Why do pitchers routinely get elbow surgeries when quarterbacks don’t?
In: Biology
I don’t know a lot about sports, but I know some anatomy so I’ll try to explain. I think it has to do with the amount of times they throw in a game. In baseball, the average pitch count is around 100+. With football, I believe quarterbacks throw fewer times in a game.
In the mechanism of throwing, the late cocking phase to early deceleration phases cause a massive stress to the structures that support the elbow. Because of this, any “throwing” athlete is prone to increased microtrauma in their elbow especially with repetitive motion. In turn, this leads to an increased risk of having torn ligaments in their elbow. The ligaments are the primary structures that limit excessive motion. More specifically, the medial collateral ligament of the elbow is the most commonly injured ligament when throwing; it stabilizes the elbow for the most part especially in different ranges of elbow bending paired with quick motion.
A quarterback pretty much only has one grip on the football, fingers over the laces and throw. Maybe some slight variations. And only an average of 60 downs in a game, some of which will be running plays.
A pitcher throws an average of 100 throws a game. Fastball, Change ups, breaking ball, curves, etc. Each of those has a different grip and in some cases swing of the arm. So the ligaments are being often pulled and strained in unnatural ways.
A starting pitcher in MLB is likely to throw at least 80 pitches in about 35 games on a year, while an NFL QB will throw around 40 times in only 16 games. There’s also the factor of breaking balls. A curveball/slider/sinker all require different finger pressures and rotations of the hand which puts more stress on the elbow than throwing a ball straight and hard.
Average number of pitches per game for a pitcher: 146
Average number of games a pitcher starts in per season: 34
Average number of throws per game for a quarterback: 34
Average number of games a quarterback plays per season: 16
Number of pitches per season for a pitcher: Almost 5000
Number of throws per season for a quarterback: 544
So as you can see, baseball pitchers throw 10x as much per season than quarterbacks.
Pitchers have to throw way more times per game than a QB does. Also its the way that pitchers throw, unlike a qb who is mostly throwing with his shoulder . When a pitcher throws they literally turn their arm unto a lever that they crank. Imagine a lacrosse stick throwing a ball.
They treat their arm like its dispossable, just look at the top speed a baseball hits, the entire job of a baseball pitcher is power where a QB needs nuance or no one can catch it.
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