Injuries and Prevention Strategies for Youth Baseball Athletes

Injuries and Prevention Strategies for Youth Baseball Athletes

By: Sean O’Kelley, SPT

Background

I have always been involved and had an interest in sports and my passion has carried over to my career goals as a future Physical Therapist. One day I hope to open and run a private outpatient physical therapy clinic that focuses on sports injuries and prevention as well as improved performance. Because of this, I felt that my capstone project was an excellent opportunity to expand my knowledge in this area.

Though my exposure to elite/professional level athletes has been limited during my clinical rotations thus far, the number of younger athletes ranging from grade school to high school has been vast. For my Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) in our Evidence-Based Practice II course, I decided to deepen my knowledge of injuries common to the sport of baseball as well as common risk factors and treatments for these injuries. Specifically, I focused on younger athletes ranging from 8-16 years of age, as it is important to identify risk factors at an early age in sports

The purpose of this project was to provide a resource accessible to medical professionals that provides information on common shoulder and elbow injuries experienced by youth baseball players, risk factors associated with these injuries, and additional information on treatments, technology, and resources for parents, coaches, and players.

Statement of Need

Approximately five million youth athletes, 6-17 years of age, participate in the sport of baseball annually in the US.¹ Although the number of injuries experienced by this age group has plateaued over the past several years, due to the shear number of participants per year and the high physical demands on both the shoulder and elbow injuries still occur.² While USA Baseball has created a list of recommendations/guidelines that serve to limit the number of innings pitched per year, the days of rest recommended between pitching, and pitch count maximums for young pitchers, risk factors still exist for any baseball player.^2,3 These include both non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors for injury development. The single most important modifiable risk factor to consider is pitching with arm fatigue.¹ Arm fatigue while pitching has been associated with a 36-Fold increase of risk for developing an injury.¹

Due to the biomechanical demands of throwing/pitching on the shoulder and elbow joints, physically immature youth baseball athletes are at risk for common injuries to these joints. While injuries are not completely preventable in any sport, in order to continue to raise awareness it is important that prevention and education be important tools for decreasing the incidence of injury.

My Project

For my Capstone Project, I chose to write a scholarly paper as well as produce an informational brochure. Dr. Mike Gross was a key influence in this decision and guided me in this direction in order to better serve those directly involved in the sport of baseball. These resources are available and intended for both medical professionals interested in deepening their knowledge on baseball injuries of youth athletes, as well as for coaches, parents, and players whose goal is to remain safe during play and prevent disabling injury that can hinder both ability to participate and performance. The scholarly paper focused on common mechanisms of injury to the shoulder and elbow, modifiable risk factors, and prevention/intervention strategies for medical professionals as well as coaches, parents, and players. I found that there was an abundance of information regarding the prevalence of baseball injuries, risk factors, and guidelines for safety and prevention. However, there was limited research specifically regarding physical therapy interventions for these injuries.

My brochure/pamphlet is intended to provide information regarding information as well as pitching guidelines created by USA Baseball for coaches, parents, and players. I created this brochure as an easy resource to use for individuals outside of the medical profession. I used the Handbook of Teaching and Learning for Physical Therapists⁴ as a resource while creating this brochure. The brochure utilizes plain language and is organized and simple in order to avoid creating confusion surrounding this topic. Additionally, I have included a link which contains the USA Baseball website on the Pitch Smart Program. This resource is valuable for coaches, parents, and players while providing additional resources that can be used for preventing injuries.

For more information on the Pitch Smart Program please use the following link: Pitch Smart

For a copy of the Pitch Smart Preseason Throwing Program please use the following link:

Pitch Smart Preseason Throwing Program Overview

To access the educational brochure please use the following Link: Brochure – Baseball Injuries

To access my scholarly paper please use the following link: Baseball Injuries in Youth Athletes

Self-Assessment/ Reflection

This project was a challenging yet rewarding experience for me. Throughout the duration of this project, I was able to use information and skills learned from University of North Carolina – Division of Physical Therapy that helped me. Though challenging at times, this project has helped me improve at not only reading and appraising research but also identifying information that can be valuable and applied for not only clinicians but patients as well. Additionally, this project has helped me to deepen my knowledge surrounding baseball injuries, and I am excited for the opportunity to apply this experience in the near future as a practicing physical therapist and hopeful business owner. While creating the brochure, I found it challenging at first to use language and information that would be easily understood and not overly complicated for the intended audience. The information from the health literacy resource was very helpful, and I believe that this experience has helped me to improve on patient communication skills. Finally, I found the writing aspect of my project difficult. Writing is not one of my strengths, so it took me some time to create a well-organized paper that included the important information needed to sufficiently address my topic. Jyotsna Gupta was very helpful during this process and I am very thankful for her feedback/edits, which have helped to improve my paper.

I have created a brief online survey, which will help to gage how useful the brochure I created for this project was. This survey will help me by providing information on changes that could be made for the brochure in the future to improve the quality of the information. The survey should only take three minutes to complete.

To access the survey please use the following link: Brochure Survey/Feedback

Acknowledgements

First, I’d like to thank Dr. Mike Gross for assisting me with my capstone project. He was very influential in helping me narrow my focus in order to create a paper and brochure that best reflected my topic of interest. Additionally, I would like to thank Jyotsna Gupta, PT, PhD from University Physical Therapy. Jo was very helpful in providing valuable feedback, helping to improve the content and flow of my capstone. Finally, I would like to thank Brandon Tabbutt, PT, DPT of Pivot Physical Therapy. Brandon’s knowledge in outpatient orthopedics as well as his experience treating sport related injury was a valuable resource for me throughout this entire process.

References

1. Yang, J., Mann, B. J., Guettler, J. H., Dugas, J. R., Irrgang, J. J., Fleisig, G. S., & Albright, J. P. (2014). Risk-Prone Pitching Activities and Injuries in Youth Baseball: Findings From a National Sample. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 42(6), 1456–1463. http://doi.org/10.1177/0363546514524699
2. Mautner, B. K., & Blazuk, J. (2015). Overuse throwing injuries in skeletally immature athletes–diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 14(3), 209–14.
3. Pitch Smart. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2016, from http://m.mlb.com/pitchsmart/pitching-guidelines/
4. Jensen, G. M., & Mostrom, E. (2013). Handbook of teaching and learning for physical therapists (3rd ed.). Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann.Chapter 12: Patient Education and Health Literacy
5. Pitcher Nick Pratto throws for the West team from Huntington Beach, California, in the 2011 Little League Baseball World Series. (2012, August 25). Retrieved April 10, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/health/little-league-curveballs/ (Originally photographed 2011)

For a complete list of references used for my project please click on the following link.

My Capstone References