When Stretching Hurts Your Softball Game

As a softball player you’ve probably been told a thousand times how important it is to stretch before a game. It’s key to preventing injury and improving your performance….yada yada yada.

But what no one ever talks about is how stretching can work against you and keep you from playing your best. As backwards as it may seem, overstretching can actually lead to worse mobility and performance, and increased risk of injury.

Not always! Just sometimes. There’s a few common mistakes softball players make when stretching so let’s chat about how to avoid those and get the most out of your stretches.

The problem with stretching

Once you stretch a muscle, you can’t shrink it back down again. A long muscle is not a strong muscle. Think of a rubber band that gets pulled too far and doesn’t go back to the original size.

It’s really tough to make a long muscle strong. Some younger athletes can grow into a long muscle, but most females are done growing by age 16, so it’s important to know the right stretching techniques to avoid long-term issues.

When to stretch

When you feel stiff or stuck, or feel like you run funny or throw funny, these can all be signs that your mobility is limited. Our bodies are designed to move. A girl who “looks athletic” doesn’t have a secret sauce– it’s just that she has optimal mobility and strength.

You can too.

Wherever you feel tight or stuck it’s a good idea to start with stretching, but don’t get crazy. Stretch that muscle for 90 seconds two times a day for two weeks. Set a reminder on your phone for twice a day, and another one to reassess at the two week mark.

If you feel a difference after two weeks, great! You should be able to stop the stretching routine and maintain that motion.

Signs that stretching is not the answer

Stretching is a good starting point, but what if you don’t see results? These are signs that stretching isn’t the right solution.

Not gaining motion

Sometimes muscle length isn’t the real problem. If you’re stretching as prescribed above and not seeing results in 2 weeks that’s a strong signal that muscle length isn’t the issue. Healthy young muscle tissue responds fairly quickly to stretching.

Not maintaining motion

The second signal that stretching isn’t the right solution for you is if you quickly lose your results when you stop stretching. Check yourself again 15–20 minutes after you’re done stretching. Are you back where you started? There’s something else going on there. Similarly, if you did the 2 week stretching routine, check yourself again a few days later. If you lost the motion you gained it means muscle length isn’t the problem.

If you followed the stretching program prescribed above and you're not gaining or maintaining motion, it means you have a strength problem somewhere. You've got a muscle that is too weak, not activating, or chronically overactive. Which category is it, and which muscle? There's a guide to answering those questions at the end of this article called The Softball Movement Screen.

Improve your athleticism

If you want to run/throw/swing like your most athletic teammate, start by cleaning up your movement. Stretching is a great place to start, but if that doesn’t work then what?

The most athletic softball players have optimal strength and mobility FOR softball. No matter how hard you practice or train, you’ll never go farther than your movement allows. It’s the ceiling on everything you do as an athlete.

As a physical therapist specializing in sports performance, I see movement dysfunction all the time. It typically shows up as:

• Difficulty perfecting a technique no matter how hard you work
• Chronic pain and soreness (your body is designed to move, it shouldn’t hurt!)
• Chronic stiffness and feeling like you have to stretch all the time
• You can’t do something as easily as your teammates
• Awkward or funny-looking movement in your running, throwing, hitting or pitching.

If you think something in your movement could be holding back your athleticism you can test yourself with my free Softball Movement Screen. The screen takes you through the 5 critical movements every softball player should be able to do easily. (I’ve never had an athlete get 100% on this, can you?)

Every injured athlete I’ve worked with has a movement dysfunction that shows up in this screen. If they had known about it earlier, they could have avoided the injury.

Ready to test yourself?

Get The Softball Movement Screen

Did you click that link up there and go get the Movement Screen? What are you waiting for? Every injured softball athlete I've treated could have avoided their injury and stayed on the field if they had just done the evaluation that I've put together in the Movement Screen.