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Tip: Lisa Fernandez on caring for your pitching shoulder
By Administrator
 Michele Smith and Lisa Fernandez are softball icons. Both are pioneers of the sport,  winning gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, and are competing for the U.S. in the 2002 World Championships, bringing experience and leadership to a young team. Smith, a southpaw, also plays professionally in Japan. She had a 0.00 earned run average and 37 strikeouts in 27.2 innings at the Sydney Games. She threw a no-hitter against Russia in the 2002 World Championships. Fernandez, right-handed, is an assistant coach for the softball powerhouse UCLA Bruins. She established the Olympic record with 25 strikeouts in a round-robin match against Australia in the 2000 Olympic Games. She finished the tournament with a 2-1 record, 52 strikeouts, and a 0.47 earned run average.
Taking care of your pitching shoulder
Tip #1 - Warming-up
MS: Make sure you warm up your body properly and then warm up your shoulder as well through some stretching exercises like pulling your arm across your chest, stretching your triceps and your biceps, and throwing over-hand-nice an easy-to get the joint going and then continue into the underhand pitch.
LF: Make sure you stretch before your workouts and after and warm up properly.
Tip #2 - Working on your body
LF: The most important thing starts off with shoulder exercises. There are certain shoulder exercises that I do as preventive measures in terms of weightlifting like rotator cuff exercises, shoulder complex exercises which are basically a front raise, a side raise, and a post raise. Working the strength in your legs, in your abdomen and your lower back because the more you utilize your body when you throw, the less stress there is on your shoulder.
Tip #3 - Cooling down
LF: Once you get done with your workout, remember to cool down. If you do have any susceptibility to injury or you feel like something is stretched or sore, use ice.
MS: And afterwards, make sure you ice and if it feels tight, get it rubbed out with a massage.
Tip #4 - The significance, or lack thereof, of pitch counts
LF: Pitch count is important in terms of endurance. I like to keep my pitch count between 80 to 90 pitches a game. If I go beyond that, I know I wasn't pitching appropriately. I was probably getting behind in the count throwing too many balls. That's usually what pitch count is indicative of [in fastpitch]. Pitch count isn't as important in fastpitch because of the stress of the shoulder as it is in baseball. Baseball has a pitch count because that might contribute to stress on the elbow. We don't really have that because fast-pitch is more of a natural motion.
MS: Once you get to a certain level, the focus is on the game. Let's face it, if you're in the Olympics and you have to throw a 150 pitches, you throw them.
 Tip #5 - Pitch count and resting for youths
MS: Maybe at a youth level, they can go on a pitch count of 100 pitches or 110 pitches. Maybe for the young kids, though, watch the pitch count and give them rest days. Sometimes people think that because pitching underhand is such a natural movement, we don't need to rest and that's not true.
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