While watching youth baseball and even the Little League World Series tournament games, I am sad to see how many pitchers are removed from mound duty as a result of a sore arm or shoulder. I think it is a tell-tale sign that after being removed from the mound, the pitcher almost always goes to shortstop or to an outfield position. The pitcher replacing them typically comes in to pitch from one of those positions too.
This illustrates an often overlooked and critical fact about arm care; the arm does not know whether you are pitching or not, it only knows whether you are throwing well, too much and too often.
A February 28, 2024 article in the Seams Up Journal listed these alarming facts:
Throwing a baseball at maximum velocity is one of the most stressful movements on the human body in all of sports. And yet, the focus of most coaches and leagues is almost entirely on how much and how often a player pitches in games, not how often they pitch in practice and throw at other positions in practices and games. No count is kept of how many throws are made at maximum velocity in general and the pitch count in games does not include pitches thrown in the bullpen during warm-up or those thrown between innings.
Even more alarming is how rarely youth coaches carefully and methodically instruct players how to throw the ball properly during “catch play” at the start of games and practices. The average youth player’s throwing mechanics do not improve significantly during the season except if they can afford quality private instruction outside of the league team. If the players can throw hard and relatively accurate most of the time, and if the team is “winning”, the coaches typically take a hands off approach to improving the players’ throwing mechanics. This is assuming the youth coaches could properly instruct them how to do it if they wanted to do so.
When asked if there was one thing they would have done differently during their days as a youth player, almost all college and pro baseball players say they would have taken their nutrition more seriously. Assumed, of course, in this response are the other factors that are essential to development and recovery, e.g., rest, quality sleep, hydration, and arm care (both pre-season and during the season). Even if their nutrition was proper, chronic fatigue would likely still have been a huge problem contributing to arm problems for them because it is very common for players to play on multiple teams and in multiple sports during a baseball season. It is also very common for players to play in many more games than they have practices and in those games and practices, as stated above, proper throwing mechanics are rarely properly coached.
Too few parents and players know enough about these factors to set, monitor, and execute guidelines for them. Most coaches and leagues certainly are not vigilant about them either.
It is long past time to take a more diligent and holistic approach to the care of the arms of youth baseball players. Their long-term health and that of our nation’s pastime depend on it.
This illustrates an often overlooked and critical fact about arm care; the arm does not know whether you are pitching or not, it only knows whether you are throwing well, too much and too often.
A February 28, 2024 article in the Seams Up Journal listed these alarming facts:
- Up to 74% of youth baseball players (ages 8-18) admit they have some pain when throwing.
- The number of Tommy John surgeries – a surgery that reconstructs a torn elbow ligament – among athletes ages 15-19 has risen by over 50 percent since 1974 when the surgery was first performed.
Throwing a baseball at maximum velocity is one of the most stressful movements on the human body in all of sports. And yet, the focus of most coaches and leagues is almost entirely on how much and how often a player pitches in games, not how often they pitch in practice and throw at other positions in practices and games. No count is kept of how many throws are made at maximum velocity in general and the pitch count in games does not include pitches thrown in the bullpen during warm-up or those thrown between innings.
Even more alarming is how rarely youth coaches carefully and methodically instruct players how to throw the ball properly during “catch play” at the start of games and practices. The average youth player’s throwing mechanics do not improve significantly during the season except if they can afford quality private instruction outside of the league team. If the players can throw hard and relatively accurate most of the time, and if the team is “winning”, the coaches typically take a hands off approach to improving the players’ throwing mechanics. This is assuming the youth coaches could properly instruct them how to do it if they wanted to do so.
When asked if there was one thing they would have done differently during their days as a youth player, almost all college and pro baseball players say they would have taken their nutrition more seriously. Assumed, of course, in this response are the other factors that are essential to development and recovery, e.g., rest, quality sleep, hydration, and arm care (both pre-season and during the season). Even if their nutrition was proper, chronic fatigue would likely still have been a huge problem contributing to arm problems for them because it is very common for players to play on multiple teams and in multiple sports during a baseball season. It is also very common for players to play in many more games than they have practices and in those games and practices, as stated above, proper throwing mechanics are rarely properly coached.
Too few parents and players know enough about these factors to set, monitor, and execute guidelines for them. Most coaches and leagues certainly are not vigilant about them either.
It is long past time to take a more diligent and holistic approach to the care of the arms of youth baseball players. Their long-term health and that of our nation’s pastime depend on it.
RSS Feed