Need help with injured athlete

[rshissler]

Hello everyone,
I need help and advice from a trainer on a friend of mine. She's a softball player here at my college and the past 2 semesters she has injured her hamstrings. Last semester she did it by pitching and was "shut down" for the semester because of it. Now this semester she did it again by sprinting, but her pitching isn't affected by it.

Little background on her. She's 19. Has been playing softball since she was 13. I don’t mean like high school or the town softball league I mean she’s been doing travel teams that go up and down the east coast all summer and play tournaments. This is her first year playing college softball. She did play basketball for a couple years in high school. She is healthy and eats a good diet. I'm a dietetics and nutrition student here so I’ve made sure her diets in check. I also asked her to start taking a multi last semester, which she has. The softball team practices 6 days a week with a variety of workouts. Anything from plyometrics, weight training, stretching, to game related drills and runs. They always stretch before every practice, believe she told me they do dynamic stretching. I've have also helped her in the gym with doing squats, leg curls, lunges and other leg exercises and made sure she understood correct form and way to do them.

My question is what can I do to help her from injuring her hamstring every year? She loves the game and it really makes her depressed when she gets injured and they won’t allow her to play. It's really frustrating to me too, because this is the first person I haven’t been able to help in the fitness field. I've done everything I know of to help her, so now I’m asking you all for help.

Thank you

[jonmd123]

Hello everyone,
I need help and advice from a trainer on a friend of mine. She's a softball player here at my college and the past 2 semesters she has injured her hamstrings. Last semester she did it by pitching and was "shut down" for the semester because of it. Now this semester she did it again by sprinting, but her pitching isn't affected by it.

Little background on her. She's 19. Has been playing softball since she was 13. I don’t mean like high school or the town softball league I mean she’s been doing travel teams that go up and down the east coast all summer and play tournaments. This is her first year playing college softball. She did play basketball for a couple years in high school. She is healthy and eats a good diet. I'm a dietetics and nutrition student here so I’ve made sure her diets in check. I also asked her to start taking a multi last semester, which she has. The softball team practices 6 days a week with a variety of workouts. Anything from plyometrics, weight training, stretching, to game related drills and runs. They always stretch before every practice, believe she told me they do dynamic stretching. I've have also helped her in the gym with doing squats, leg curls, lunges and other leg exercises and made sure she understood correct form and way to do them.

My question is what can I do to help her from injuring her hamstring every year? She loves the game and it really makes her depressed when she gets injured and they won’t allow her to play. It's really frustrating to me too, because this is the first person I haven’t been able to help in the fitness field. I've done everything I know of to help her, so now I’m asking you all for help.

Thank you

The fact that you even mentioned leg curls would lead me to believe you don't have a good grasp on how the hamstring functions in the body. Also understand the hamstring is most likely the victim, not the cause. Meaning she probably has lack of stability or mobility in her hips. Not knowing anything about the injury I'd assume she has tight hip flexors, and glutes that aren't firing properly.

She'll also need soft tissue work done on her injury to break up scar tissue. Maybe you can use it as a way to get to 1st base with her?

[rshissler]

I actually made a mistake in my first post. Last semester she injured her right quad and left groan pitching. First base... ok we will just say she is more then a friend already. Im admitting here that i dont understand or know everything thats why i'm here for help. I've reached my knowledge end. Thank you for the reply though.

[PeteratCastle]

RS, can't really say much without knowing exactly what injuries she has had. How severe were her injuries? What sort of physio has she done to recover from the first that took her out for a season?

Hamstring injuries can occur when the Hamstring is weak, when the quads are over worked compared to the hamstrings or even when the glutes are weak. We would need to know exactly what leg-exercises she does in the gym and in training as well.

Hamstring injuries are actually more straightforward to correct than most people think but only when you have full info on a client and can check things/test them yourself. Obv, if she is just prone to hamstring injuries, as some people are, she's F'ed though and it would just be a case of managing it as best you can.
Is there not a physio associated with the sports team?