pitching and catching

This is what I would do if your playing in a tournament: I would let him pitch a game, then DH in the next game, and let him catch the next game. Something along those lines. JMO

Hi nanocaster, and you have a good question.
First, everyone is different and you need to know your son; his strengths and weaknesses. I would advise being very conservative with him at this young age and never allow him to go from catching to pitching in the same game. Of the guys I have seen do it (4 or 5 guys), most developed some sort of arm or shoulder problems over time. The throwing mechanics are so different for each position that I believe it can't be too good for the arm/shoulder to go immediately from one to

When my son was young we tried to use a rule of thumb; one hour of rest for every game pitch; 60 pitches 60 hours before he would pitch again. I have never seen any such comment for catchers. A catcher will throw as much as the pitcher and at some point have throws to the bases. I can't see allowing a boy to catch a game then expect for him to pitch the next day. How much rest between catching and pitching? I have no idea.

At some point your son will want to decide on one or the other. I know of kids that did both all the way through high school and one of those is no longer playing because of arm or shoulder problems.

I probably have not provided a very good answer and you won't know if it matters until it is too late and the damage is done.

Chances are everyone will have differing answers on this. The big concern isn't too much throwing, but too much pitching. I'd limit that to once a week; a few times through the line-up which generally is 4 innings. The elbow and shoulder growth plates aren't mature so use caution.

If it were my son I'd prefer he didn't catch the same game after pitching, at his age, but with a days rest he'd be good to catch the next game.

I will also chime in and state that the big concern is "too much pitching". I wouldn't worry so much about just throwing, even at the catcher position. Most throws are done at a relatively slow (safe) velocity and would never damage the arm.

Worry about "fatigue" as that has been shown to be the leading cause of shoulder/arm, elbow surgery in youth players. Gauge the "tired" level of son. When he starts to become tired he will often start cutting corners with mechanics and thus the arm has to make up for the body stiffening up and lacking proper motion. I have documented my own son on hours and hours of video pitching and throwing in games and have noticed that when fatigue starts to set in is when it is preceded by a break down of mechanics and range of motion in the body and follow through of throws. When players get tired they should move to a position where their bodies and especially their arms can rest.

I would have your son let the coach know he wasn't allowed to pitch after catching. Putting him out there on legs already stressed from catching shouldn't happen. Other than pitching after catching there are just too many variables to have hard and fast rules, IMO.

My son was a P/C starting at about age 13 through college. Very difficult and I wouldn't recommend it.

BUT having said that you do need to establish a set of rules if your son is going to do it. --- Use common sense.

Pitching requires "recovery time". This varies between players. Use Pitch counts to determine his use and use days to determine his recovery. For instance, you may set a 90 pitch count as a limit for a pitching outing and 3 days rest. During that three days he may play 1B or be used as a DH but no catching. After 3 days rest he was able to catch OR pitch. My son didn't need a recovery period from catching in order to pitch --- in other words he could catch on Monday and pitch on Tuesday but he couldn't Pitch on Monday and catch on Tuesday.
Now, How do you handle this with the coach??? Depends on you, your son and the coach. When my son was being overused, I established his pitching-catching-recovery rules and discussed one on one with the HS coach and, as I expected, he became irritated. The coach finally agreed and my wife became the pitch counter and everything smoothed out. College was quite different in that the coach never abused his arm.
Fungo

Thanks for the help. I think the Little League pitch limit at age 10 is 70 pitches. I believe the rule also states that a kid can't pitch if they've played catcher in the same game, but coaches get around that rule by doing it in reverse. (pitch then catch)

The season just started and I'll talk to the head coach. I just wanted to establish some sort of black & white rule so he'll know what the limits are before the game starts.

the 2nd position with the highest tj surgery's.........catcher.