Oblique & Intercostals Injuries

Oblique strains and pulls and intercostals strains are
injuries that you seldom saw or heard of fifteen to twenty years ago. The two
injuries are different injuries; I think one mistake is to group them together.
Now they are both a very common occurrence in baseball both in pitchers and
hitters. If you look closely at the mechanism of the injuries based on the
demands placed on the body in the activities that cause these injuries it is
clear that both are force reduction injuries. They occur in deceleration of the
trunk after a violent ballistic action of swinging a bat or throwing a pitch.
As with any injury it is important to thoroughly assess what is being done in
the
training/prevention area and what is not being done. My observation is that
the ratio of actually preparing to pitch and hit is out of balance. There is too
much swinging of the bat with out the requisite lead up activities that prepare
for the deceleration forces exerted in a diagonal rotational pattern. With
pitchers they pitch more but throw less, by that I mean a structured long toss
program where they have to extent themselves through ranges of motion outside
of their normal pitching motion is not emphasized enough. The same would be
true with striking and swinging activities to prepare for hitting. In addition
there is more emphasis on weight training that is not specific enough to the
demands of hitting and pitching. There are still too many traditional weight
exercises with emphasis on load and force production mostly in sagittal plane. In
addition the too much of the “core work” is still done in prone & supine
postures and too isolated. Not enough emphasis on catching and activities that
force the trunk to decelerate.

The ultimate reason for these injuries goes far back to what
the current generation of players did and did not do when they were kids
growing up. Most began playing baseball at an early age when they were
identified as being talented and probably specialized early and prepared by
pitching more and swinging the bat more. In essence accumulating stress without
any preparation for the imposed stresses. Most did not have regular physical
education as that has gone the way of dinosaur. The surest way to strengthen
the intercostals and the oblique’s is to climb, hang, swing from overhead
ladders and crawl all activities inherent in play and work in past generations.
The current generation of players did not get this either in free play or in
physical education. This should force us to reconsider how we train and prepare
these athletes from younger ages on up to the professional level. I know this
sounds old school but take a step back and think about how it can be done. It
can be done, but it must be done in systematic manner beginning at the youngest
ages with comprehensive preparation to play activities that are structured into
the start of practices at every level. These activities should be as movement
rich as possible including climbing, hanging, suspended swings and crawls. Mind
you this is not to be done in a boot camp environment but in a structured
playful teaching environment regardless of the level of development. It is not
real complicated; it is very basic but necessary. That is both the long term
and short-term solution.