In the past two weeks we have worked with a couple of new pitchers who had shoulder pain so they asked if we could help. One of them was receiving medical treatment. In these cases, the cause was simple. They were lifting the shoulder during the circle in an effort to add more to the pitch. That caused it to “crunch” on the way down. You should never have crunching or popping in the shoulder during the pitch. The pain went away once we relaxed the shoulder, the ball moved faster, accuracy was improved, and the legs were able to engage more fully.

Kids who have mechanical issues often feel that pain is just part of the price you pay for pitching. Absolutely not. Pain tells you that something is wrong. Yes, it is your body’s way of warning you that your actions could lead to injury, but it also indicates that you are losing efficiency. When we fix the form problem that causes pain, we see kids become faster, more accurate, and better able to achieve the movement they wanted in their pitches.

We see so many new students who were taught to jerk up on the elbow, palm-up, at finish. Not surprisingly they often come to us to see if we can help reduce the pain in their shoulder. The labrum on a female was not designed to make that move. If the pitcher, who doesn’t have incredible flexibility, forces the move to occur, pain will result. In order to avoid injury, she unintentionally begins slowing down the arm just before release to avoid pain, and a move that was intended to bring more explosion actually reduced the speed and decreased accuracy.

Many times a pitcher will rotate her shoulders back to face the catcher at release. Several problems occur. Recently we met a new pitcher whose elbow was degenerating because of light contact with the hip caused by that move. In other cases, they will try to hook the arm around the hip and stress the shoulder. Lower back issues, knee strains, and elbow problems can occur because they were putting the female body into a “male position” of strength. The biomechanics of the two have very little in common. The female is hurting because her body was not designed in the same way as the male, and a simple fix in body position adds power, accuracy, and endurance.

If it hurts, find the cause. In pitching the old adage, “No Pain, No Gain” simply doesn’t apply. Instead, we should say, “No Pain Can Lead to Big Gains”.