Contact sports do have a high injury rate but so does baseball. Yes… baseball actually has a high fatality rate with three to four children between the ages of 5 and 14 dying every year

(Source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/pediatrics/sports_injury_statistics_90,p02787).

It also contributes to the fourth of our 5 most common sports injuries: Rotator Cuff Tendonitis. 

Rotator Cuff Tendonitis is an inflammation of the muscles of the rotator cuff, which are: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis and teres minor muscles. (And by the way, anything with “itis” at the end usually means “inflammation.”) These muscles are responsible primarily for working together to stabilize the ball of the shoulder in the socket during movements. They also work independently of each other to assist with different motions of the shoulder. Thus, they are involved in many sports that involve throwing or overhead motions (i.e. baseball players, tennis players and football quarterbacks).

Early inflammation may present as pain with raising the arm overhead. But as the inflammation worsens, the pain can begin to occur with just about any active movement of the shoulder. The pain will often be sharp and shooting, radiating (meaning, traveling) down the side of the arm. The pain will get worse with continued use so action should be taken immediately if symptoms do occur.

Early intervention with rotator cuff injury is key- it’s what can make the difference between a few weeks recovery or a few months.

Once you have tendonitis, a physical therapist will try to minimize the inflammation and control the pain, as well as to stretch the tighter parts of the shoulder. Once the inflammation goes down, more aggressive strengthening of the rotator cuff muscles will take place in order to properly balance the muscles around the shoulder.