What is Little League Shoulder?

Little League Shoulder also known as Pitcher’s Shoulder or Throwing Shoulder; is a type of overuse injury that typically affects gymnasts, pitchers, young athletes or adolescents up until their mid-teens. Under this condition, the shoulder pain intensifies with the stressful use of arm.

Little League shoulder occurs when an athlete repeatedly throws the wrong way and overhead movements of the shoulder.. In younger athletes, growth plates—soft places toward the end of the bone that cause it to grow—are prone to injury, and can get irritated with too much use. This leads tenderness, inflammation, swelling, and pain in the shoulder and it will hurt to throw. This condition can worsen if left untreated, and eventually may even lead to bone damage. Most athletes with Little League shoulder injury need to stop for a minimum of three months, and go through several months of physical therapy before fully returning to sports.

Little League Shoulder causes & symptoms

Little league shoulder is caused by

• Repetitive overhead motion combined with lack of muscular strength
• Repeated overhead throwing without proper rest
• Poor throwing technique or poor body mechanics.

There has been a sharp uptick in the incidence of little league shoulder in recent years due to the fact that more children are playing sports year-round without sufficient rest in between.

Common little league shoulder symptoms include:

• Pain in the shoulder while throwing
• Pain when the shoulder is at rest, or when lifting the arm
• Swelling or tenderness
• Impaired mobility
• Reduced range of motion
• Decreased throwing speed when playing sports, or decreased accuracy
• Soreness that last a few days

Physical Therapy at SOS PHYSIO can relieve your child

Physical Therapy targets at restoring the strength, function, mobility and stability to the injured player’s shoulder before he returns to his usual sports’ activities.

SOS PHYSIO provides prompt  Physical Therapy in one-on-one setting for the active athletes and players. Our diligent and compassionate physical therapists help the athletes to get back to their sports activities as more vigorous and better than before by performing Manual therapy & Active Release Techniques (ART).

For more information- Contact your local SOS PHYSIO clinic.