EFFECTS OF A FOUR-WEEK ELASTIC TUBING TRAINING ON THROWING PERFORMANCE IN YOUTH BASEBALL PLAYERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the training effect of elastic tubing exercise in youth baseball players on throwing velocity, throwing accuracy and parameters of pitching mechanics. Participants (n=24) aging from 13 to 16 years old were equally and randomly allocated to the training group and control group. A four-week elastic tubing training was conducted in the training group. After four weeks of training, throwing velocity in training group improved significantly. Kinematics changed significantly mainly in parameters of shoulder and elbow. Since the muscular strength did not improve significantly, we may attribute the improvement to the effect of neural adaptation mechanism caused by training.