12u elbow soreness?

No one has replied so allow me to add some thoughts.

I am not a physician nor did I stay at a Holiday inn last night.   Any pain is in indicator.  Could he just be growing?  Is it elbow tendonitis?  Or is it a precursor to a more serious injury?

The only one who could tell you that is a professional.  I am sure you can wait long enough and get 50 different answers on here.  When it comes to physical health, pain  is one you don't want to get wrong.  

We have a 9:45 xray tomorrow for my almost 15 y/o after he was hit by a fastball near the elbow this past weekend.  First xray showed an abnormality near an open growth plate.  Had the plate been closed, I would have left it up to him to play through the discomfort.  We won't mess with growth plates.  12/u who is still growing and open growth plates?  I would tread carefully and cautiously.  An ounce of prevention is worth 10x its weight in gold, IMO.

Good luck.

It could be irritation of the flexor tendons.  Press on the area and have him flex his wrist.  You can feel the tendon move.  But to be absolutely sure make an orth appointment and rule out anything major. 

Do you have him throwing curveballs? If you do it could have to do with how many he is throwing since he is just starting out. I know a few high school pitchers that still get sore arms from curveballs.

No curves, I won't allow that.  Pain is gone or just about gone an hour or so after throwing.  I am going to try the flexor tendon thing next time it happens.  If the pain gets worse or happens more often, I will take him in

I presume your on top of it but just in case, highly recommend a very good prepitching stretching program.

Go to the doctor (ortho) and rule out anything major.  Odds are it's not really anything serious but there is a problem and it needs fixed.  Step one is to rule out anything medically.

Step two is check out the mechanics.  Just because you pay for lessons doesn't mean you are getting quality instruction.  I have no clue who is giving the lessons but make sure they are reputable and know what they are doing.  To be honest I don't see how he can really learn anything in a half hour session once a week.  Is he doing drills, is he throwing and the guy critiques, is he breaking stuff down to understand......  Typically you get lessons for an hour and if the lesson starts at 6:00 they want you loose at that point.  They don't want to spend part of the hour waiting on you to get loose unless it's early and they are teaching that aspect to you.

Step three is once he's healthy then let him pitch.  If he's taking pitching lessons then he needs to pitch.  A half hour lesson and then to pitch here and there is not going to allow the arm to build up the strength and endurance to actually pitch.  It may be a case the occasional ramping up without any regularity that's causing discomfort through inflammation.  This is why you need to see a doctor. 

When my son was 12 he was asked to pitch.  He is now in 9th grade, here is what I have learned.

1. My son didn't know the difference in sore vs. hurt.  Depending on the pitch count it could be understandable that he is sore, but after one inning my vote would be mechanics and or hurt.

2. Long toss should be his new best friend, it really helps develop those muscles.

3. The pain my son experienced was not from throwing the ball it was what he did with his arm AFTER he threw the ball.  Knowledgeable instructor had that issue fixed in under 2 minutes.

4. 30 minute lesson once a month is what we did, it wasn't to improve velocity it was to settle mechanics and teach the kid what to do if the ball is 6 inches to the right of where you intended to throw it.

When you say he is having pitching lessons....who is giving them?  Is it the coach lining up 10 kids and having them each take 10 pitches from the mound, or do you have a real instructor breaking down pitching mechanics?

It's been my experience that mechanics are easy to identify and fix...hurt in a 12u kid is NOT easy to identify and the doctor will likely say rest for a few weeks then try again. 

It is a professional, former milb pitcher giving them.  I just texted him last night and he thought it was just general soreness but that my son is to let him know the minute it happens again during a lesson.  I agree with not knowing the difference between soreness and hurt.  I also agree he needs more long toss.  I am going to keep a very close eye on it and take him in if it continues.

CaCO3Girl posted:

When my son was 12 he was asked to pitch.  He is now in 9th grade, here is what I have learned.

1. My son didn't know the difference in sore vs. hurt.  Depending on the pitch count it could be understandable that he is sore, but after one inning my vote would be mechanics and or hurt.

2. Long toss should be his new best friend, it really helps develop those muscles.

3. The pain my son experienced was not from throwing the ball it was what he did with his arm AFTER he threw the ball.  Knowledgeable instructor had that issue fixed in under 2 minutes.

4. 30 minute lesson once a month is what we did, it wasn't to improve velocity it was to settle mechanics and teach the kid what to do if the ball is 6 inches to the right of where you intended to throw it.

When you say he is having pitching lessons....who is giving them?  Is it the coach lining up 10 kids and having them each take 10 pitches from the mound, or do you have a real instructor breaking down pitching mechanics?

It's been my experience that mechanics are easy to identify and fix...hurt in a 12u kid is NOT easy to identify and the doctor will likely say rest for a few weeks then try again. 

Great points about knowing the difference between sore and hurt and also about identifying mechanics as an issue.

The problem is that, even at the highest levels, these two things can be very elusive.  Note how often a MLB/MiLB pitcher with some discomfort is under observation for periods of time.  Often, they just don't know for sure.  And often, a MLB pitching coach will spot a minor issue in a mechanic sequence that he thinks might be causing an issue but this is well into the season.  Often, with youth P's, the mechanic issue is obvious.  But not always.  We really still have so much to learn about the biomechanics of pitching and the human body.  Very much not an exact science yet and frustrating for those of us determined to protect arms and still allow competitive athletes to compete.

DADOF3 - Couple of things to keep in mind in order to have long term arm health  1) Do serious forearm work.  Stronger forearm muscles mitigate stress on the UCL.  2) Do serious backwork.  The external rotation exercises of the Throwers 10 are key to shoulder stability.  I recommend CrossoverSymmetry to do the same.  

Not at the expense of long toss as CACO points out.   A healthy arm requires consistent work.

CaCO3Girl posted:

 

It's been my experience that mechanics are easy to identify and fix...hurt in a 12u kid is NOT easy to identify and the doctor will likely say rest for a few weeks then try again. 

Actually, I think it is pretty easy to identify.  First, soreness is muscular.  You lift and your biceps, triceps, and shoulders are sore for example.  Thus, the "no pain, no gain" and it's good soreness.  You can work thru it.  There are no muscles in the elbow.  It's all connection material.  So any pain in that area is either some type of irritation (tendons and such) or a catastrophic injury (growth plate or UCL).  Both should be looked at by a professional.  Most professionals can diagnose it in 10 min or less.  IMO, for the OP it's money well spent to know what you're dealing with. 

How long has he been playing baseball ?  If he's "seasoned", he should not be experiencing pain in his elbow.  If he's relatively new and he feels pain from just throwing the ball (not just pitching), it's an endurance issue and getting used to throwing a 5oz ball.  But it sounds like poor mechanics that the PC needs to help him fix.  The PC might have an approach of not overcoaching, but if the kid is experiencing pain he should probably rework his mechanics from the ground up.