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Fatigue and the Fast-Pitch Softball Pitcher: a Scoping Review

  • Medicine
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Abstract

Required repetition and intensity of the windmill pitch motion are associated with many fatigue-related pitching injuries due to the large stresses placed on ligaments, muscles, and joints. Few studies have investigated the effects of fatigue on fast-pitch softball pitching. To advance this research, gaps in knowledge must be identified. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review is to determine what has been studied in the area of fatigue and injury risk in the female softball pitcher. A systematic literature search using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases along with hand-searching was conducted between December 29, 2020, and February 11, 2021, to identify original research conducted with female fast-pitch softball or windmill pitchers that reported either an outcome measure that addresses mental or physical fatigue or a measure of musculoskeletal or movement pattern changes over a prolonged period of pitching, such as a simulated game. Article search and data extraction was performed by the first author and reviewed by co-authors to account for reader bias. Eight journal articles met inclusion criteria. All articles included reported measures of tendon volume, muscle strength, joint range of motion, or pitching mechanics from fast-pitch softball pitchers before and after one or several games. Research analyzed in this review demonstrated that changes in muscle strength occur due to pitching fatigue. While this work provides evidence that fatigue may influence the windmill pitch, further work is necessary to determine the relationship between fatigue, injury risk, and pitching.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Orthopaedic Surgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Tessa C. Hulburt & Kristen Nicholson

  2. Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Tessa C. Hulburt & Kristen Nicholson

  3. Health and Exercise Science, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Brianne Kimura

Authors
  1. Tessa C. Hulburt
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Contributions

All authors were involved in presented idea conception. T. Hulburt performed article search and data extraction. Data extraction was supervised by B. Kimura and K. Nicholson. All authors discussed results and contributed to the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tessa C. Hulburt.

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Key Points

• Pitching fatigue results in bilateral strength deficiencies after one game and after one season, and cumulative fatigue occurs over multiple consecutive days of play.

• Recording a quantifiable/validated measure of self-reported fatigue, pitching history, injury incidence, and kinetic/kinematic evaluation of the windmill pitch as well as further investigation of muscle activity and tendon volume before and after fatigue is necessary to determine how fatigue affects windmill pitch mechanics.

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Medicine

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Hulburt, T.C., Kimura, B. & Nicholson, K. Fatigue and the Fast-Pitch Softball Pitcher: a Scoping Review. SN Compr. Clin. Med. 3, 1148–1164 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-021-00831-5

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