Analysis Of Windmill Pitching Shows Risk Of Injury To Biceps In Softball Players

Science Daily talks about how fast pitch softball is one of the most popular female sports in America. The pitcher is very important to the game and for a while most people thought windmill pitching put little stress on the arm, but a doctor at Rush University found otherwise. Dr. Nikhill Verma lead a study to watch the arm muscles patterns while pitching.

In the study, seven women--three female collegiate and four professional
pitchers--underwent motion analysis and surface electromyography to evalute the
muscle firing pattern of their biceps in the course of a windmill pitch. Electromyography
detects electrical potential generated by muscle cells when they contract.
[...] Verma launched his study in Rush's human motion laboratory when he
found that female softball players from the local professioal team were coming
into his practice complaining of pain in the front of their shoulders. He
was able to localize the pain to the biceps tendon. In one case, a pitcher
ruptured her tendon during play, which implicated the long head of the biceps
tendon as the source of the stress.
[...] "Previous studies have shown that shoulder problems cause a
significant amount of lost game time among windmill pitchers, with anterior
shoulder pain being the common culprit," Velma added. "This study helps explain
the etiology of
that shoulder pain, and may help doctors advise better treatment and prevention
strategies."

I found this article to be interesting because softball is one of my favorite sports and the pitcher is a vital part of any team. Muscles are an important part of the body and tendons help these muscles move. Rupturing the biceps tendon would put you out of the game for quite awhile.