PABaseball posted:Chico Escuela posted:PABaseball posted:...
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Honestly it's tough to say. Are they growing pains or arm problems? You see the Dominican kids playing all day everyday and have strong healthy arms. American kids (used to) throw tennis balls, wiffle balls, rubber stick balls 900x a day at elementary age and were fine. It's anecdotal, but at a certain point it is/was true. I'm not sure if we know enough yet.
Personally I think the biggest problem in middle school+ aged kids is pitching and then practicing at other positions everyday. A 7th grader throwing 90 pitches on Monday for his MS team and then practicing at SS for the next 3 days isn't good. I agree with a lot of what Andrews says actually but given how kids grow differently, it is tough to lump the limits of all the kids together.
"[I]t's tough to say. Are they growing pains or arm problems?" That's when you get an expert opinion. An orthopedic surgeon reviewed X-rays of my son's arm during middle school and told us to shut him down for 6 months. I could have gotten a second opinion, sure--that's often a good idea. But one way or another I'm going with the best medical information I can get. And I can't imagine my son's baseball coaches suggesting I do otherwise.
I agree about the stress of pitching and playing in the field. On the other hand, most kids didn't want to be a pitcher-only at age 12, and in general I don't think it's good for them to specialize that early. Reducing pitch counts and/or infield reps seems like a reasonable compromise. And a coach should pay attention to specific situations: If a kid threw 80 pitches on Tuesday, he shouldn't make 30 throws from 3B on Wednesday.
I'm not sure exactly where you come out on this, but maybe you are making it harder than it needs to be? Yes, players are different (as I said in my initial post). Some kids throw 100s of pitches weekly with no problems. But no one knows how to identify those kids in advance. (You don't hear about the kids in the Dominican Republic who blow out their arms, because they stop playing.) Dr. Andrews' recommendations might be too conservative for a particular kid. But there is no way to know that in advance. That's why I suggest relying on the best available medical opinions. Maybe a player could have thrown 25% more pitches during 6th-8th grade without injury. Or maybe he would have needed surgery and spent a year doing physical therapy instead of playing. Why take the risk?