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Originally posted by J H:
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Please just answer my question if you don't mind- My son was 9 when he started pitching. He played city league only. He pitched twice a week, 2-4 innings per game. He played until after summer allstars were over in July. He didnt pitch again until March of the next year. Do you believe he entered his second year of pitching with a damaged or weakenwd arm? If so, why?
Each time an individual throws a baseball, they damage their arm. The extent of that damage varies extremely based on each case and each situation. I highly doubt your son injured his arm pitching in that first year. But, without question, the fact that he did pitch could very much have a negative reciprocal effect in the future. Damage and injury are two very different things.
I am not sitting here saying "your son WILL hurt his arm because he threw too young". But its extremely foolish to think that pitching at a young age is not a contributing factor in many situations.
So to answer your question, yes, your son did damage his arm when he pitched at the age of 9. He will continue to damage his arm as he continues to pitch into the future. I'm 22, and still pitching. I damage my arm every single time I throw, just as every other pitcher does. Do I think your son will hurt his arm? I don't have the authority or knowledge to make a blanket statement like that. I'd never wish injury upon anyone, but I am confident that the chances of it occurring increase due to the early starting age.
Thankyou JH for your thorough and honest reply. Perhaps we are getting somewhere now. I will agree that he was not totally pain free pitching when he was 9 (what pitcher ever did pitch a season without some degree of fatigue or pain? NONE!). However, it is the amount of rest and recovery and arm strength building that makes the most impact on what happens after that. Of course you have to also figure in mechanics, genetic ability and arm structure. For example- my son has very large dense bones and as such his muscular structure to support the bigger bones are more extensive and denser. Compared with his best friend, the samer age who also pitches, his wrist and elbow joints are almost half again larger around. They both have very similar mechanics in their throwing motion. My son has probably 4 times the stamina over his friend due in large part to the better genetics of the bone and muscle structure.
Anyways, taking all things into account, each kid is vastlty different in so many areas that just saying a generalization of "pitching too young" is a main cause for injury later is not really correct. Each kid is going to have his own strengths and weaknesses. Every situation is different. Some kids mechanics are so bad that they have to ice their elbow or shoulder after every outing due to pain.
I dont buy into the theory that some hold about there only being so many throws in an arm before injury occurs. That only holds true in cases of abuse or overuse. Our bodies are amazing and will recover from micro tears and micro injury due to ordinary work load and will build back stronger than before. It has been shown through medical scientific studies that healthy pitchers arms have more flexibility and are stronger in their joints than average people including average non pitching baseball players. Not only that but their ligaments are thicker and stronger than normal people.
The million dollar question then becomes what is it about healthy pitchers arms that is different than unhealthy pitcher arms that require surgery? If we know that healthy pitcher arms are more flexible and stronger than unhealthy or even average peoples arms, what exactly are they doing differently? We know that healthy strong pitchers have two things in common almost always. They are 1. Good clean mechanics, and- 2. They are not overused. Those are the very two questions that always come into play when an arm in the pros gets injured. There are a myriad of analysts out there who know a lot about the mechanics of pitching and we are starting to have a pretty good idea of what the mechanics look like in healthy pitchers arms and how they differ in injury prone pitchers mechanics. We also have a pretty good idea of how to prevent overuse and properly condition arms to become stronger to be more injury resistant.
What we however lack is the implementation of those facts into baseball circles wherever you go. Pitching counts in little league is a great start. But what we need is to educate the players, parents, and coaches better into implementing and sticking to the right plans that increase their arm strength, not tear them down and make them weaker. If we constantly disregard the proper methods for training, resting, etc. then we will always be in the same boat of more and more kids with arm injuries and then blaming it on things that didnt have the main impacts for the reasons why they got injured in the first place.
The facts clearly state that leading up to the tearing of the UCL, the majority of those patients requiring surgery had all or most of the clear warning signs present before their injury became serious and still didn't heed the known advice of medical and sports specialists!
You put all these facts together, the truth is that if properly trained and conditioned, a pitcher should have a stronger and more healthy arm than the average person. This destroys the myth that pitching is unhealthy to the arm. The facts are that improper conditioning, lack of athleticism, poor mechanics, poor diet, poor rest and overuse all contribute to a weak and unhealthy arm that will get injured, even serious injury requiring therapy or surgery.
