I don't think there are many of us out there that can honestly say we steadfastly monitored and regulated our son's pitches and rest. I can count on one hand the number of times mine has thrown more than 100 pitches in a game. I can also tell you I worry about the long-term effects of each and every one of those outings. Was he conditioned for them? I would like to think so. Were those games important? At the time, we (parents and coaches alike) sure thought so. Did he get extended rest after each time? Sure. Still makes me nervous.
One more pearl of wisdom from the pitching coach:
- If you want to increase your pitching velocity: STOP PITCHING.
Take 8-12 weeks off and get into a pitching-specific workout routine. After two weeks, throwing again is fine (I happen to like long toss and the much-debated Jaeger program, but that's a personal preference), but ZERO pitching. You'll come out the other end stronger. We try to carve out 8-10 weeks once a year and another 6 weeks twice a year.
So far, so good......it's a marathon, not a sprint. Only problem with baseball is you don't ever get to know where the finish line is until you're there and then...there you are.
I like your posts and I agree with you for the most part.
But I can tell you that our older son did each and every thing you wrote above…and then he felt the pain. And after that, 2 weeks ago today, he had the surgery.
He felt he was in the best condition of his life (age 27), never ever had any arm injury whatsoever and as you outlined…did all of that stuff above. He's one of the numbers in the article linked above…part of a statistic now for MLB pitchers in 2014.
Why did it happen? We simply don't know. Nor did his team doctor nor the one who did the surgery. They told him that every single pitch you throw a pitcher comes within 10% of this injury. Stands to reason that as time goes on and you throw 1 more pitch, your risk increases until 'the number comes up.' But who knows? I don't.