Guest post by Chris Salise
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com
Everyone likes a good game of fastpitch softball, but no one likes to be taken out of it prematurely due to an avoidable injury. Unfortunately, whether it’s due to improper stretching and calisthenics, or faulty equipment, too many people find themselves laid up before they can round the corner to home.
Don’t let it happen to you. What follows is a list of the 5 most common softball injuries and how to avoid them. A little preparation and a good dose of common sense are all you need to keep you in the game and playing at your best.
Tendinitis
Tendinitis is most commonly associated with wrist injuries, but in its most literal form, it’s simply an inflammation of a tendon. This means that pretty much any part of your body where bones connect to muscles is vulnerable to tendinitis. For softball players, that mostly means the wrist, shoulder, and elbow.
Tendinitis can most easily be avoided by doing the proper stretches before a game. Increasing the endurance of your muscles through strength training can also lower the odds of straining your tendons. But in both cases, make sure you’re doing your exercises in proper form—stretching and lifting out of whack can cause tendinitis all by itself!
Ankle Sprains
Ankle sprains are annoyingly common and a big risk for softball players. This is because whether you’re running the bases or trying to catch a pop fly, softball requires a lot of sudden stops and starts in your lower extremities. This puts sudden strain and weight on your ankle joints and can cause them to buckle without warning.
It may surprise you to learn that one of the main causes of ankle sprains in softball, however, is sliding into bases. As such, observing proper sliding techniques can heavily decrease your chances of spraining your ankle. And, of course, don’t forget to stretch!
Rotator Cuff Injuries
The rotator cuff is a series of muscles between the shoulder blade and the upper arm bone. Injuries to this part of the arm are common in fastpitch softball players because the overhand throwing motion puts a lot of stress and pressure here. Most rotator cuff injuries are one-time deals, but they can chronically weaken your shoulder if not treated properly.
To avoid these types of injuries, it’s important to learn and maintain good form, warm up before each game, and always make time for rest and recovery between sessions. Good conditioning is also essential, so don’t neglect your exercise, training, and practice. These simple habits won’t just help prevent shoulder injuries; they’ll improve your game as well!
Hamstring Injuries
Hamstring tears are already pretty common among the general population, but even more so for sports players and especially softball athletes. If you’re dehydrated, if you don’t stretch properly or if you’re wearing shoes that aren’t catered to the shape of your feet, all of these will contribute to the chances of you tearing a hamstring before you even make it to first.
Besides keeping hydrated and stretching, a big help for reducing the chances of tearing your hamstring is to make sure both your hamstring and quadriceps have the same level of strength. Ensuring that each part of your leg is as strong as the other will make it so that one muscle doesn’t have to take on more of a burden than the other. You don’t know how right they are when they tell you not to skip leg day at the gym!
ACL Tears
These thankfully aren’t quite as common in softball as in sports such as soccer, volleyball, and basketball, but they do tend to occur more frequently in female athletes than their male counterparts, largely due to differences in the angle at which the hips connect to the thigh bones (aka Q angle). Still, they can be terrible to deal with when they do happen.
Tears in your ACL most often occur when you rapidly shift directions while running. These injuries are extremely painful and can cause long-term damage.
You can help prevent ACL tears by training with plyometric exercises to get your body more used to bursts of activity. It’s also a good idea to train with a wobble board to improve your balance. Endurance and coordination are the keys to not falling prey to an ACL injury.
You also might want to avoid injury by taking shorter practice sessions and making sure your goals and exercises are evenly paced. Softball injuries happen all the time, but they don’t have to be a fact of life.
Chris Scalise is a freelance writer and fitness enthusiast from Los Angeles, California who writes about sports and health topics for a wide range of publications and brands, including SportsBraces.com.
More...
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com
Everyone likes a good game of fastpitch softball, but no one likes to be taken out of it prematurely due to an avoidable injury. Unfortunately, whether it’s due to improper stretching and calisthenics, or faulty equipment, too many people find themselves laid up before they can round the corner to home.
Don’t let it happen to you. What follows is a list of the 5 most common softball injuries and how to avoid them. A little preparation and a good dose of common sense are all you need to keep you in the game and playing at your best.
Tendinitis
Tendinitis is most commonly associated with wrist injuries, but in its most literal form, it’s simply an inflammation of a tendon. This means that pretty much any part of your body where bones connect to muscles is vulnerable to tendinitis. For softball players, that mostly means the wrist, shoulder, and elbow.
Tendinitis can most easily be avoided by doing the proper stretches before a game. Increasing the endurance of your muscles through strength training can also lower the odds of straining your tendons. But in both cases, make sure you’re doing your exercises in proper form—stretching and lifting out of whack can cause tendinitis all by itself!
Ankle Sprains
Ankle sprains are annoyingly common and a big risk for softball players. This is because whether you’re running the bases or trying to catch a pop fly, softball requires a lot of sudden stops and starts in your lower extremities. This puts sudden strain and weight on your ankle joints and can cause them to buckle without warning.
It may surprise you to learn that one of the main causes of ankle sprains in softball, however, is sliding into bases. As such, observing proper sliding techniques can heavily decrease your chances of spraining your ankle. And, of course, don’t forget to stretch!
Rotator Cuff Injuries
The rotator cuff is a series of muscles between the shoulder blade and the upper arm bone. Injuries to this part of the arm are common in fastpitch softball players because the overhand throwing motion puts a lot of stress and pressure here. Most rotator cuff injuries are one-time deals, but they can chronically weaken your shoulder if not treated properly.
To avoid these types of injuries, it’s important to learn and maintain good form, warm up before each game, and always make time for rest and recovery between sessions. Good conditioning is also essential, so don’t neglect your exercise, training, and practice. These simple habits won’t just help prevent shoulder injuries; they’ll improve your game as well!
Hamstring Injuries
Hamstring tears are already pretty common among the general population, but even more so for sports players and especially softball athletes. If you’re dehydrated, if you don’t stretch properly or if you’re wearing shoes that aren’t catered to the shape of your feet, all of these will contribute to the chances of you tearing a hamstring before you even make it to first.
Besides keeping hydrated and stretching, a big help for reducing the chances of tearing your hamstring is to make sure both your hamstring and quadriceps have the same level of strength. Ensuring that each part of your leg is as strong as the other will make it so that one muscle doesn’t have to take on more of a burden than the other. You don’t know how right they are when they tell you not to skip leg day at the gym!
ACL Tears
These thankfully aren’t quite as common in softball as in sports such as soccer, volleyball, and basketball, but they do tend to occur more frequently in female athletes than their male counterparts, largely due to differences in the angle at which the hips connect to the thigh bones (aka Q angle). Still, they can be terrible to deal with when they do happen.
Tears in your ACL most often occur when you rapidly shift directions while running. These injuries are extremely painful and can cause long-term damage.
You can help prevent ACL tears by training with plyometric exercises to get your body more used to bursts of activity. It’s also a good idea to train with a wobble board to improve your balance. Endurance and coordination are the keys to not falling prey to an ACL injury.
You also might want to avoid injury by taking shorter practice sessions and making sure your goals and exercises are evenly paced. Softball injuries happen all the time, but they don’t have to be a fact of life.
Chris Scalise is a freelance writer and fitness enthusiast from Los Angeles, California who writes about sports and health topics for a wide range of publications and brands, including SportsBraces.com.
More...
