SciCombinator

Emphasis on enhancing baseball pitch velocity has become popular, especially through weighted-ball throwing. However, little is known about the physical effects or safety of these programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of training with weighted baseballs on pitch velocity, passive range of motion (PROM), muscle strength, elbow torque, and injury rates.

During competition, high-performance swimmers are subject to repeated physical demands that affect their final performance. Measurement of lactate concentration in blood seeks to indirectly gauge physiologic responses to the increase in physical exercise. Swimmers face multiple maximal-exertion events during competition. Strenuous physical exercise leads to fatigue and, thus, a decrease in sports performance.

Head injuries are responsible for the majority of serious equestrian sports injuries and deaths. Because of significant health risks to equestrians, education regarding the prevention of head and brain injuries is essential.

As public health experts work to contain the outbreak of Zika virus in South America and minimize the devastating prenatal complications, the international sports community prepares for the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Athletes have publicly expressed concern regarding the health risks of competition in Zika-endemic areas.(33) Ensuring the safety of the athletes during training and competition is the primary role of the team physician. Special consideration is needed for sports teams preparing for travel to areas affected by Zika virus.

Playing sports has many benefits, including boosting physical, cardiovascular, and mental fitness. We tested whether athletic benefits extend to sensory processing-specifically auditory processing-as measured by the frequency-following response (FFR), a scalp-recorded electrophysiological potential that captures neural activity predominately from the auditory midbrain to complex sounds.

Athletic training rooms have a high prevalence of bacteria, including multidrug-resistant organisms, increasing the risk for both local and systematic infections in athletes. There are limited data outlining formal protocols or standardized programs to reduce bacterial and viral burden in training rooms as a means of decreasing infection rate at the collegiate and high school levels.

Many coaches, parents, and children believe that the best way to develop elite athletes is for them to participate in only 1 sport from an early age and to play it year-round. However, emerging evidence to the contrary indicates that efforts to specialize in 1 sport may reduce opportunities for all children to participate in a diverse year-round sports season and can lead to lost development of lifetime sports skills. Early sports specialization may also reduce motor skill development and ongoing participation in games and sports as a lifestyle choice. The purpose of this review is to employ the current literature to provide evidence-based alternative strategies that may help to optimize opportunities for all aspiring young athletes to maximize their health, fitness, and sports performance.

There is limited information on the relationship between football helmet fit and concussion severity.

There is a renewed interest in diagnosing and treating subscapularis tears, but there is a paucity of clinical guidance to optimize diagnostic decision-making.

Pediatric sports specialization, defined as intense year-round training in a single sport as a result of excluding other sports for more than 8 months per year, is common in the United States. There are demonstrated physical and social risks to early pediatric sports specialization (defined as before age 12 years). While thought to be needed to acquire appropriate experience and excel in a given sport, there remains little information on when athletes at the highest levels of their sport specialized. This study aimed to define when professional and collegiate ice hockey players specialized.