What Is Your “Tommy John” Ligament?
You’ve probably heard of a few odd or unusual terms that refer to various medical conditions, body parts, or specific injuries. One of the most common of these terms, particularly heard in sports circles, is used to describe the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) of the elbow, also known as the “Tommy John Ligament.”
The UCL, or Tommy John ligament, is the main ligament stabilizing the inner part of the elbow. It attaches the end of the arm bone to one of the forearm bones. The UCL is often torn or stretched by activities causing repetitive strain on the ligament – particularly throwing or tennis. Stretching of the ligament can cause subtle instability in the elbow leading to pain with repetitive throwing. Often the ligament needs to be reconstructed with a tendon graft to restore its strength and allow return to pain-free throwing or overhead sports, a procedure that has become common in baseball pitchers.
Where Did The Name Tommy John Come From?
Tommy John was major league baseball pitcher for the L.A. Dodgers and New York Yankees over a twenty-year career and was the first person to undergo the procedure that now carries his name. John began to experience some serious ligament discomfort and pitching problems around 1974. Dr. Frank Jobe, a noted orthopaedic surgeon who was team physician for the L.A. Dodgers at that time diagnosed John with tearing of the UCL as the cause of his pitching problems and devised a new surgical procedure to reconstruct the ligament – a radical and controversial treatment at the time. Back then, it was believed that a major league pitcher could never return to pitching in the big leagues after having surgery. Faced with few options and the prospect of having to retire from baseball, John placed his trust in Dr. Jobe and underwent the procedure. He then went on to return to the major leagues and had a successful Hall of Fame carreer. Based on his success, the procedure became known as the “Tommy John” procedure and is now commonly performed on baseball pitchers with painful elbows.
Misconceptions About the “Tommy John” Procedure
Based on John’s experience and the success of others who have had the procedure over the years there has become a misconception that undergoing the procedure can actually improve pitching performance over that of having a normal elbow. Many players and coaches came to believe that the procedure increased pitching velocity and accuracy and that players were actually “better” after undergoing the procedure. There is no medical or biomechanical evidence to support this. However, most sports medicine and athletic trainers believe that the post-operative rehab and strengthening that players undergo after the surgery is what often times can lead to their improved performance. This has lead to more research and focus on prevent exercises and training regimens to improve performance in throwing and to help prevent the need for a thrower to undergo a “Tommy John” procedure.
Read this: Advair Diskus
Hey there. I found your site by means of Google at the same time as looking for a comparable subject, your website got here up. It appears good. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks to come back then.
hey there and thank you for your info – I’ve definitely picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise some technical issues using this website, since I experienced to reload the website lots of times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and could damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my email and could look out for much more of your respective interesting content. Ensure that you update this again soon..
I really like what you guys are up too. Such clever work and coverage! Keep up the great works guys I’ve added you guys to blogroll.|
I went over this internet site and I think you have a lot of excellent info, saved to fav (:.
Hiya, I’m really glad I have found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossip and net stuff and this is really irritating. A good website with interesting content, that’s what I need. Thank you for making this site, and I’ll be visiting again. Do you do newsletters by email?
Thank you for every other informative web site. Where else could I get that type of info written in such an ideal manner? I have a project that I’m simply now running on, and I have been at the look out for such info.
There is perceptibly a lot to identify about this. I consider you made some good points in features also.
Awesome write-up. I am a regular visitor of your site and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the excellent site. I will be a regular visitor for a really long time.
Hey very cool blog!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds also¡KI am glad to search out so many helpful info here within the publish, we need work out extra strategies on this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
Undeniably believe that which you stated. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the web the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people consider worries that they just don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
I wanted to develop a quick remark in order to appreciate you for the fabulous tactics you are sharing on this website. My extended internet research has at the end of the day been paid with wonderful content to talk about with my visitors. I would mention that many of us visitors actually are very much fortunate to exist in a notable site with very many special people with insightful things. I feel truly privileged to have used your entire web pages and look forward to plenty of more thrilling times reading here. Thank you once again for all the details.
A friend of mine advised me to review this site. And yes. it has some useful pieces of info and I enjoyed reading it.
Thank you for the good writeup. It actually was once a enjoyment account it. Glance advanced to more brought agreeable from you! However, how could we keep up a correspondence?|
Awesome write-up. I’m a regular visitor of your blog and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the excellent site. I’ll be a frequent visitor for a really long time.
I enjoy you because of your whole work on this site. Gloria takes pleasure in conducting investigations and it’s really obvious why. All of us hear all regarding the dynamic form you give priceless strategies on this blog and as well recommend contribution from other ones on that subject and our own daughter has always been understanding a lot of things. Take advantage of the remaining portion of the year. You have been doing a splendid job.
naturally like your web-site but you need to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very troublesome to inform the reality however I will definitely come back again.
Awesome post. I am a normal visitor of your site and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the excellent site. I will be a regular visitor for a long time.
Awesome write-up. I’m a normal visitor of your website and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the nice site. I’ll be a frequent visitor for a really long time.
My spouse and I stumbled over here different page and thought I might as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to looking into your web page yet again.|
Hi there! Quick question that’s totally off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My site looks weird when browsing from my apple iphone. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to fix this problem. If you have any recommendations, please share. With thanks!|