Common Areas of Injury for Softball

Softball has gained a lot of popularity over the last 10 years and with Team USA winning Silver this year at the Olympics, it’s sure to see a bigger increase in the States. With that increase, we have seen more high-level competition, more games, and more injuries from the game. Injuries in sport are never 100% avoidable, but as strength and conditioning coaches, we should make a strong focus to help the athletes prevent injury risk.

A structured training plan will help athletes combat the demands of their sport. Any time lost due to injury is time away from getting better whether by increasing strength, speed, or technical skills such as hitting and pitching. The hardest thing about injuries is often they can lead to altered movement patterns and these new inefficient patterns can lead to other injuries.

An example would be a pitcher in softball who experiences low back pain. The pitcher then develops a movement using less of their hips to deliver the pitch and forces the upper body to do more of the work to produce the velocity. This then can lead to injuries such as pec strains, shoulder, bicep, and elbow issues. At Showtime Strength & Performance, this is an issue we see more often than we would like. Let’s dive into some of the most common areas of concern for youth softball players and how we can address them to help the athletes have a stronger performance.

Lower Back - This can be more complicated than we will dive into in this article, but it’s worth talking about as it’s something we work with a lot. Why does low back pain keep happening in these athletes? Softball is a rotational sport where many of our athletes are throwing (overhand or underhand) and hitting from the same side.

For simplistic reference, we’re constantly teaching our body to produce power on the same side, but neglecting the other side and hoping it serves as a braking mechanism. Without strong brakes, the body can’t control the force that is being produced which is when we begin to see injuries. Many times what we will see is one side of the athlete is overworking and the other side isn’t doing enough work to help support the work. The overworked side is constantly firing and creating discomfort for the athlete. The side that isn’t doing enough work, becomes inhibited because it doesn’t have the strength to handle the demands placed on it. Generally when we see this, it comes from a combination of weak glutes, abs, and lower back. Here are three series of exercises that we use to help with this issue:

Stage 1

Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch 60 seconds per side

Glute Ham Bridge x 10 reps

Lateral Band Walk x 10 steps each way

Side Lying Hip Abduction x 60 seconds per side

Elbow Plank x 30-60 seconds

Stage 2

Bird Dogs x 10 per Side

Glute Ham Bridge with Abduction Band around Knees x 10 reps

Monster Walk x 10 reps per side

Clamshell Hold x 60 seconds per side

Side Plank x 30 seconds per side

Stage 3

Bird Dog x 10 per Side

Single Leg Glute Ham Bridge x 10 per side

Side Lying Hip Abduction with Band around ankles x 30-60 seconds per side

Clamshell Hold Side Plank x 30-60 seconds per side

Push Up Plank x 60 seconds

Shoulder - This really shouldn’t be a surprise to hear about an overhead sport having shoulder issues mainly when they’re undertrained and over played. What do we see when these issues pop up? We start to see rounded forward shoulders which can then create an impingement causing tightness either in the pec area or the upper back.

There are a few different things working against the girls in this. Their sport is constantly performing abduction of the shoulder and the elbow is working heavily into flexion. Again this can become much more complicated than this article, but it’s worth noting this overuse injury that can be avoidable with some simple strengthening exercises. Let’s look at what we have seen success with. It’s also worth noting, over our history of working with softball athletes, we have noticed that the athletes who can perform at least one body weight pull up experience less pain and have lower risk of injury.

Stage 1

Kneeling Scap Push Up x 10 reps

Tree Hugs x 10 reps

Ys x 15 reps

Ts x 15 reps

Standing Band Row x 15 reps

Stage 2

Scap Push Up x 10 reps

Kneeling Tree Hugs x 10 reps

Ws x 15 reps

Standing 1 Arm Band Row x 10 reps

Kneeling Band Pulldown x 10 reps

Stage 3

Pull Apart x 15 reps

Underhand Pull Apart x 15 reps

External Rotation Press Out x 15 reps

1 DB Row x 10 reps per side

Kneeling 1 Arm Band Pulldown x 10 reps per side

The game of softball has hopefully moved on past the belief that players shouldn’t lift heavy or train their upper body in order to not limit their throwing motion. Every injury we have seen over the last 10+ years has been a result of weak or inhibited muscle groups giving way because they can’t keep up with the demands being placed on them. Players will practice pitching and hitting daily to produce more velocity, but we must remember that the higher velocity the higher stopping power required to keep it efficient. If you have questions about this or other topics in training youth softball players, please feel to email me at nick@showtimestrength.com.

Nick Showman

Showtime Strength & Performance - Owner

www.showtimestrength.com