quote:“My son who is also 15 just had his TJ surgery on the 23rd of December.”
If he rehabs correctly by performing “sport specific” overload interval training with a changed mechanic allowing him to transition his Humerus and Forearm earlier he will be pitching competitively by Nov 23rd 2011. If he rehabs the way it is recommended by Orthos and rehab guy’s still today he will not be ready and still have the same mechanic that put him on the operating table the first time.
quote:“His innings were monitored closely as well but still tore up his UCL.”
Innings and pitch counts have nothing to do with why his UCL failed other than it takes some pitches to degrade it with his particular mechanic. Mechanics are why this happened and a change in them is required to keep it from happening again.
quote:“While not as big as your son he is still good sized for 15 (6" 2" and 190lbs) and threw hard.”
Size has nothing to do with why his UCL degrades nor how hard he throws, even skinny slow twitchers degrade and fail their UCL’s.
quote:“After the fact the physical therapist found that his shoulder was extremely weak and likely was a culprit in the elbow blowing out.”
His perceived weak shoulders have nothing to do with why his UCL degrades and one of the reason this injury persists today is because of explanations as the one you were given leaving the mechanical problem without the proper change.
quote:“The weak shoulder led to his dropping his elbow due to tiredness which put strain on the elbow.”
This is not why the UCL degrades! The UCL degrades for one reason and a couple of inches in difference from the start of a game to the finish puts the same stress in the inside of the elbow if he bounces his forearm backwards higher or lower at the start of the acceleration phase and supinates his drive on some or all of his pitches.
Outwardly rotating your Humerus at the back takes little strength in your shoulders to make it happen at the proper time. Strength in the shoulders is important for shoulder injury problems.
quote:“throwing with max effort too often”
Pitchers should pitch at maximal effort with all pitches and having non injurious mechanics and proper fitness ensures that this can be produced with no ill effects.
quote:“it isn't surprising that his still immature arm couldn't handle the stress and blew out.”
Immature arms will only be ill affected at the ossification centers (growth plates) with non injurious mechanics, leaving injurious mechanics with two problems to deal with.
quote:“sounds like your son's injury is more along the same as my sons.”
Yes, it is all caused by the exact same thing in all pitchers and catchers, they both bring the ball back with their hand on top of the ball pronating it on the way back then up, then when they start their transition (outwards rotation of the Humerus) to be ready to start the acceleration phase its to late and they must bounce their forearm and humerus backwards causing micro tearing with each pitch until it macro tears or fails.
Fortunately this is all preventable even with a replacement Tendon.