The Effects of Extended Play on Professional Baseball Pitchers

The purpose of this study was to investigate kinematic and kinetic changes as a result of extended play in baseball pitching. Seven major league baseball pitchers were videotaped with high-speed (120 Hz) cameras during multiple innings of the same game. For each athlete, two fastballs (one thrown du...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of sports medicine 2001-03, Vol.29 (2), p.137-142
Main Authors: Murray, Tricia A., Cook, Timothy D., Werner, Sherry L., Schlegel, Theodore F., Hawkins, Richard J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Athletes
Baseball - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomechanics
Fatigue
Humans
Kinetics
Medical sciences
Physiological aspects
Pitching (Baseball)
Professional baseball
Sport (general aspects)
Sports medicine
Study and teaching
Time Factors
Traumas. Diseases due to physical agents
Videotape Recording
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to investigate kinematic and kinetic changes as a result of extended play in baseball pitching. Seven major league baseball pitchers were videotaped with high-speed (120 Hz) cameras during multiple innings of the same game. For each athlete, two fastballs (one thrown during the initial inning of play and one from the final inning) were chosen for analysis. Twenty-one physical landmarks were manually digitized from the video data. Kinematic and kinetic parameters were subsequently calculated relative to four phases of the pitching motion: windup, cocking, acceleration, and follow-through. Paired t -tests revealed that seven parameters changed significantly between early and late innings. These included decreases in maximum external rotation of the shoulder, knee angle at ball release, ball velocity, maximum distraction force at both the shoulder and elbow, and horizontal adduction torque at both release and its maximum value. Ultimately, a decline in performance was evident by a 2 m/s (5 mph) drop in ball speed. It is unclear whether the kinematic and kinetic changes occurred because of fatigue or if protective mechanisms were adopted.
ISSN:0363-5465
1552-3365
DOI:10.1177/03635465010290020501