Hip Flexibility Associated with Pitching Technical Errors

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Miller, Catherine
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Exercise and Sport Science

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Pitching technical errors have been linked to increased upper extremity injurious forces in baseball pitchers. Hip flexibility plays a key role in dynamic movement and may affect the ability of a pitcher to properly distribute force throughout a pitch. This could lead to certain technical errors and predispose a pitcher to injury. The purpose of this study was to determine if hip extension, internal rotation and external rotation range of motion is associated with baseball pitching technical errors in adolescent baseball pitchers. Each participant had their hip range of motion measured then pitched 15 fastballs while being filmed from the frontal and sagittal views. The videos were graded for technical errors. Point biserial Pearson r correlations were run between stance leg extension, bilateral hip internal rotation, bilateral hip external rotation and each technical error. No significant correlations were found. While it is still believed that hip flexibility plays a role in force transfer throughout the pitching sequence, this study did not support passive hip range of motion being correlated with technical errors. However, the majority of adolescent males did have restricted hip range of motion values compared to normative values. Active hip range of motion may be a more suitable measurement to use given the dynamic nature of baseball of pitching.

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