Baseball has an elbow injury problem: biomechanics may have the solution

Elbow injuries-particularly to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL)-have been a problem in sports medicine for at least half a century. As a pitcher rotates his trunk to face the target and externally rotates his throwing arm, varus torque is produced at the elbow to decelerate arm cocking and initiate arm acceleration. With today's pitchers being larger, throwing harder, and playing more often during their development years, repetition of large varus torque leads to more UCL injuries. Pitch count limits for games, seasons, and per year may provide some prevention of overuse injuries. Varying efforts of pitching (instead of maximum effort on every pitch) may both reduce UCL damage and also improve performance (by throwing off the timing of hitters). Improving pitching biomechanics can lead to both increased pitch performance metrics (ball velocity, spin rate, and movement) and reduced elbow varus torque. The proliferation of baseball biomechanics in professional baseball, universities, and performance centres has amplified the potential of biomechanical intervention. In addition, a novel proposal is to modify the baseball itself; initial research shows reduced torque with slightly increased ball weight and circumference. In summary, baseball has an elbow injury problem; biomechanics may have the solution.