quote:
Great read in the NYTimes...should be required reading for youth coaches and parents of young pitchers. Why have pitch counts for young pitchers? To protect them from their parents, their coaches and themselves.
In 1999, with $150,000 in financing and sponsorship by USA Baseball, Andrews and Fleisig began the first in a series of studies on the interlocking relationships between pitch count, pitch type, arm fatigue and pain. That year they collected data from 476 Alabama youth-league pitchers between the ages of 9 and 14. Their findings:
-over the course of the season, more than half of the pitchers experienced shoulder or elbow pain.
-for each increment of 25 pitches thrown after 50 pitches, the percentage of pitchers experiencing pain increased as fatigue set in.
-those who threw curveballs were 52 percent more likely to feel shoulder pain.
-those who threw sliders were 86 percent more likely to endure elbow pain.
-by the age of 20, a baseball player who has regularly pitched past the point of fatigue is 36 times as likely to need elbow or shoulder surgery as one who has not.
As for Alden, I was wondering if his coaches/parents learned anything. Based on the last paragraph, I don't think so...after a year off due to surgery, in his 1st return to the mound, in a practice game, Alden pitched six innings. Something tells me he'll be seeing Dr. Andrews again (assuming that's still possible under Obama's health plan but that's another topic).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08...azine&pagewanted=all
That other thread ended up focusing on the Obama health plan. I'd like to have this one focus on the article itself.
Essentially, Dr. Andrews and his team performed what appears to be a really solid study on the impact of pitching on youth league pitchers. Upon presenting those findings to the various youth baseball organizing bodies, they were met with a shrug - other than Little League. Little League implemented a watered down version of the recommendations.
A couple of thoughts:
1) Given a lack of better data, why would the other youth baseball organizations ignore this study? In my opinion, there is enough information to show that children are being overused and suffering injuries as a result. Dr. Andrews is not saying don't throw - instead he is saying don't pitch so much and learn how to throw pitches properly. To me it seems that the other youth baseball organizations are more interested in winning than in providing an environment where players can learn to play the game.
2) Little League is not without blame. It really seems to me that they have significantly watered down the recommendations - especially those related to the end of year televised event. While it would change the nature of the competition to have stricter rules, in that the teams with deeper pitching would be more likely to win, it would not, in my opinion, significantly lessen the value of the experience for the teams to need more pitchers.
