I think the OP was not so much about icing or heat to promote healing as much as the OP was appalled that any 11 year old could have used his body in such a way as to require therapy of any kind from use of their arm. I am with TRhit on this one. "Kids today do not throw enough"!
You may enjoy this from Kyle Boddy (note he is referring to age 13+):
http://www.drivelinebaseball.c...aining-is-the-devil/
Nice stuff by Kyle.
I like him, he makes it very simple and easy to understand how it works.
Yup, there are plenty of youth pitcher,catchers who have very painful/sore arms, I think that was my point in pitching injury topic. Most of it is overuse and poor mechanics. Being sore is NOT UNUSUAL, having pain is. The problem is that parents dont know the difference so they allow their players a few days rest and then back on the mound without ever figuring out what is going on. They think it will go away with some ice and some otc drugs.
Mine started pitching at an early age and they iced back then all of the time. I am not sure exactly of the benefits, but he iced all of his life until he stopped he developed some shoulder issues. My opinion.
Also giving a young child medication is not a good practice. Save that for someday when he really needs it.
Kevin O'Sullivan told me once that he lets pitchers do what makes them comfortable. I guess that is the key, everyone is different.
CaCO3girl,
If you are getting this info from a post, how do you know if the players throws enough
or not?
So you are saying that pitching in a game one day and then catching the next or playing ss is good. Its not about how much you throw or dont throw but the preparation and the frequency.
Don't confuse tossing with throwing. And don't confuse a loose arm by describing it as rubber. Not all kids have loose arms.
I have no idea if the player in the post throws enough or not...but at age 12 I can only assume that he is either not conditioned or not doing it right to be sore and needing ice.
As for my rubber comment, I was referring to all youth in general. Their bodies bounce back far quicker when they are young, and things that would land an adult in the hospital for weeks they just pop up and say "I'm okay!" Of course children can get broken arms and they can get hurt, but having multiple 12 year old's on one team asking for ice because their arm hurts/is sore...doesn't sound normal to me.