The Clinician's Guide to Baseball Pitching Biomechanics.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative clinical review summarizing biomechanical literature without systematic review methodology
PubMed 35465789 · doi:10.1177/19417381221078537
What was done
This is a narrative clinical review synthesizing prior biomechanical studies that quantified kinematics and kinetics throughout the baseball pitching motion.
What was found
The abstract outlines target reference values across the pitching cycle: - At lead foot contact: elbow flexion ~90°, shoulder abduction ~90°, shoulder horizontal abduction ~20°, shoulder external rotation ~45°, stride length ~85% of pitcher height (lead foot slightly closed), lead knee flexion ~45°, pelvis slightly open toward home plate, and upper torso aligned with the pitching direction. - Kinematic chain sequence from foot contact to release: lead knee extension (reaching ~30° flexion at ball release), pelvis rotation, upper trunk rotation, elbow extension, and shoulder internal rotation. - Maximum shoulder external rotation reaches ~170°; insufficient external rotation correlates with decreased internal rotation velocity and lower ball velocity. - Deviations from 90° shoulder abduction decrease maximum external rotation, increase elbow torque, and reduce glenohumeral dynamic stability.
Why it matters
It provides clinicians and coaches with quantitative reference benchmarks across the kinetic chain to help recognize pitching mechanics linked to elevated joint loads or reduced velocity.
Limits
As a narrative review, it lacks a systematic search protocol, formal study quality assessment, or pooled meta-analytic effect sizes. The abstract does not specify the number of included studies, pitcher demographics, or quantified injury risk reductions.