The head team physician for the Milwaukee Brewers studied 20 Major League Baseball organization's pitchers including Milwaukee-area NCAA Division I-A college teams and concluded that the height of the pitching mound influences the risk of stress-related elbow and shoulder injuries.
The height of a pitcher's mound relates to the greater amount of stress on an athlete's body and may result in injury to the shoulder including tearing of the rotator cuff or labrum, which may result in surgery and long-term rehabilitation.
"Our researchers employed a motion analysis system using eight digital cameras that recorded the three-dimensional positions of 43 reflective markers placed on the athletes' bodies," study leader Dr. William Raasch, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, said in a prepared statement. "Then we analyzed the pitching motion at mound heights of the regulation 10 inches, along with eight-inch and six-inch mounds, as well as having the athletes throw from flat ground."
The study was funded by Major League Baseball, and the study's findings were presented to health physicians associated with MLB teams during winter meetings.
A substantial amount of data was not gathered to alter the standard 10- inch mound height, but the study's findings do inform trainers of how to practice with their pitchers, on flat ground.
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