Is the windmill delivery bad for softball pitchers?
In Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, there was a study conducted by Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, saying that the windmill motion is bad for softball pitchers.
And if you look at the motion over and over for 50-60 times a game, it’s not hard to imagine why.
The article featured a Lockport (IL) pitcher throwing for 21 straight days last year before she felt a sharp pain in her throwing shoulder.
The pitcher’s doctor said she had loose joints and her shoulder was slowly pulling out of her socket.
This is probably not the first time this sort of thing has happened in softball and it likely won’t be the last.
The whole idea behind the windmill delivery is that it gives pitchers a chance to handle an extreme workload with their arm being able to hold up each day.
But, how smart is that?
According to the study, it’s not smart at all.
“It’s the windmill delivery itself that is causing pain to the front of the shoulder,” Dr. Nikhil Verma, a sports medicine specialist who was the team physician for the Chicago Bandits professional softball team the last three years, told the Chicago Tribune. “It stands to reason that excessive use of that motion will lead to this type of injury.”
If that isn’t proof, I don’t know what is.
Having covered high school softball games the past years, I always questioned why a team only had one girl that could pitch.
I know some teams have two — and that’s considered a luxury — but why can’t a team use more pitchers?
All year long, 16-18-year-old girls’ arms are being taxed in a way that they shouldn’t be.
And that’s wrong.
Here’s hoping that softball coaches might reconsider their options when it comes to their pitchers.
Maybe they shouldn’t start everyday or maybe some girls can handle it just fine. I don’t know the answer to that.
What do you think? Are these players being hurt by pitching all the time with very little rest? Is the windmill delivery a good or bad thing?
