Baseline Aerobic Fitness in High School and College Football Players: Critical for Prescribing Safe Exercise Regimens

Catastrophic Sports Injuries: Causation and Prevention

➤ Catastrophic injuries in U.S. high school and college athletes are rare but devastating injuries.➤ Catastrophic sports injuries are classified as either traumatic, caused by direct contact during sports participation, or nontraumatic, associated with exertion while participating in a sport.➤ Football is associated with the greatest number of traumatic and nontraumatic catastrophic injuries for male athletes, whereas cheerleading has the highest number of traumatic catastrophic injuries and basketball has the highest number of nontraumatic catastrophic injuries for female athletes.➤ The incidence of traumatic catastrophic injuries for all sports has declined over the past 40 years, due to effective rule changes, especially in football, pole-vaulting, cheerleading, ice hockey, and rugby. Further research is necessary to reduce the incidence of structural brain injury in contact sports such as football.➤ The incidence of nontraumatic catastrophic injuries has increased over the last 40 years and requires additional research and preventive measures. Avoiding overexertion during training, confirming sickle cell trait status in high school athletes during the preparticipation physical examination, and developing cost-effective screening tools for cardiac abnormalities are critical next steps.

Relationship Between Pitch Counts and Shoulder Strength in Collegiate Baseball Players

ABSTRACT

Gagnon, A, Payette, J, Park, M, Juras, K, and Slater, L. Relationship between pitch counts and shoulder strength in collegiate baseball players. J Strength Cond Res 37(9): 1860-1864, 2023-Large volumes of throwing leads to changes in shoulder strength that have been associated with increased risk of injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between throwing volume and eccentric shoulder strength. Twelve NCAA Division I baseball pitchers volunteered to participate. Prepractice and postpractice eccentric shoulder strength was measured using a handheld dynamometer at 30°/second. Change in strength was calculated as the prepractice strength measure subtracted from the postpractice strength measure. After initial testing, subjects self-reported pitch counts before completing postpractice strength testing. Subjects were separated into high-strength and low-strength groups based on the median external rotation strength. Paired t -tests were used to compare change in shoulder strength and Pearson's r correlations were used to quantify the association between pitches and change in strength. There were no changes between prestrength and poststrength assessments in external rotation strength or internal rotation strength for the entire group. When divided into strength groups, correlations between strength and total pitches were nonsignificant for the high-strength group but were strong for both external rotation ( r = -0.87, p = 0.025) and internal rotation ( r = -0.91, p = 0.013) in the low-strength group. Pitchers with lower shoulder eccentric strength at baseline demonstrated greater declines in strength, whereas pitchers with higher shoulder eccentric strength did not demonstrate changes in strength. Changes in strength during practice could lead to compensatory movement that may predispose athletes to injury. Sport performance professionals may benefit from obtaining eccentric shoulder strength to assist with performance periodization and rehabilitation after injury.