Sports Medicine

The Kinetic Chain

It seems there is a big discrepancy between how professional baseball athletes train and how high school and collegiate baseball athletes train. Professional and collegiate baseball athletes work out year-round where the high school athletes only work out if they are individually motivated. Even then the type of training program they follow is arbitrary and based on bodybuilding at best. My goal with this article is to share with you all of the current information on strength and conditioning for the baseball athlete that I have used with great success.

It’s all about the Kinetic Chain…

Figure 1

The Kinetic Chain is a term used by most sports medicine and exercise science professionals to describe a sequence or a chain of events (please excuse the pun) that take place in order for an athlete to throw (Figure 1). For a pitcher, the sequence of events start from the push off of the rubber on the mound to the follow through where the pitcher rolls off of the mound.

In Curt Schilling’s Blog, www.38pitches.com, Curt states, “I learned about the Kinetic Chain long before it was ‘en vogue’. The transfer of power from the point of your plant foot, to the tip of your throwing hand is a process that relies on strength, flexibility and range of motion in your foot, ankle, knee, thigh, hip, core, chest, shoulder, elbow, forearm, hand. Have a snag in any one spot and the transfer of power is diminished. Go too far astray and the entire chain becomes tangled.

Someone with easy repeatable mechanics is apt to hide the symptoms or problems much longer than others. This is basically what’s happened to me over the past year. You do not just lose 5 mph in a week or two span, barring an injury. I was concerned the entire season I had a labral tear. I don’t. I basically have major clogs in the kinetic chain that are a direct result of limited, to almost non existent flexibility in my right ankle.

The major indicators are my left hip, which is tight, and my thoracic spine. Bottom line is I’ve lost flexibility in areas I cannot afford to. At 35 I could overcome them, or didn’t have them. I can’t now.” Curt Schilling 2007

Whether you are 35 years old or 15, we approach the throwing athlete with the same concerns: flexibility first, balance/coordination second, strengthening of certain areas that help improve the kinetic chain, and overall conditioning. Often times we combine all of these areas together into one training program (see sample workout routine). Old ankle sprains that were never rehabilitated correctly, knee cap pain (patellar tendonitis), and other injuries can and will factor in to how well you can throw a baseball. If left undetected, these minor problems can manifest into bigger concerns at some point in time. 

Flexibility

It’s one thing to be overall flexible. It’s another story to be flexible in specific areas that are important for the throwing athlete. Listed below are a couple of areas that we see often with injured throwing athletes.

GIRD (Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Deficit)

If your orthopedic surgeon has diagnosed you with GIRD have no fear. The name sounds worse than the actual condition and it can be improved with a simple stretch that you could do in your sleep. When you throw a ball your shoulder rotates approximately 3,000 to 6,000 degrees per second. As you reach back to start a throw your shoulder rotates into external rotation (Figure 2).

Just after the release of the baseball during the throwing phase, your shoulder rapidly changes from external rotation into the opposite - internal rotation (Figure 3).

Figure 2	Figure 3

If you have a deficit of internal rotation then you have a hard time slowing your shoulder down during follow through after your pitch. If you leave this unchecked you open the door to an increased possibility of a shoulder/elbow problem and this is a “clog in the kinetic chain.” One of the first things that we do at the UConn Health Center Department of Rehabilitation is to teach you the Sleeper Stretch.

The Sleeper Stretch

This simple stretch will improve the internal rotation abilities of your shoulder which will allow you to follow through better after the release of the ball when throwing.

Start this stretch by lying on a table or bed on your throwing shoulder. Keep your arm in a 90 degree position in front of you (Figure 4). Then use your other arm and gently push your throwing shoulder down slowly towards the table or bed (Figure 5). Hold each stretch for at least 20 to 30 seconds and perform this stretch 2 to 3 times a day.

Figure 4	Figure 5

Posterior Capsule of the Shoulder

Without getting too technical with medical jargon, the Posterior Capsule of the Shoulder is the back part of your shoulder. Sometimes this part of the shoulder can get tight which can throw off normal function of your shoulder. Again, we have a very simple stretch called the Cross Body Shoulder Stretch.

The Cross Body Shoulder Stretch

The Cross Body Shoulder Stretch can be performed seated or in a standing position. Simply hold your throwing shoulder with the opposite arm and gently bring your throwing shoulder across your body bringing it into your chest or as close as your flexibility will allow (Figures 6 and 7). This stretch should be performed gently from start to finish, followed with a 20 to 30 second hold in the ending position (Figure 7). This stretch should be performed 4 times, 2 to 3 times a day.

Figure 6	Figure 7

Pectoralis Minor

Whenever someone mentions that they are working out, one of the common questions asked is “How much can you bench?”  Somewhere along the way someone seemed to think that having a big chest qualifies you as being a great athlete. That is far from the truth. In fact, most major league baseball organizations will not allow their pitchers to bench press at all! Why? When your chest becomes tight from all of the bench pressing and chest workouts you lose the ability to reach back to throw. When your chest (pectoralis major and minor) becomes tight, the tightness will change the way your shoulder works when throwing a ball. One of the stretches that we use is a Wall/Corner/Doorway Shoulder Stretch.

Wall/Corner/Doorway Stretch

Shown below is a wall stretch where you place your throwing shoulder up on the wall or doorway creating a right angle (Figure 8). From this position, gently move your body forward until you feel a comfortable stretch. The doorway stretch can also be done with both arms (Figure 9).

Figure 8	Figure 9

[ next: how we train the kinetic chain ]

Information provided by Chris Blake, M.A., L.A.T.C., C.S.C.S., New England Musculoskeletal Institute, UConn Health Center.