Differences among fastball, curveball, and change-up pitching biomechanics across various levels of baseball

Controversy continues whether curveballs are stressful for young baseball pitchers. Furthermore, it is unproven whether professional baseball pitchers have fewer kinematic differences between fastballs and off-speed pitches than lower level pitchers. Kinematic and kinetic data were measured for 111...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sports biomechanics 2016-04, Vol.15 (2), p.128-138
Main Authors: Fleisig, Glenn S., Laughlin, Walter A., Aune, Kyle T., Cain, E. Lyle, Dugas, Jeffrey R., Andrews, James R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Age Factors
Baseball - physiology
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomechanics
breaking pitch
changeup
Child
Competitive Behavior - physiology
elbow
Elbow - physiology
Humans
Kinematics
Kinetics
Motor Skills - physiology
Professional baseball
Range of Motion, Articular
shoulder
Shoulder - physiology
Throwing
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Controversy continues whether curveballs are stressful for young baseball pitchers. Furthermore, it is unproven whether professional baseball pitchers have fewer kinematic differences between fastballs and off-speed pitches than lower level pitchers. Kinematic and kinetic data were measured for 111 healthy baseball pitchers (26 youth, 21 high school, 20 collegiate, 26 minor league, and 18 major league level) throwing fastballs, curveballs, and change-ups in an indoor biomechanics laboratory with a high-speed, automated digitising system. Differences between pitch types and between competition levels were analysed with repeated measures ANOVA. Shoulder and elbow kinetics were greater in fastballs than in change-ups, while curveball kinetics were not different from the other two types of pitches. Kinematic angles at the instant of ball release varied between pitch types, while kinematic angles at the instant of lead foot contact varied between competition levels. There were no significant interactions between pitch type and competition level, meaning that kinetic and kinematic differences between pitch types did not vary by competition level. Like previous investigations, this study did not support the theory that curveballs are relatively more stressful for young pitchers. Although pitchers desire consistent kinematics, there were differences between pitch types, independent of competition level.
ISSN:1476-3141
1752-6116
DOI:10.1080/14763141.2016.1159319