Help with stingers and vibrations causing hand injuries

I have recently run into some issues with my players getting stingers with the hands or fingers while batting. Whether it is a pitching machine pitching at a high rate of speed or girls facing good fast pitching. I have had several girls really hurt their hands or fingers.

I know this tends to happen when it is fairly cold out. Although it has also happened when we were inside. It also happens when we walk towards the pitching machine. I was pitching to the girls at about 45 mile an hour and they still were saying it hurt.

I have had them experiment with their grip. Loosening their index fingers and thumbs. That helps some what. Is this a hand path issue? I understand that this happens when they get jammed or they hit the ball on the end of the bat.

Has anyone else had this problem and can anyone help?

We have run in to the samething with the cold weather making the bats and the balls harder. With the forecast calling for more cold weater this week I went to Dicks today to get some Easton VRS II batting gloves with the gel padding in medium and large sizes. Hopefully, this will prevent some of the hand injuries we have been experiencing this year.

All the best,

Derek Jacobs

YAHTZEE, some Walmart's carry those gloves cheaper.

My dd runs into the stinging only at the batting cage. No problems at practice with pitching machine or at games but get her into the batting cage at Miamitown and she is in pain, with the Easton VRS II gel gloves on. Hope someone offers a fix here.

Interesting topic! We had practice today, and a few were complaining of their hands stinging after making a hit against a live pitcher and it wasn't really that cold here today? I have no answer to this question, I thought maybe it was the way they were holding and swinging the bat to even the brand of bat they were using. I'm puzzled?


FASTPITCH! Anything else, And you're playing to SLOW!

In my experience it is all grip and the amount they maintain throughout their swing. Bottom hand must remain tight and the top hand will have some rotation or looseness. If both are loose.... lookout, zap!!! Not sure if composite vs aluminum creates more issues or not. I know the cold doesn't help, hands are stiff and they loose some tension ability in their grip along with the vibration transfer on cold bats is increased or at least seems to be.

Keep in mind many bats have a small sweet spot. If you are not keeping the sweet spot in the big zone, and you are making contact outside of the sweet spot, then you will also have this issue.

SBFAMILY said:

Keep in mind many bats have a small sweet spot. If you are not keeping the sweet spot in the big zone, and you are making contact outside of the sweet spot, then you will also have this issue.

Click to expand...

To determine if hand path is a problem put the tee forward of home plate about 2 inches and in the middle...have the hitter use the back corner of home plate to measure off from home plate by laying the bat across home plate to determine coverage of the bat with the sweet part of it. Hang a rag about 45 inches off the floor and in line with the tee. They should be able to be within 8 inches up or down left or right of the rag IF the tee is about 4.5 feet from the net. If they get that close to the rag they are not hitting it off the end of the bat or the handle otherwise they would not be close to the rag. If they are wide left of the rag as a right handed hitter they may have the front side opening by landing too rigid on the front knee or not getting to toe touch and spinning out or open. Wide right could be casting out with their hands over the plate and hitting it off the handle of the bat.

Rotating as needed to the ball can be checked by using a piece of chalk and drawing a line on a dark shirt by the belly button or using a piece of tape. If the tee is set up the middle the belly button should be lined up with or towards the rag. If facing the short stop or third baseman's playing position you over rotated and are hitting around the ball...if facing the first baseman or second baseman's position you are probably casting out the hands over the plate.

As to grip do not hold the bat in the top hand in the middle of the hand or towards the thumb....keep the index and social finger from clamping down on each other to allow the top hand to rotate on the bat.

Bottom line hand path is suspect, rotation of the hips next and grip after that.

I liked the tape idea you posted . So you can see what part of the bat you are hitting the ball with. I think you had white tape on the bat , but I can't find it in our many conversations.

SBFAMILY said:

I liked the tape idea you posted . So you can see what part of the bat you are hitting the ball with. I think you had white tape on the bat , but I can't find it in our many conversations.

Click to expand...

We find the sweet part of the bat with a ball peen hammer and then use white coaches tape and mark where the sweet part is and add another two inches on either side of your bat hit the sweet part of it...now take a softball and put a one inch diameter solid black dot using a black magic marker and let it dry and then mark it again. Position the ball on the tee to allow it to be struck with the bat while the ball is positioned on the tee and the tee positioned in the middle of the plate and about two inches in front of home plate while the hitter measures off from the back corner of the tee. It will mark the tape on the bat and you can put 1,2,3 or a,b,c etc to keep track of your swing and remember to rotate the bat in you r hand after each swing and try to keep track of what you changed to make the bat hit the ball on the sweet part of the bat each time.

Thanks. Instant feedback to the kid or coach of where the bat is making contact.

weight training, forearms. remember the 1ft doll rod with a 7 ft rope tied to it and a 5lb weight tied to the rope. Our girls have never complained about hand sting. Weight training has been forgoten about with softball training these days.

We did this all winter long, at every practice 3 to 4 times. (up, down, turn it around, up, down = 1)

Parma Wildcats said:

weight training, forearms. remember the 1ft doll rod with a 7 ft rope tied to it and a 5lb weight tied to the rope. Our girls have never complained about hand sting. Weight training has been forgoten about with softball training these days.

We did this all winter long, at every practice 3 to 4 times. (up, down, turn it around, up, down = 1)

Click to expand...

All of the weight training in the world will not stop or eliminate the sting or vibration....at the ICE clinic we demonstrated techniques to improve bat speed and hand path and there was no additional weight training. Please understand I am not against weight training however IF you do not understand hand path you could look like the best body builder in the world you can think of and still not hit the ball. It is not just the forearms or wrist however that is easy to work on as you pointed out. Hand path will put the ball in play faster than ALL the weight lifting you can do short term and long term. As Crystl says, "The ISF fences are 225 feet max and anything else is cool dude!"

Hitter said:

All of the weight training in the world will not stop or eliminate the sting or vibration....at the ICE clinic we demonstrated techniques to improve bat speed and hand path and there was no additional weight training. Please understand I am not against weight training however IF you do not understand hand path you could look like the best body builder in the world you can think of and still not hit the ball. It is not just the forearms or wrist however that is easy to work on as you pointed out. Hand path will put the ball in play faster than ALL the weight lifting you can do short term and long term. As Crystl says, "The ISF fences are 225 feet max and anything else is cool dude!"

Click to expand...

I agree but as you are saying, Hand path is to hit the ball correctly. But when you dont hit the ball correctly, hand path will not help take the sting away, Weights and strengh will to a point. The key to everything is hitting the ball correctly. I agree 100%, but strengh and grip will minamize stings.

Parma Wildcats said:

I agree but as you are saying, Hand path is to hit the ball correctly. But when you dont hit the ball correctly, hand path will not help take the sting away, Weights and strengh will to a point. The key to everything is hitting the ball correctly. I agree 100%, but strengh and grip will minamize stings.

Click to expand...

The girls I see have sting problems are usually those that do not have a good hand path. The next issue I see is holding the bat in the top hand back in the thumb area and then combined with hitting it off the end of the bat or handle you have a sore top hand. We do not line the finger knuckles up and use an off set grip and release the bat to the end of the fingers as we drive the ball.

I can not remember the last time we had a kid with this type problem.

Thanks for your input...