Are you becoming immune to the many injuries occurring in baseball, especially on the professional level? It seems as though we are bombarded every day with all the baseball injuries and how they are responsible for many team losses. The number of injuries in high school and collegiate baseball is also increasing but we rarely hear about it.
It is well known that non-contact injuries are due to either improper technique of skill execution or lack of strength of the muscles. The latter point needs explanation. The strength in question must be specific to the movements involved. In other words, the strength of the muscles is related to development of strength in the same neuromuscular pathway as seen in execution of the skill.
In other words, it is strength that is displayed in exactly the same manner as they are used in execution of the sports skill. It is important to make this distinction from general strength which is not related to skill execution. Keep in mind that strength is very specific to the muscles and points in the range of motion.
In regard to the players, they need specialized strength training that involves the same neuromuscular pathway as seen in execution of the sports skill. Understand that specialized strength training not only is a major deterrent to injury, but it is also the key to improved performance on the field.
In regard to technique, we tend to believe that professional baseball players already have their technique well-developed and that they are physically strong, well capable of playing the game. But this is far from the truth. There are many situations that lead to injury. In fact in most cases that I have seen, it can be said that Tommy John injuries are due mainly to ineffective technique repeated excessively.
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