Why Softball Players Shouldn’t Stretch Their Arms

In the Northeast, the high school season is progressing into section playoffs which has inspired me to share some tips on how to keep your throwing shoulder healthy throughout a long season. First, I have to make a bold proclamation: not all softball players should stretch their shoulders.

Why Softball Players Shouldn’t Stretch

Many girls are born with what can be clinically qualified as joint laxity or hypermobility (extraordinary joint range of motion). Although this might be looked at as a blessing, it places greater responsibility on the brain and muscles to control the greater range of motion available. However, females are NOT immune to adaptive shortening of muscles, which can occur when muscles are exposed to chronic, high force/high velocity loads (like the muscles surrounding the throwing shoulder) without recovery intervention.

Joint laxity is largely determined by the ligaments, which connect bones to other bones, and not the muscles. Muscles actively control the position of bones, and ultimately the alignment of joints. If muscles get tight, the coordination of bones that collectively form joints is thrown off.

How does this affect the shoulder? The scapula (shoulder blade), collar bone, and upper arm are each part of the “shoulder”. As a softball player moves her arm to throw, the shoulder blade and collar bone must move as well, in harmony. If the surrounding muscles have gotten “tight” and don’t move well, but the ligaments securing the upper arm into the shoulder socket are “loose” (and there’s nothing we can do about that), you’re going to have a collision between shoulder structures, friction, pain, and inevitably injury.

So how do you stretch the tight muscles around the shoulder? Well, the answer is you might not want to if you don’t have a qualified athletic trainer or physical therapist who knows exactly how to lengthen specific muscles while protecting the shoulder joint simultaneously.

A better option is to target the muscles around the shoulder with self-massage techniques utilizing different implements. In the video below, I demonstrate some shoulder self-massage exercises using two tennis balls taped together (the “peanut”) and a softball. These exercises can be done before practices or games, or after.  If you have a question about the exercises, please post it in the comments section below!