Tendonitis and Hand Bruising

[basilray]

A couple weeks back, I was playing a short HitTrax tournament. Given the team I had assembled, I pretty much had to pitch to the entire team, so figure 6 innings x 5 games in a couple of hours. End of the night, I realized my right hand was bothering me - it was basically swollen to double the size of my left. As a right handed guy, this was concerning. My wife works at an orthopedic clinic, so I went in to get it checked out.

Diagnosed as tendonitis - I was prescribed some anti-inflamatory to help bring down the immediate swelling over the next couple of days, and given some stretches to do to help get the tendons happy again.

Now that I'm into regular play for the season, I'm not having any real issues on game nights. That being said, I feel like I'm having problems w/ a full overlap grip. It's almost like I'm getting my hand rung up pretty good between the thumb and index finger.

Do I look for different batting gloves that might offer a bit more padding through that area OR do I just go back to a more traditional grip?

Anybody had similar?

 

[TWmccoy]

What was bothering your hand, the hitting or pitching?

If you're having problems with the overlap grip you might want to change something up. If your hand is getting "rung up" it sounds like you're missing the barrel badly consistently. Honestly, the overlap grip is usually pretty easy on your hands. The top hand generally doesn't even do much, and shouldn't be getting "rung up" at all.

I've used that grip off and on for years and never had anything like you describe.

 

[basilray]

What was bothering your hand, the hitting or pitching?

If you're having problems with the overlap grip you might want to change something up. If your hand is getting "rung up" it sounds like you're missing the barrel badly consistently. Honestly, the overlap grip is usually pretty easy on your hands. The top hand generally doesn't even do much, and shouldn't be getting "rung up" at all.

I've used that grip off and on for years and never had anything like you describe.

I think part of the flare up is related to the accelerated speed of HitTrax. Our Friday night mini-tournaments are usually 4 or 5 games, with teams of 5. More often than not, I'm the only pitcher, so I'm pitching BP and and then 5 games in 3ish hours, and with only 5 guys, I'm seeing more AB's than a traditional game as well.

Related, because I'm the only pitcher, I end up having to chase some brutal pitching and do tend to end-cap a few more than normal just because I have to swing. It may be a combination of a couple end-caps compounded by the speed that HitTrax ends up moving.

The hitting was the problem, because I'm pitching to my own team, I'm just tossing cookies. No knuckles or anything that would really work the hand too hard. But on contact, solid or otherwise, it was a hefty sting between my top hand thumb and index finger.

 

[blakcherry329]

Very strange. Gotta get a gyroball to work out those girly hands. LOL
Are you gripping the ball too tightly? I never get sore hands from pitching. My forearm and bicep, definitely on long tournament days.
But my hand is usually gtg other than stiffness from too many knuckleballs in a day.

 

[bigwignj]

Kind of sounds like your gripping to deep with your top hand and it’s forcing the handle into the webbing of your hand. You been rolling over on a lot of balls lately too?

Ps- I also have no idea what I’m talking about but this makes sense in my head.

 

[basilray]

Kind of sounds like your gripping to deep with your top hand and it’s forcing the handle into the webbing of your hand. You been rolling over on a lot of balls lately too?

Ps- I also have no idea what I’m talking about but this makes sense in my head.

You're 100% accurate on both remarks!

I haven't meaningfully come through the middle of a ball in a bit (Often I'm over the top...but last night was an exception), and I'm slightly swollen up again this morning after playing a regular pair of games last night.

 

[basilray]

Very strange. Gotta get a gyroball to work out those girly hands. LOL
Are you gripping the ball too tightly? I never get sore hands from pitching. My forearm and bicep, definitely on long tournament days.
But my hand is usually gtg other than stiffness from too many knuckleballs in a day.

To be honest, I probably could use some grip work again. For a guy who is 6'1" and 220, I have kind of weird hands. I have fairly thin and relatively short fingers.

I played 3 games on Saturday, and didn't have any issues. Played two last night, and I feel a bit stiff in my hand, and maybe just the slightest bit of swelling. Might be time to break out the finger bands and grip trainer again.

 

[TWmccoy]

You're 100% accurate on both remarks!

I haven't meaningfully come through the middle of a ball in a bit (Often I'm over the top...but last night was an exception), and I'm slightly swollen up again this morning after playing a regular pair of games last night.

You are doing something TERRIBLY wrong if playing 2 games leaves your hands bruised/swollen.

I hit hundreds of balls a week in BP and don't have any such problems.

 

[bigwignj]

Just spin your top hand back a bit. You have your top hand gripping too much of the bat. It’s supposed to just be a guide. This is going to cause you to not only roll over but force the bat into that part of your hand. Rotate your top hand back just a bit and it will allow you to get the bat through the zone longer without rolling over and square it up better allowing you to hit pitches out in front but letting the barrel stay flat thru the zone longer. It will also take that pressure off that part of your hand. Remember the baseball term “knuckling up”. Best way to explain this is your wrong knuckles are lining up. Your last knuckles are probably in sync instead of your middle. It’s tough to tell because overlap grips screw with knuckle alignment a bit but that’s the best way to explain it.

Again, I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to softball but I can hit the **** out of baseball and this just makes sense in my head so give this a whirl and see if my theory is correct.

 

[blakcherry329]

You are doing something TERRIBLY wrong if playing 2 games leaves your hands bruised/swollen.

I hit hundreds of balls a week in BP and don't have any such problems.

#metoo. I hit 20-40 rounds of hitting baseballs every weekend. every now and then I bruise my hand with a miss hit, but not a tendonitis situation.
I did mess up my elbow and distal bicep tendon(just learned that yesterday, but it's been messed up for a month. lol) swinging the Easton Torpedo with a 40oz weight in the middle. Yikes. Still not right. I ditched the weight for now.

I'm still not sure how you aggravated something from pitching, well not to that extent.

 

[basilray]

Just spin your top hand back a bit. You have your top hand gripping too much of the bat. It’s supposed to just be a guide. This is going to cause you to not only roll over but force the bat into that part of your hand. Rotate your top hand back just a bit and it will allow you to get the bat through the zone longer without rolling over and square it up better allowing you to hit pitches out in front but letting the barrel stay flat thru the zone longer. It will also take that pressure off that part of your hand. Remember the baseball term “knuckling up”. Best way to explain this is your wrong knuckles are lining up. Your last knuckles are probably in sync instead of your middle. It’s tough to tell because overlap grips screw with knuckle alignment a bit but that’s the best way to explain it.

Again, I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to softball but I can hit the **** out of baseball and this just makes sense in my head so give this a whirl and see if my theory is correct.

For a guy that "has no idea" you sure seem to be right on the money.

I thought about this a lot last night, and grabbed a bat just to check. I'm definitely unintentionally getting the bat deep into the webbing between my thumb and index finger on my top hand. I think subconsciously, I am trying to "get extra whip" through w/ my top hand and not been realizing it.


I'm sure it's not one thing in particular, but this is a good starting place.

 

[swingnmiss]

Stop looking at Asian porn..................... I hope this helps.

 

[basilray]

Stop looking at Asian porn..................... I hope this helps.

I thought Incognito mode hid my search history...

 

[SammyJaxxx]

https://www.softball.com/prohitter-batting-grip-aid-youth-1

Take a look at the Pro hitter. It is a shock absorber for the webbing/thumb area.