GIRD (glenohumeral IR deficit) is considered a major contributor to GH instability & medial elbow injury in baseball pitchers. The cause is believed to be the tremendous traction placed on the posterior shoulder during the follow through phase. Most of the treatment I've seen to date is directed at the posterior joint capsule itself. We kinetic link enthusiasts insist on looking deeper. What if some other link is not doing it's job & over taxing the shoulder? Like: 1. Stiffness of the contralateral anterior shoulder.
2. Frontal/Transverse T-spine stiffness.
3. Trail leg ABD,IR stiffness.
4. Lead leg cavus foot.
5. Limitation of R cervical rotation (in a R handed pitcher).
Or, what I'm working on here: Limitation of L femoral IR. I've changed the position of the lead foot a little bit by placing it in neutral rotation. My R hand is mobilizing the R ilium into L rotation (as if I were opening a jar lid). My L hand is gently slowing down that L femur from bailing out into external rotation. The authentic drivers I'm using are the athlete's R hand & foot.
4 comments:
I really like your post!
Additional considerations that pitchers have to overcome is learning the most efficent way to decelerate their body mostly on their LEFT LE (R handed pitcher)while on a convex surface that does not allow the "best" pronation to occur at the foot and ankle (relatively more plantarflexion of ankle), predisposing their LEFT LE to relatively less pronation capabilities immediately at contact. Combine that with these supersonic bats that force a pitcher to finish in a sagittal postured "shortstop" position artifically casts the hips/pelvis/trunk/scapula into a less than optimal TP/FP deceleration position. Plus, not enough good mechanic reps with long toss and off a mound (no batter) all year long to overcome these product of the mound faults. All these issues really come to find that the posterior shoulder has to apply rotational "brake pressure" harder than it wants to.
Thanks Jeff for bringing up the influence of the clay mound c/ the cleats that inhibits IR even further.
Joe,
In your last paragraph did you mean to say "R Femoral IR"? The title of the post is Left Femur. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something.
Woops! Thanks JH for catching that. I fixed it.
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