Do Mound Height and Pitching Distance Affect Youth Baseball Pitching Biomechanics?

Background: Pitching injuries continue to be a serious problem, with adolescents now representing the group with the most injuries. Some have proposed that lowering or eliminating the pitching mound in youth baseball may reduce joint stress and subsequent injuries. Another potential risk factor is advancing from youth to adult pitching distance without an intermediate distance.

Kinematic and kinetic differences between left-and right-handed professional baseball pitchers.

While 10% of the general population is left-handed, 27% of professional baseball pitchers are left-handed. Biomechanical differences between left- and right-handed college pitchers have been previously reported, but these differences have yet to be examined at the professional level. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare pitching biomechanics between left- and right-handed professional pitchers.

Changes in Youth Baseball Pitching Biomechanics: A 7-Year Longitudinal Study.

Background: Pitching biomechanics are associated with performance and risk of injury in baseball. Previous studies have identified biomechanical differences between youth and adult pitchers but have not investigated changes within individual young pitchers as they mature.

Hypothesis: Pitching kinematics and kinetics will change significantly during a youth pitcher's career.

Do baseball pitchers improve mechanics after biomechanical evaluations?

The purpose of this study was to determine how often flaws in pitching mechanics identified from biomechanical analysis are corrected. The biomechanics of 46 baseball pitchers were evaluated twice, with an average of 12 months (range 2-48 months) between evaluations. Pitchers were healthy at the time of both evaluations, competing at the high school, college, minor league or Major League level.

Biomechanical Analysis of Weighted-Ball Exercises for Baseball Pitchers.

Background: Weighted-ball throwing programs are commonly used in training baseball pitchers to increase ball velocity. The purpose of this study was to compare kinematics and kinetics among weighted-ball exercises with values from standard pitching (ie, pitching standard 5-oz baseballs from a mound).

Hypothesis: Ball and arm velocities would be greater with lighter balls and joint kinetics would be greater with heavier balls.