![]() ![]() "The greatest impact is on the biceps, as the muscle first accelerates the arm and then puts on the brakes, after transferring force to the ball," Verma said.įast-pitch softball is one of the most popular female athlete team sports in America. Consequently, the biceps took the majority of the stress, not the elbow. Moreover, the maximum force, or maximum contraction, occurred not when the arm was cocked, as in baseball's overhand pitching, but when the arm circled around from the 9 o'clock position, almost fully extended back, to the 6 o'clock position, perpendicular with the ground, completing its windmill motion to release the ball. The researchers found that even though the upper arm movement in both baseball and fast-pitch softball gives the ball about the same velocity, muscle force during the windmill pitch was much higher. Electromyography detects electrical potential generated by muscle cells when they contract. ![]() ![]() In the study, seven women – three collegiate and four professional pitchers – underwent motion analysis and surface electromyography to evaluate the muscle firing pattern of their biceps in the course of a windmill pitch. Nikhil Verma, lead author and a specialist in sports medicine at Rush. "The conventional belief has been that the underhand throwing motion of softball places little stress on the arm," said Dr. Published in the current issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, the study of the "windmill" pitching motion appears to explain the high incidence of anterior shoulder pain seen in female softball players. ![]()
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