the February 2011 edition of the American Journal of Sports Medicine.  "What we can say pretty definitively at this point is that playing baseball year-round as a young athlete is not a key to long-term success," says Wendy Hurd, PT, PhD, SCS, one of the study's co-authors. "Even though there might be opportunities to play ball year round when you live in a warm-weather climate, it is advantageous to the health of the pitcher's arm to take extended periods of rest from throwing."

 

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More than 8 out of 10 of high school and collegiate pitchers undergoing so-called Tommy John elbow reconstructive surgery are able to return to their pre-injury level of performance after 9 months to a year of rehabilitation, a new study finds.

Misconceptions abound among  baseball parents, coaches and players about the reasons for and benefits of Tommy John surgery and the relationship between pitch counts and injury risk.

Parents who believe that their kids are getting enough physical exercise just from playing organized sports may be in for a surprise.  A new study finds that, though participation in youth sports contributes to overall physical activity, fewer than one fourth of youth soccer, baseball and softball players studied obtained the sixty minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical exercise (MVPA) during sports practices that U.S. guidelines recommend.