I have learned a lot of info in the few months I have been following this sight, glad I found it. I have a dilemma I am dealing with regarding my son who is a 2022 graduate. He has always played a lot of ball since he was 8 or 9 but never was much overused as a pitcher I would say. This year he has thrown maybe 35 innings. This fall he sustained an injury after completing a really full summer of playing games for his team and guest playing on a couple others . He was working out at school, at his select ball program, and going to a pitching lesson once a week. Looking back now, it was defiantly too much after the busy summer he had and hopefully we have learned to scale things back a bit. He was getting stronger, faster and just overall better but we pushed it a little too much. He has recovered from the core muscle injury after 8 to 10 weeks of rest. It wasn’t a major injury, but one to make to reevaluate you way we do things so it doesn’t become a nagging injury or completely derail him. He has received recent feedback from his high school coach stating he will have a roll with the Varsity team this spring as an outfielder and hitter. This was a pleasant surprise playing in a competitive 5A district in Texas. How much playing time on varsity of course depends on how he does in early season tournys, etc. The question I am having an issue with is that he was making great progress with his pitching coach before the injury. Not a flame thrower, (about 80 or so) but good sinking action and offspeed was coming around nicely. I dont see him being a factor here this year in high school ball. With him recovered from a stomach muscle injury I don’t want to greatly increase the chances of another injury. He hits and throws with a lot of torque and I personally feel that could be a little too much stress for his smaller frame only being 5 ft 11 and around 160 lbs allowing him to hit and pitch this soon after this kind of injury. He has good exit velo numbers, recently hit 87 with wood and 93 with composite and runs a 6.8 60 time so I am thinking about shutting him down pitching for the year and focusing on hitting/fielding since to me this is currently his best ability. His doctor fully released him but also said he thought it might be too much doing both hitting and pitching for a while, he wasn’t clear regarding how long but I caught his drift so to say. Just wanted to see if anyone here has been through a similar situation and how you navigated through it. I feel his measurable numbers are approaching the level where pitching may not be as necessary to get him looks for college ball and it can be something he can come back to after he strengthens his body more and physically matures. He likes to pitch but again don’t want the desire to do too much too quickly set him back after an eye opener like he has had. Thanks.
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