Beating Softball Pain For Good

Apr 21, 2023

How to Deal with Aches and Pains as a Softball Player

As a softball player, you’re no stranger to aches and pains. Whether it’s a sore shoulder from throwing, neck pain, elbows, back pain, it all drains your energy and affects your game until they become so unbearable you just can’t play anymore.

So, what do we do about it? You just play through it, right? Mental toughness! Pain is a just a part of life after all.

No.

Athletes that are smart (and follow Baseline MX) know that soft tissue is a magical method that can provide all sorts of pain relief and we’ve covered soft tissue strategies in previous posts.

But we don’t want to be stuck doing soft tissue forever. Surely there is a cause behind all of the aches and pains? How do we solve the problem at the root?

First we need to look at common pains and injuries and ask the question: where do injuries come from?

Common Softball Injuries

Some of the most common injuries that affect softball players include:

Rotator cuff strains from throwing
Low back pain from hitting
Ankle sprains from running or pivoting
Hamstring strains from running or jumping

But how do these happen? If you didn’t crash into anyone shouldn’t your body be able to throw, swing, run, jump and slide without pain?

Answer: yes.

Your body is designed to move. And moving your body shouldn’t cause you pain if that’s what it’s designed to do. It’s when our movement gets mechanically out-of-whack that our bones and tissues start to take on excess strain.

That’s when the pain starts.

Identifying the Problem: Signs You’re Not Moving Correctly

Sometimes it’s easy to identify movement deficiency. Sometimes it takes a trained professional like a Physical Therapist and a complete mobility and strength assessment. But here are a few common indicators that your movement is off:

You can’t do a technique or movement that others can do easily
You can’t feel an exercise in the right place (Ex: if you feel squats predominantly in your back).
You feel pain or discomfort while throwing, hitting, or running
You struggle with basic movements like squatting, lunging, or raising your arms above your head
You can’t correctly perform softball-specific movements like throwing, swinging, popping, or pitching no matter how hard you try

Fixing Pain

Movement dysfunction always comes down to a combination of muscle weakness and mobility. A muscle or group of muscles is too weak, not mobile enough, or too mobile, which causes a few of your muscles (the sore ones) to do all the work.

Here’s a step-by-step approach to fixing the problem, so you don’t have to chronically rely on soft tissue therapy:

Strengthen where you are weak. You may find that you can’t do exercises that others find easy, or you struggle with simple movements. For instance, you may not be able to do a push-up or squat properly or pull your body weight up while doing a pull-up. These are all indications that you can’t move your body weight effectively and shouldn’t load it. These are things that you must address; otherwise, they will cause problems.
Stretch where you are short. Shortness refers to when a muscle is structurally short and you can operate through a full range of motion in that muscle. This frequently occurs in young athletes during growth spurts. Often, when we can’t move the same way as others, our first reaction is to stretch. But if you stretch repeatedly and don’t improve your mobility, stretching is not the solution to your problem.
Do soft tissue therapy where you are tight. Tightness occurs when the nervous system’s contractile state increases, which can be caused by stress or training.

Remember this: underlying every pain problem is a strength issue.

Look for the strength issue. Sometimes you can’t fix the strength problem until you address the shortness and tightness, but you must eventually address the strength issue to solve the problem.

Also, remember that your pain and problems aren’t always in the same location. Our body is one huge chain. If there’s a problem with a link in your lower back, it will affect the way you move and bear weight and may even cause knee pain. Often, we assume that the problem is where the pain is, but most of the time, the pain is caused by a problem elsewhere.

When You Need More Help

Sometimes it's challenging to identify and fix the exact source of the strength issue that's causing your chronic pain. We can help. We take softball athletes like you through an in-depth movement assessment to help identify the areas of strength or mobility that you need to improve. Then, we create a custom plan to get you out of pain and into new levels of performance– many athletes get instant relief during the first session.