I know that we have had several discussions regarding this but.....
In calculating my son's innings pitched today for the past few months and coming up with a pitch count (not including bull pens, practice, warm ups, etc), I got to thinking about all the past years when we didn't pay attention (or have someone pay attention for us). My estimations were based on 4.5 months of pitching only. After thinking about year round baseball, I have determined that my son has put in hundreds of thousands of pitches over time since he started pitching. Not to count all of the other throwing that was done in other positions.
Since no one actually knows how many pitches it takes for injury to actually occur, I found the whole thing quite scary.
Parents of the younger players. Think about this next time your LL coach pitches your kid in a championship game and his arm is about to fall off. Think about that HS coach asking him to make sacrifices because there isn't enough good pitching for the team. Think about making sure that your son has sound mechanics before he enters HS, think about all those curve balls you think are ok to throw. Don't think it's only a few more pitches, think about how all those extra pitches add up over time.
Any thoughts?
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