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Reply to "Now campaigning against Tommy John surgery .... Tommy John"

Everyone balances their desire to obtain something, do something, experience something, with their fear of failure, pain, rejection, injury, etc. As a parent you should educate yourself the best you can. And at the same time foster a competitive spirit that has no fear of failure. It's kind of hard to teach a young man to push himself and the benefits of pushing himself when your constantly saying "How's the arm? Don't throw too much. Take it easy. Don't over do it. Be careful. Watch out." 

Yes we need to educate ourselves and educate our kids. But we also need to understand you ain't going to obtain anything of worth without the willingness to accept and challenge the risk that will be there. You are not going to get stronger in the weight room if your afraid your going to blow out your knee every time you step under the squat rack. Your not going to throw to your max potential if your afraid to throw to your max potential out of fear you might blow out your arm. 

The intent to throw the s@@t out the baseball must be present in order to do so. Fear has no place in it. So I ask this question. What is the level of risk your willing to take in order to be the best you can be? Because the fact is you are taking a risk or your not taking a shot. You can't regulate the risk out of competitive sports and maintain a competitive sport. I believe that kids suffer injury from not throwing enough and then trying to throw too much. I believe that too many kids try to throw to a gun and don't spend enough time developing a strong arm that needs to throw for a gun. I believe that too many kids play too many games and don't spent enough time working on the things that make them good at the game. 

When you are spending all of your time playing games when is there time for proper training and learning how to properly throw? No long toss we have a game tomorrow. No long toss or too much throwing your pitching this weekend. And this starts with 8 and 9 year old kids. And it goes all year long. So they play games all the time and don't spend the time developing their arms properly and that's just my opinion on this. My experience is that I believe kids should spend way more time working at the things that make you a player and less time actually playing games. They should be brought along in the process and developed and as they get older, stronger, developed, they can start to play more games during the HS years. They play 20 something games during the HS season. They can play through the summer and early fall. Then they can get back to focusing on development and training. 

For me I accept the risk. I also believe there is more risk with being ignorant and unwilling to learn. The desire to be seen. The desire to be showcased. The belief if you play enough games you will suddenly be a stud. No you will get really good at being who you already are. Slowly, gradually, develop a strong healthy arm through proper mechanics, proper training, proper rest, over all physical development and stop thinking your missing out by not playing 12 months out of the year and playing on the top travel team. Yes there is risk and that is fine. Yes there are kids more likely to have TJ because of genetics. But imo much of this issue has been brought about by the belief you can get there if you don't miss out. No you need to miss out and develop so you don't miss out when you are developed. 

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