Optimal Shoulder Abduction Angles during Baseball Pitching from Maximal Wrist Velocity and Minimal Kinetics Viewpoints

Baseball coaches train pitchers to keep their shoulder abduction at 90º during delivery, because this angle is believed to maximize ball speed and reduce the stress on the throwing arm. In fact, however, the shoulder abduction angle for some pitchers, including professional pitchers, deviates from 90º. There likely are reasons for such deviation. The purposes of this study, therefore, were to investigate the effects of shoulder abduction angle on ball velocity and on the injury-related joint kinetic variable, and to determine why the shoulder abduction angle varies among pitchers. Eleven professional pitchers were videotaped with two high-speed cameras. The resulting kinematic data were used to simulate several pitching motions by varying the shoulder abduction angle from the actual angle. Maximum wrist velocity was used as a reasonable approximation of ball velocity. Elbow varus torque was used as a kinetic variable. The square torque for the throwing arm and torque change for the throwing arm were used to investigate the cause of the variation. It was found that the shoulder abduction angle of 90º did not always maximize wrist velocity nor minimize elbow varus torque. The actual shoulder abduction angle for each pitcher was highly consistent with the angle that minimized both square torque and torque change. The results suggested that the proficient throwers in this study moved their pitching arm so as to minimize mechanical cost while at the same time optimizing performance.