

Smith and his colleagues recruited 100 athletes who were between 14 and 18 years old. “Most don’t realize they’re putting the pitcher at risk, but it turns out that the windmill style of pitching that girls use isn’t as safe as some might think.”

“Because there aren’t as many pitchers on most softball teams as there are on baseball teams, coaches tend to ‘ride’ the ones who are successful,” he continued. “The idea that we should protect these softball pitchers hasn’t really caught on. “The dogma involving throwing athletes is that the underhand pitch is thought to be safer, but there have been biomechanical studies in recent years indicating that the stresses on the shoulder are very similar, regardless of whether one is pitching overhand or underhand,” said Matthew Smith, MD, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University and one of the study’s authors. This research was published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine. Louis reports that research findings suggest softball pitchers show progressive pain, fatigue, and weakness relating to two- and three-day tournaments. However, new research says the potential for overuse injuries in softball pitchers is a factor that may be overlooked.Ī news release from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Recent research suggests that the underhand throwing style used by softball pitchers is not as safe as previously thought.Īlthough there are strict pitch counts for baseball players, the standard thought has been that the underhand toss utilized by softball players is safer than the overhand form used in baseball.
