Biomechanics Research Gives Insight Into Preventing Baseball, Softball Pitching Injuries

Photo Submitted

Gretchen Oliver

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A University of Arkansas professor and four of her students presented their research on the athletic performance of pitchers in August at an international conference on the biomechanics of sports.

A gift from a Mena man to the university enabled Gretchen Oliver, assistant professor of kinesiology, and her students to conduct research analyzing the biomechanics of the pitching motion of local Little League pitchers, high school baseball and softball pitchers as well as some University of Arkansas athletes. Less than two years ago, Oliver was talking with her friend, Bob Carver, about how an expensive piece of motion-analysis hardware could assist the biomechanics research she directs at the University of Arkansas.

Carver wanted to help. A 1960 alumnus of the university and the owner of a Mena auto dealership who has provided radio spotting for broadcasts of Razorback football games the past 38 years, he contributed nearly $60,000 to the College of Education and Health Professions, in which Oliver teaches. In addition to serving as clinical coordinator of the athletic training education program in the college, Oliver mentors other kinesiology graduate students.

As a result of Carver’s gift, she took four students – two in the kinesiology doctoral program, one in the kinesiology master’s program and one undergraduate honors student in biology – to Limerick, Ireland, for the Aug. 17-21 conference of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports.

Oliver and the students – Priscilla Dwelly, David Keeley, Hiedi Hoffman and Kasey Barber – gave seven poster presentations at the conference using data obtained with the MotionMonitor, a trademarked real-time, 3-D motion-capture system purchased with Carver’s gift. Information from the motion-capture system allows researchers to analyze athletes’ movements with the goal of preventing injury and enhancing athletes’ performance. The data can also be used in rehabilitation and injury prevention for people who are not athletes.

Dr. Chris Dougherty, a Bentonville orthopaedic surgeon who serves as a clinical supervisor in the athletic training education graduate program, also collaborated with Oliver and the students on one of the presentations.

A scientific committee of the conference reviewed the papers submitted by the University of Arkansas before deciding whether to accept them.

Local athletes ranging from Little League to the university volunteered for motion analysis with the MotionMonitor. One study presented at the conference examined the differences in pitching motions between pre-pubescent and pubescent baseball pitchers. To reduce injuries in youth baseball pitchers, coaches should focus on proper mechanics at a young age, the researchers said. However, the mechanics taught to beginning pitchers are based on data from adolescent pitchers and may result in techniques that could injure younger pitchers. Of the 20 parameters analyzed in the study, seven were observed to be different between the two groups. According to the research, the findings of this study indicate that the mechanics currently being taught to youth pitchers may not be appropriate for all ages and that further study is needed to help identify what mechanics are correct for all ages of pitchers.

• Comparison of muscle activation between the walking lunge and the traditional squat exercise.

• A description of the post-pubescent windmill softball-pitching motion.

• Firing of upper and lower extremity muscles, examination of gluteal muscle firing, and the relationship of gluteal activity and pelvic kinematics, all pertaining to windmill softball-pitching motions.

• Relationships between hip and shoulder rotations during baseball pitching.

The conference promotes conversation and collaboration between scientists and coaches and enables the international society to disseminate information to the sporting community.