Pushing The Envelope On Young Pitchers—Injury Waiting To Happen

Is there any way to reduce the onslaught of pitching arm injuries in youth and high school baseball.

One of the many things that was discussed at the American Sports Medicine Institute’s baseball injuries seminar that my wife Ginny and I attended the weekend of January 14th was the increase in the rate of more severe youth pitching arm injuries. The concluded cause is the idea of “pushing the envelope” which creates overthrowing and over-exertion in an effort to try to throw harder. Unfortuntely, fathers are being sucked in by the online hype of instant velocity. One of the signs of over-throwing is severe head movement where the pitcher cannot keep his head online because his focus is on ripping the arm through. And this is where pitching mechanics quickly fall apart. The other idea put forth…even by former major league pitchers is that breaking balls should not be taught until the boy is shaving. Focus on mechanical skills, pitch command and changing speeds. Those websites that are promoting velocity before skill will end up killing the careers of many, many young promising pitchers. If your son is not fully developed, is still growing, then look at his throwing arm as being very vulnerable to stress fracture or growth plate injury. One of the most vulnerable areas of a pitchers arm is at the upper arm boneor the humerus…the ball that fits inside the shoulder socket as wellas the elbow. The elbow, by the way, has six growth plates. If your son complains of a dull aching in his arm you had better have him stop throwing and seek advice from an orthopedic. Many times it will not hurt however unless he is throwing. One of the orthopedics at the seminar used a great analogy that every parent ought to use to remind their son’s coaches when the pitch counts get up there or when they want to pitch your son more than once a week or do not give him enough time to recover. Look at the humerus as a peanut and jelly sandwich. The two outer halves of the humerus (think of a handball) are the bread while the center (soft cartilage) is the peanut butter and jelly. The center is where the stress fracture will occur which will show up on an X-ray. You won’t want to see that. Because when you do your son may be out for up to a year…and as famed orthopedic Dr. James Andrew said—maybe out forever. Remember the exceptionally hard throwers…whether in Little League or early high school…not fully developed are most at risk. So the LL pitcher who is throwing upper sixties or 70 mph is at risk as well as the 15 year old who is throwing 80 mph.

If you son is an exceptionally hard thrower and he is still growing I would not suggest allowing him to pitch more than once a week. And make sure you watch those pitch counts.

Velocity at an early age can be a double edged sword. This is why “pushing the envelope” is idiocity and irresponsibility. And why weighted balls are even more foolish.

Dick Mills

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching—mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to dickmills@gmail.com and I will answer them here.

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