Unaccounted Workload Factor: Game-Day Pitch Counts in High School Baseball Pitchers—An Observational Study

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background:

Throwing injuries are common in high school baseball. Known risk factors include excessive pitch counts, year-round pitching, and pitching with arm pain and fatigue. Despite the evidence, the prevalence of pitching injuries among high school players has not decreased. One possibility to explain this pattern is that players accumulate unaccounted pitch volume during warm-up and bullpen activity, but this has not yet been examined.

Hypotheses:

Our primary hypothesis was that approximately 30% to 40% of pitches thrown off a mound by high school pitchers during a game-day outing are unaccounted for in current data but will be revealed when bullpen sessions and warm-up pitches are included. Our secondary hypothesis was that there is wide variability among players in the number of bullpen pitches thrown per outing.

Study Design:

Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods:

Researchers counted all pitches thrown off a mound during varsity high school baseball games played by 34 high schools in North Central Florida during the 2017 season.

Results:

We recorded 13,769 total pitches during 115 varsity high school baseball starting pitcher outings. The mean ± SD pitch numbers per game were calculated for bullpen activity (27.2 ± 9.4), warm-up (23.6 ±8.0), live games (68.9 ±19.7), and total pitches per game (119.7 ± 27.8). Thus, 42.4% of the pitches performed were not accounted for in the pitch count monitoring of these players. The number of bullpen pitches thrown varied widely among players, with 25% of participants in our data set throwing fewer than 22 pitches and 25% throwing more than 33 pitches per outing.

Conclusion:

In high school baseball players, pitch count monitoring does not account for the substantial volume of pitching that occurs during warm-up and bullpen activity during the playing season. These extra pitches should be closely monitored to help mitigate the risk of overuse injury.

Related collections

Most cited references 36

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Monitoring Athlete Training Loads: Consensus Statement.

Pitre Bourdon, Marco Cardinale, Andrew Murray … (2017)

Monitoring the load placed on athletes in both training and competition has become a very hot topic in sport science. Both scientists and coaches routinely monitor training loads using multidisciplinary approaches, and the pursuit of the best methodologies to capture and interpret data has produced an exponential increase in empirical and applied research. Indeed, the field has developed with such speed in recent years that it has given rise to industries aimed at developing new and novel paradigms to allow us to precisely quantify the internal and external loads placed on athletes and to help protect them from injury and ill health. In February 2016, a conference on "Monitoring Athlete Training Loads-The Hows and the Whys" was convened in Doha, Qatar, which brought together experts from around the world to share their applied research and contemporary practices in this rapidly growing field and also to investigate where it may branch to in the future. This consensus statement brings together the key findings and recommendations from this conference in a shared conceptual framework for use by coaches, sport-science and -medicine staff, and other related professionals who have an interest in monitoring athlete training loads and serves to provide an outline on what athlete-load monitoring is and how it is being applied in research and practice, why load monitoring is important and what the underlying rationale and prospective goals of monitoring are, and where athlete-load monitoring is heading in the future.

0 comments Cited 259 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Risk factors for shoulder and elbow injuries in adolescent baseball pitchers.

Jason R Andrews, J. Olsen, Jeremy Loftice … (2006)

There is little evidence supporting current safety recommendations for adolescent pitchers. Pitching practices of adolescent pitchers without history of arm injury will be significantly different from those of adolescent pitchers who required shoulder or elbow surgery. Case control study; Level of evidence, 3. Ninety-five adolescent pitchers who had shoulder or elbow surgery and 45 adolescent pitchers who never had a significant pitching-related injury completed a survey. Responses were compared between the 2 groups using t tests and chi(2) analyses. Multivariable logistic regression models were developed to identify the risk factors. The injured group pitched significantly more months per year, games per year, innings per game, pitches per game, pitches per year, and warm-up pitches before a game. These pitchers were more frequently starting pitchers, pitched in more showcases, pitched with higher velocity, and pitched more often with arm pain and fatigue. They also used anti-inflammatory drugs and ice more frequently to prevent an injury. Although the groups were age matched, the injured group was taller and heavier. There were no significant differences regarding private pitching instruction, coach's chief concern, pitcher's self-rating, exercise programs, stretching practices, relieving frequency, pitch type frequency, or age at which pitch types were first thrown. Pitching practices were significantly different between the groups. The factors with the strongest associations with injury were overuse and fatigue. High pitch velocity and participation in showcases were also associated with increased risk for injury. New recommendations were made based on these results. Adherence to the recommendations may reduce the incidence of significant injury to adolescent pitchers.

0 comments Cited 169 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Longitudinal study of elbow and shoulder pain in youth baseball pitchers.

STEPHEN LYMAN, GLENN FLEISIG, JOHN WATERBOR … (2001)

Previous studies among young pitchers have focused on the frequency and description of elbow injuries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of elbow and shoulder complaints in young pitchers and to identify the associations between pitch types, pitch volume, and other risk factors for these conditions. A prospective cohort study of 298 youth pitchers was conducted over two seasons. Each participant was contacted via telephone after each game pitched to identify arm complaints. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess associations between arm complaints and independent variables. The frequency of elbow pain was 26%; that of shoulder pain, 32%. Risk factors for elbow pain were increased age, increased weight, decreased height, lifting weights during the season, playing baseball outside the league, decreased self-satisfaction, arm fatigue during the game pitched, and throwing fewer than 300 or more than 600 pitches during the season. Risk factors for shoulder pain included decreased satisfaction, arm fatigue during the game pitched, throwing more than 75 pitches in a game, and throwing fewer than 300 pitches during the season. Arm complaints are common, with nearly half of the subjects reporting pain. The factors associated with elbow and shoulder pain were different, suggesting differing etiologies. Developmental factors may be important in both. To lower the risk of pain at both locations, young pitchers probably should not throw more than 75 pitches in a game. Other recommendations are to remove pitchers from a game if they demonstrate arm fatigue and limit pitching in nonleague games.

0 comments Cited 137 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Orthop J Sports Med

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Orthop J Sports Med

Journal ID (publisher-id): OJS

Journal ID (hwp): spojs

Title: Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine

Publisher: SAGE Publications (Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA )

ISSN (Electronic): 2325-9671

Publication date (Electronic): 06 April 2018

Publication date Collection: April 2018

Volume: 6

Issue: 4

Electronic Location Identifier: 2325967118765255

Affiliations

[† ]Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

[‡ ]University of Florida Health Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Institute Rehabilitation, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

[§ ]Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, College of Health and Human Performance, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

[‖ ]University of Florida Sports Performance Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

[5-2325967118765255] Investigation performed at University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

Author notes

[*] [* ]Jason L. Zaremski, MD, CAQSM, FAAPMR, FACSM, Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, Divisions of PM&R, Sports Medicine, & Research, UF Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute (OSMI), PO Box 112727, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA (email: zaremjl@ 123456ortho.ufl.edu ) (Twitter: @DrZSportsDoc).

Article

Publisher ID: 10.1177_2325967118765255

DOI: 10.1177/2325967118765255

PMC ID: 5894908

PubMed ID: 29662911

SO-VID: 3656ec43-8d42-42ba-ab9e-b4f328f0175d

License:

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

History

Custom metadata

edited-state corrected-proof

Keywords: baseball,pitch count,overuse injury,high school

Data availability:

Keywords: baseball, pitch count, overuse injury, high school

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Cited by 13

See all cited by

Most referenced authors 329

See all reference authors

- Version 1

Unaccounted Workload Factor: Game-Day Pitch Counts in High School Baseball Pitchers—An Observational Study

Read this article at

Abstract

Background:

Hypotheses:

Study Design:

Methods:

Results:

Conclusion:

Related collections

Chinese Journal of School Health

Most cited references 36

Monitoring Athlete Training Loads: Consensus Statement.

Risk factors for shoulder and elbow injuries in adolescent baseball pitchers.

Longitudinal study of elbow and shoulder pain in youth baseball pitchers.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Custom metadata

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 502

Cited by 13

Most referenced authors 329