Baseball & Softball Injury Prevention Tips

San Francisco Sports Medicine Doctor’s Advice for Avoiding Injury Playing Baseball

The most common baseball and softball injuries include strains, sprains, and bruising. Those injuries may or may not require evaluation from an orthopedic doctor. Other common sports injuries arise from overuse. Here are seven powerful prevention techniques for all ages:

1. Always warm up. Sports medicine research shows that warming up your muscles before practicing or playing reduces the risk of injury. This will lessen the chances of needing to call a rotator cuff doctor.
2. Wear safety equipment. Helmets help prevent concussions and brain injury. Wearing them during practice and all games, including pick-ups, reduces the chance of serious injury.
3. Practice with softer balls. Young people just starting out may benefit from using a softer object ball.
4. Invest in regular batting practice. Also practice throwing and catching balls to train muscle memory and warm up for intense game time play.
5. Prepare for the worst. Have an emergency number on hand, and always carry a first aid kit. Keep ice handy to reduce sprain swelling and decrease inflammation in other overuse injuries.
6. Don’t use stationary bases. Breakaway bases will move with a player who slides into them and decrease the likelihood of injury.
7. Remember RICE. If you do encounter injury, use RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) until you get to a medical facility.

Call a Bay Area Sports Injury Specialist

Contact a sports injury specialist if you or someone you know recently got hurt while playing softball or baseball. The injury symptoms and a patient’s age will allow your doctor to recommend what to do to heal properly. Please call the team at IASM at 415-923-0944 to make an appointment today to ensure effective healing and proper baseball/softball injury treatment.

Rotator Cuff & Shoulder Dislocation Specialist in San Francisco