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What does a data-driven return to throw process look like? Here’s a report from the first phase of one our Triple A players in the Mets organization ramping back up to throwing after coming off injury.

Every throw is tracked, and his progress is closely monitored to ensure a completely successful return to throw.

Alongside this, he receives a complete strength and conditioning program and an individualized arm care program to ensure he not only gets back to throwing at a high level, but has a shot to make it to The Big Leagues.

Don’t guess with your Return-to-Throw, reach out to us about how we can help you Reclaim Your Career and Realize Your Potential.

In-Person and Remote Options Available.

What does a data-driven return to throw process look like? Here’s a report from the first phase of one our Triple A players in the Mets organization ramping back up to throwing after coming off injury.

Every throw is tracked, and his progressed is closely monitored to ensure a completely successful return to throw.

Alongside this he receives a complete strength and conditioning program and an individualized arm care program to ensure his not only gets back to throwing at a high level, but has a shot to make it to The Big Leagues.

Don’t guess with your Return-to-Throw, reach out to us about how we can help you Reclaim Your Career and Realize Your Potential.

In-Person and Remote Options Available.

⚾️ Superior Labrum Anterior Posterior (SLAP) Tears are one of the more prevalent injuries in baseball athletes being present in about 25% of shoulder scopes.
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📨 Looking for guidance in your rehab and return to throw?
We have in-person and remote options to help guide you through this process. Send us a DM and let’s chat about how we can help you achieve your goals.
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SLAP tears come in 4 classifications, each requiring a different approach to ensure successful rehab.

However, even if rehab of the shoulder is successful, return to throw is a different animal. The nature of the surgery itself is one than can create difficulties in return to throw timeline. This is due to the increased stiffness and pain often associated with the procedure limiting layback for an extended period of time during the return to throw process.

The majority of players do eventually return to play at or above their prior level, but it is not uncommon for it to take much longer than the anticipated timeline.

If you’ve had a SLAP repair, do not let this information discourage you. Instead, understand it’s normal to have bumps in the road and it takes time to get back to where you were previously.

Keep working at it, and you’ll come out on the other side.

Injury doesn’t mean resort to inactivity.

The Vicious Cycle of Injury
1.) You get hurt
2.) You take time off
3.) You feel better because you’re no longer aggravating it
4.) So you go back to the same level of activity
5.) The injured site gets overloaded and the cycle repeats.

You should always find a way to do something, because subtle application of training stress that is non-aggravating (3/10 or less with no exacerbation) allows the tissue to respond to stress and promotes the healing process. Gradually the tissue will recover and you’ll be back to tolerating full activity.

Additionally, just because one part of the body is temporarily out of commission, there’s still plenty of opportunity to keep exercising the rest of the body, modifying around the injured site.

But, if symptoms continue to worsen, start popping up at restful periods more frequently, or begin changing in unpredictable ways despite activity modification; Be sure to seek further advice from a rehab or medical professional.

Return-to-Throw is far more complex than just picking up a baseball and throwing “X” feet. Understanding the many factors at play here can really help athletes navigate this hard time in their athletic career.

Physical - The rehab process prepares the tissue to handle throwing and ensures the integrity of any surgery. But nothing truly prepares the arm for the initial shock of throwing again. You’re going to deal with tightness, discomfort, and probably some pain. But it’s important to understand this is normal, and you’re body will adapt again.

Mental - The biggest obstacle in early stage RTT is the mental component of injury. You spend 3-6 months solely focusing on your arm in rehab, and when you first pick that ball up again it’s 100% normal to be nervous and scared of throwing. The body also recognizes it as an action that created significant injury and emotional stress and will do its best to protect from re-injury. It may even send pain signals to the site of injury even when there is no tissue irritation, simply because the body and mind associates throwing with pain. It’s very common for there to be a lack of trust in the arm, to be hyper aware of every movement it does when throwing, and to be completely out of sync with your mechanics. Regaining trust in your arm, realizing it’s okay, and relaxing into your throwing mechanics is a huge component we don’t talk about enough and won’t be solved by a copy and pasted interval throwing plan.

Social - Being removed from your day-to-day training, watching others train and do what you want to be able to do, losing some of the social interactions involved with being an athlete can take its toll. There’s a lot of emotional stress that can build here that impacts a RTT. Having a support network and finding ways to keep spirits high with your peers can be a huge outlet for guys during this period.

Rehab is Training. Training is Rehab. It’s just two end of the same spectrum, guided by the same principles.

Specificity - Prepare the athlete for the demands they will experience. Adding a ball into the mix doesn’t make it specific. What makes it specific is understanding the fundamental qualities expressed in their sport, and re-training them how to express those qualities.

Individuality - Rehab is far from a one size fits all approach. The psychosocial, emotional, and visceral responses to injury and rehab require an individualized approach in terms of exercise selection, but also patient management.

Overload - Apply more stress. Not “let’s do X because it’s less stressful.” That only matters when it’s too stressful to perform, but doesn’t mean that you want to avoid it completely. We must identify what they are incapable of doing as a result of injury, and restore the capacity to do it (given its meaningful).

Variation - Providing a variety of stimuli is great for motor learning and sport preparation. But variation for the sake of variation is not great. If an athlete hasn’t maximized the gains from one exercise, changing it up and requiring them to learn a new task just makes things less effective. In the end, output is king for adaptation, so make sure the exercise variation promotes better output, not just adding a body ball because it looks hard.