Baseball Biomechanics Essay

959 Words2 Pages

The importance of proper pitching mechanics in baseball is crucial for performance improvement and injury prevention of the pitcher in the sport. Improper pitching mechanics in baseball can result in excessive stress to the joints, thus increasing the risk of injury to the pitcher. The biomechanics of baseball pitching has several different elements that could be examined to increase the effectiveness of the pitch and reduce the occurrence of injury in the sport. During the baseball pitch, there are important phases that are involved in the pitching motion. Each of these phases has a relevant biomechanical aspect that is important to the pitching skill to ensure efficiency and help reduce the risk of serious injury. Pitching effectiveness can …show more content…

During this phase the pitcher winds up so that all body segments including the arms and legs are able to contribute to the ball’s velocity. The biomechanical aspect of this step is to initiate the sequence of events that will follow this specific phase. The purpose of the windup phase is to put the throwing limb in a position that will allow it to move through a greater displacement. The greater the displacement of the throwing arm during the initial motion of the pitch will create an increase in the amount of work that was done in the motion. This increase in work will cause an increase in the kinetic energy and allow for an increase in the velocity of the …show more content…

In an activity where maximum speeds have been measured at 100 mph, the demand on the throwing arm is great, especially at the shoulder and elbow. While maximizing the speed of the ball is not the ultimate goal of pitching, it often improves the chances for getting the hitter out. A good fastball is typically the first pitch a young pitcher will learn to throw, followed by change-up, curveball and slider (Andrews and Fleisig, 1996). Pitching plays an important role in the success of a baseball team. It has been estimated that anywhere from 60 to 75% of the outcome of any given baseball game is determined by the pitching (Kindall, 1993). A pitcher with good mechanics has the same body movement for the same type of pitch. Pitching requires such demands on the body that the osseous adaptation occurs to allow greater external rotation and less internal rotation of the shoulder (Crockett HC, 2002). Such adaptation results from playing many years of baseball, from youth baseball, to high school, college and

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