Pfeiffer, Ashley

•  DPT, Doctor of Physical Therapy, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 

• B.S., Exercise Science, University of Mary, Bismarck, ND

Youth softball has become very popular among youth and high school female athletes. Recent data suggests over 2 million female athletes play fastpitch softball, ranking it only behind soccer and basketball in popularity for female athletes. Despite the popularity, there is limited research on the incidence, mechanisms, and outcomes of injuries in the sport. There has been much more research done on baseball, in particular, baseball pitchers, even though the injury rate in softball is comparable to baseball according to athletic trainer databases. Softball is just different enough from baseball making the findings found in baseball research not necessarily transferable to softball. Some of the major differences for softball include: predominately female population, 12 inch ball, 34” bat length with smaller barrel diameter and smaller weight, all dirt infield, 60 feet bases, 220 feet outfield fence, pitching mound not elevated, windmill motion

pitch, ball tends to rise, and shorter reaction time for hitter due to a 40 feet mount distance. Few epidemiology studies have been done but those that have been done found that about sixty percent of injuries in pitchers and forty nine percent of injuries to position players are attributed to overuse injuries in high school athletes. As for youth softball injuries, Farooqi et al. found that softball had a higher proportion of lower extremity injuries compared to baseball. In a prospective study of 98 youth athletes there was a reported 49 reported injuries in a fastpitch season with a majority of the injuries coming from the lower extremity (61.3%) and back (25.8%) for positional players whereas pitchers had 72.2% of their injuries occurring in the upper extremities. Feeley et al. found that these injuries more often occurred early in the season indicating the need for possibility improving pre-season conditioning programs to offset these injuries in our youth athletes. Other areas of prevention that Feeley et al. mention are core and lower extremity strengthening focus, recognition of signs of fatigue and possibly looking into a pitch count for softball pitchers.

A very recent study in baseball that was completed in February, 2025 looked at field-testing measures related to youth baseball hitting performance. They looked at the following field tests: passive bilateral hip and shoulder internal rotational range of motion (ROM), bilateral hip and shoulder rotational isometric strength, bilateral grip strength, trunk rotation ROM, standing broad jump, triple broad jump, single leg lateral rotational jumps, and 3 maximal effort hits off a

stationary tee. This study found these tests as possibilities to monitor training progression in youth baseball athletes and identify any early physical deficits that could be improved.

This leads to our first project that we would like to complete during the 2026 summer. Our lab would like to see if the findings Bordelon found in youth baseball translated into our local youth softball athletes. Our goal will be to test 50 youth female athletes. The overall aim of the study will be to determine the relationship between classes of field tests and batted ball velocity.

Students will get hands-on practice testing ROM, strength, various jump testing, and practice taking batted ball velocity recordings through objective measuring on a Rapsodo 2.0 Hitting Unit. Further skills that will be practiced will include obtaining parental consent and athlete assent, collecting data, and analyzing findings. Long term aims of our lab include prospective injury tracking for these athletes throughout their careers, finding possible intervention strategies targeting core and lower extremity strengthening, and looking at different pre-season conditioning programs to minimize injuries and maximize performance in our youth athletes.