| If you have ever paid attention to baseball
pitchers and fastpitch pitchers you may have noticed that the pitchers in
baseball don't pitch very often or very much. In Major League baseball the
average starting pitcher throws an average of around six innings in around
25 starts a season. That is 150 innings and if you figure in 15-20 pitches
an inning it is only 2250-3000 pitches thrown in a 162 game season or
nearly four months. Fastpitch pitchers do not play as many games as Major
Leaguers, but could easily double or even triple those numbers in a 162
game season. Why? What gives these underhand pitchers the chance to pitch
more? Are they super human? Some of them might think so, but a recent
conversation with Don Sarno, the US Women's Olympic Softball Coach and a
member of the ISC Hall of Fame, gives a very precise reason.
"The basics of delivery explain it. Number one in baseball you
must lift your arm. In underhand we swing the arm around. It's less
traumatic and more natural," explains Sarno. He also went on to
explain that in baseball "the hand is away from the body. The more it
is away from the body, the more trauma to the shoulder and arm." In
underhand "we throw by the hip. It's close to the body providing more
protection." One of the major concerns is also recovery time. In
baseball pitchers usually only throw every 5 days. Overuse then becomes a
factor. Arms are being used too frequently and are not given proper time
to recover. Pitchers, especially young throwers, are throwing too much.
They are throwing in games, in practice or at home or at the playground.
In fastpitch the issue exists, but it is not so much of a problem because
the arm can recover faster. The average fastpitch pitcher throws two to
three times a week without any harm being done to the arm. Underhand
pitchers may not get all of the notoriety of an overhand thrower, but not
all notoriety is good. Ask Tommy John.
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