quote:Originally posted by CADad:
GBM,
You are dead wrong. Younger arms simply "break" in a different place. The UCL is stronger than the bone and they get an avulsion fracture of the medial epicondyle at velocities far less than 80 mph. The 80 mph is simply where UCL injuries typically begin to come into play for the older kids whose bones are more mature.
When I was coaching the freshman winter team we had a 14yo sent down from the JVs to pitch for us one weekend. It took all of about 5 warmup throws to see that something was wrong. We asked him how long it had been hurting (weeks) and shut him down. He had been throwing in the mid 70s. We sent him to a doctor figuring it was medial epicondylitis but he had an avulsion fracture (LL'ers elbow) and effectively never pitched again although he tried to come back a few times. He was out of the game by his junior year.
I realize that injuries occur in younger players. My concern was with "major injuries leading to surgery. I realize that this happens sometimes in young players. I was generally referring to older players. Here is what I said- "The statistics show that injury leading to surgery occurs generally after a young pitcher exceeds 80 mph coupled with throwing through pain and fatigue both due to overuse". Now of course everything has it's exception and yes it does occur sometimes before this or without those warning signs. But, generally speaking, those warning signs are in place.
Even in the case you mentioned the player had been playing through pain for some time.