Print Email Facebook Twitter Quantifying Within-Individual Elbow Load Variability in Youth Elite Baseball Pitchers and Its Role in Overuse Injuries Title Quantifying Within-Individual Elbow Load Variability in Youth Elite Baseball Pitchers and Its Role in Overuse Injuries Author van Trigt, B. (TU Delft Biomechanical Engineering) Bouman, F.F. (Student TU Delft) Leenen, Antonius J. R. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Hoozemans, Marco J.M. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) van der Helm, F.C.T. (TU Delft Biomechatronics & Human-Machine Control) Veeger, H.E.J. (TU Delft Biomechanical Engineering) Department Biomechanical Engineering Date 2022 Abstract Medial elbow overuse injuries are rising in baseball. The external valgus torque magnitude is a possible risk factor for medial elbow injuries. The magnitude on its own cannot explain why one pitcher sustains an injury and another does not. Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe the within-individual external valgus torque variability and to determine whether the within-individual external valgus torque variability can be described by a Gaussian distribution. Eleven youth elite baseball pitchers threw twenty-five fastball pitches. Body kinematics were measured with VICON motion capture at 400 Hz. Elbow valgus torques of the total 270 pitches were calculated with a custom-made inverse dynamic model in Python. Visual inspection and the Shapiro–Wilk test were performed to test for the within-individual elbow valgus torque normality. The results showed that within-individual valgus torque variability was present in pitchers and differed among pitchers. Furthermore, it was shown that the within-individual valgus torque variability was normally distributed in nine out of eleven subjects. In conclusion, the presence of and differences in within-individual elbow load variability among baseball pitchers can be useful variables as they might be related to overuse elbow injuries. Subject fastballbiomechanicsvalgus torquekineticsulnar collateral ligament (UCL)injury prevention To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e88060db-e270-4014-9642-6fcddb3d8e80 DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/app12136549 ISSN 2076-3417 Source Applied Sciences, 12 (13) Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2022 B. van Trigt, F.F. Bouman, Antonius J. R. Leenen, Marco J.M. Hoozemans, F.C.T. van der Helm, H.E.J. Veeger Files PDF applsci_12_06549.pdf 819.92 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:e88060db-e270-4014-9642-6fcddb3d8e80/datastream/OBJ/view