With the softball season beginning to ramp up again, it's important to take steps to prevent injuries, especially those to joints such as knees and shoulders, as much as we can. This week Jay and Ken speak with Dr. Chelsea Martin, PT, DPT, SCS, a doctoral student and researcher at the University of North Carolina, about her contributions to research projects at the Injury Prevention Research Center and the National Catastrophic Center for Sport Injury Surveillance as well as her work with the Wake Forest Pitching Lab. She talks to Jay and Ken about her career as a 3-time North Carolina state champion pitcher and pitcher at the University of Louisville, what got her interested in becoming a physical therapist, and her work in the area of injury prevention for adolescent and collegiate overhead athletes (including softball players).

For more information on this important topic or to contact Dr. Martin, check out these links:

International Olympic Committee Findings for Female, woman and/or girl Athlete Injury pRevention (FAIR) consensus we worked on:

1. ​Lower extremity injury prevention: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/59/22/1575
2. ​Lower extremity modifiable risk factors: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/59/21/1499
3. ​Upper extremity prevention and modifiable risk factors: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/59/22/1587
4. ​The overall process and takeaways from the FAIR initiative: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/59/22/1529#ref-8

Exercise References

1. ​Training and evaluation recommendations softball specific- has some basic exercise recs and evaluation when we were discussing exercises. From one of my good colleagues Kenzie Friesen, Table 2 has other pitch specific exercise ideas and is an extension of articles 1/3 that cover more basic exercise principle ideas (she would be another great researcher to host). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19417381251323610

Contact Info

1. ​Twitter handle- @ChelseaMartinPT and email- [email protected]
2. ​Wake Forest Pitching Lab- https://www.wakeforestpitchinglab.com/ contact Dr. Kristen Nicholson for future opportunities coming soon to the lab  (coming soon!) and to learn more about the ongoing study https://acsm.org/foundation/funding/recipients/.