TITLE:
Relationships between Shoulder Injuries during Throwing Motions and the Range of Motions in Junior and Senior High School Baseball Players
AUTHORS:
Tomoyuki Matsui, Toru Morihara, Machiko Hiramoto, Yoshikazu Azuma, Kazuya Seo, Yoshihiro Kai, Shuhei Morifusa, Teruo Nomura, Noriyuki Kida
KEYWORDS:
Range of Motion, Baseball
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.9 No.1,
December
25,
2018
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to assess the range of motions of the upper and the lower limbs in junior and senior high school baseball players to examine relationships between the range of motions and shoulder injuries caused during throwing motions. Significant differences in the range of motion were not shown for any of the items between the injured and the healthy groups of junior or senior high school students. The height, weight, age, years of baseball experience, and the age of starting baseball indicated a significant difference only for the weight in the injured junior high school group (p.05). Significant differences were not shown for any other variables. The possibility of the collapse of the kinetic chain among upper extremity, lower limbs, and the trunk increases when flexibility declines. Consequently, it was expected that throwing motions would place high stresses on the upper extremity, which causes pitching-related injuries. However, the results of this study did not indicate a correlation between the range of motions and shoulder injuries.