Welcome to PT Peak Performance, a team blog of ORA physical and occupational therapists dedicated to our patients and friends who want to keep their life in forward motion. Meet ORA PT, Jake Tegeler, who shares his life passion for baseball and physical therapy.
Love of Sport Can Lead to Overuse Injuries
Famous New York Yankees player and manager, Yogi Berra once said, “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.” While I’ll admit to being a Cub fan, Yogi is on to something: I have loved baseball my entire life, and as a PT for ORA’s Throwing program, every day I get to share my love for sports and help people return to their favorite pastime, which is really the best of both worlds.
I grew up in Morrison, Ill, just east of the Quad Cities, and pretty much had a baseball in my hand since kindergarten. I’ve always loved sports and in a small town, you can play on a variety of teams. While I played on Mustangs’ baseball state qualifying team, I also enjoyed playing for Mustangs’ football and basketball teams, and I even golfed in the summers.
After high school, I took my passion for baseball to St. Ambrose University where I played for the Bee’s while attaining my PT degree.
Throughout my baseball career, I experienced first-hand how a debilitating shoulder injury can sideline a player. I was injured as a catcher while playing for SAU. I was gratified that the SAU team physician, ORA’s Dr. Andrew Bries, treated my torn rotator cuff, and now after college, I get to work side by side with him.
What is ORA’s throwing program all about?
Jake Tegeler, ORA Physical Therapy
I work with closely with ORA’s Sports Medicine physicians and see many baseball players post-surgery. We develop a return-to-throw protocol for each patient which is a series of exercises over time that helps the player improve his or her throwing performance and progress to playing pain-free competitively again. The plan is customized for the patient and is based on their own athletic goals when returning to play.
We use video and slow-motion technology to analyze throwing mechanics. I look at shoulder strength and range of motion as well as their elbows.
I also ask many questions regarding their training regimen as well as game/practice frequency. We want to know how often they are throwing, what their typical day of training looks like, and how many games they are playing. We also need to know how many innings they are pitching and that alone can tell me if there are overuse, strength, or range of motion limitations that could cause future injury.
As a player’s shoulder and elbow are usually the main areas of injury in throwers, I also evaluate the whole body including back and hip strength and /range of motion.
What kinds of injuries do you see in throwers?
We see rotator cuff strains, shoulder impingement, scapular bursitis, and elbow inflammation.
I’ve seen what’s called “Little Leaguers’ shoulder or elbow.” A younger athlete’s bones are softer and more susceptible to injury. With overuse, the muscle can affect the growth plate and cause issues later such as a decrease in bone quality or they can become susceptible to chronic pain as they grow into adulthood.
We see similar injuries in high school players. These athletes need to focus on strength training and getting their bodies stronger. With increased velocity and increased number of innings it’s important they develop core and leg strength to stay healthy.
Too much too soon?
While baseball is a favorite Quad City pastime, with ball parks and travelling leagues filling up local diamonds, the sport can cause injury if players overtrain or specialize too soon.
Specialization can lead to overuse, and playing the same sport can limit athletic progression. Baseball is unique, but you can lose skills like agility and running endurance (which basketball provides) or learning to change direction (as players do in football). Young athletes need to be well-rounded.
In Jake’s next blog, he’ll share his tips for maximizing a player’s athletic talent and to help prevent potential throwing injuries.
