Confirmatory Factor Analysis as a Biomechanical Tool: A Novel Approach to Investigating Different Fatigue Aspects in Baseball Pitching

BACKGROUND: Rising UCL injury rates at both amateur and professional levels have been linked to fatigue in baseball pitchers. Repeated pitching has been associated with changes to kinematics, kinetics, and perceived fatigue, but no statistical model exists which incorporates all the most common aspects of fatigue into one framework. Confirmatory...

Identification of muscles (un)loading the UCL during baseball pitching

Injury to the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) is common among baseball pitchers, due to high external valgus torques applied around the elbow during pitching. Literature shows that elbow muscles and the osseous articulation can lower the load imposed to the UCL by countering the external valgus moment. As the contribution of the individual elbow...

Establishing the elbow load and the within-pitcher load variability during a baseball pitch in relation to the ball speed

Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries are common in baseball pitching. The elbow external valgus torque is assumed to be indicative for the applied load on the UCL. This study investigated the maximum external valgus and extension torque and their corresponding load variability during a baseball pitch and the relationship between the...

Upper Extremity Injury Prediction in Elite Youth Baseball Pitchers using Classification Methods

In baseball, pitchers have a high rate of throwing arm injury, which could lead to disability and less training time. This paper aims at investigating whether upcoming injuries of youth baseball pitchers can be detected before the athlete experiences injury symptoms. A total of 118 elite youth baseball pitchers from the Dutch national baseball...

Establishing the capacity of the muscles around the elbow joint to compensate for the external valgus moment during a fastball pitch: An electromyographic study

Baseball pitching is a movement wherein an external valgus moment around the elbow joint regularly causes an ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injury. A proven relationship between the muscle activation around the elbow joint and its capacity to compensate for the external valgus moment during a baseball pitch allows predicting the likelihood of a...