With the Little League season in full swing and those of us living in SoCal looking forward to great weather for the next 8 months, I think it's important to talk about how we as parents and coaches can protect our player's arms.
From youth baseball to the big leagues, the frequency and severity of arm injuries has spiked dramatically in recent years and tons of studies have concluded that the #1 cause of youth baseball arm injuries is overuse.
Before I go any further, I want to commend all the Little Leagues in our area who have done a great job of addressing this issue by strictly enforcing pitch count limits, with some leagues even adopting pitch count restrictions that are more conservative than Little League's official recommendations, as well as making sure that the stress on Catcher's arms is being considered.
Having a mission that puts kid's safety, development, and sportsmanship first is why I'm such a big supporter of all things Little League!
That said, we all know that it's really easy to play baseball 12 months a year these days, and the more information we all have about the risks to our kids' arms from playing outside of their Little League season will only help us further protect our youth baseball players from avoidable arm injuries.
A great source of data and research is MLB's "Pitch Smart" initiative which was the result of an extensive multi-year study, and you can check it out HERE.
The CliffsNotes are as follows:
1) Avoid playing on more than baseball team at the same time.
2) Avoid pitching on consecutive days.
3) Avoid pitching in organizations/leagues without pitch counts.
4) Avoid pitching multiple times in the same day.
5) Avoid year-round baseball; take 4 months off from throwing each year, with 2-3 months of continuous rest.
Some additional articles that essentially say the same thing:
Cliffsnotes from the above article: "The majority of youth baseball injuries are the result of overuse. Many experts recommend that youth baseball players take two to three months of rest from baseball each year. This means no throwing during that time. One of the most vocal advocates of this is Dr. James Andrews. For the uninitiated to baseball medicine, Dr. Andrews has operated on hundreds of professional baseball players, and is the foremost expert on sports medicine."
The Number-one Risk of Arm Injuries Continues to be Year-round Play - Little League
Cliffnotes from the above article: "In the case of year-round baseball or softball, it is recommended that young players have at least two months off each year where they are not playing any type of overhead sports. Preferably, it is recommended three to four months off each year."
Fun fact: through my own research from reading various studies and articles and listening to experts on podcasts and interviews, there is now consensus that curveballs are not a major cause of youth arm injuries, despite what the conventional wisdom was for years. That said, I think it's developmentally sub-optimal for any Little Leaguer to start throwing curveballs until they can command their fastball effectively and have learned a change-up, but it's nice knowing that 11 and 12 years with more advanced skills aren't hurting themselves by mixing in some curveballs during games.
Some more advice for coaches:
While we're all doing a great job following the Pitching and Catching guidelines during Little League games, we also need to be vigilant at practices. For example, if your team played on Saturday, your pitchers should go very easy on their arms (or not throw at all) if you have a Sunday practice. Of course, how much throwing a player does the day after pitching depends on how many pitches he threw in the game, but even if a kid only threw 20 pitches, he should be cautious on Sunday by not making lots of full-energy throws from the OF or across the diamond in the IF. If a pitcher threw ~50+ pitches, he shouldn't really throw at all until he's had a day or two of rest. There's a reason starting pitchers in the Bigs only pitch once every five days!
On the flip side, if your team has a game on Thursday, your pitchers shouldn't be doing much, if any throwing on Wednesday. I know there's a temptation to "get them ready for the game" by doing some extra pitching practice in the backyard or at practice, but that work should ideally be done 2-3 days before the game, not the day before. Any light throwing done the day before the game should be at low intensity and have a maximum of ~15 pitches.
Finally parents and coaches, listen to your players if they say their arm is tired or hurts. There is no honor in pitching when fatigued/in pain and they are not a "wimp" if they need rest.
If a kid slides into 2nd base and skins his knee a little bit, I'll be the first coach to put a Band-Aid on it and tell him to get back into the action! If a kid takes a hard ground ball off his wrist, I'll be the 1st coach to give him a minute to recover and then tell him to get back into the action!
But if a kid tells me his arm, elbow, or shoulder is tired or sore, I'll immediately have him stop throwing. Young arms are just too fragile to mess around with.
As far as what Spring Training is doing to protect kid's arms in light of this most recent body of research about arm injuries, I have made several changes to my program's curriculum.
1) Summer Camp is now 100% "Coach Pitch" at all ages. Not only does this guarantee more action at camp which makes the game more fun, it also guarantees hitters will improve at a much faster rate when giving more quality pitches as the result of more strikes thrown from a coach compared to a player, and fielders will improve at a much faster rate by getting more defensive opportunities. All while resting pitcher's arms over the Summer - win/win/win solution!
2) For as long as I've been doing private instruction (going on 25 years now), my first questions to a pitcher during a private lesson is "When did you pitch last? How many pitches did you throw? When are you pitching next? Communication between players and coaches about throwing workload is essential!
3) Pitchers in my Fall programs are only allowed to pitch 1 inning per week. This not only gives more kids opportunities to get on the mound, but after the longest Little League season in the country (as a result of our incredible weather), logging a lot of additional off-season innings puts them at increased risk of injury.
4) My Fall programs have never participated in tournaments, where teams play anywhere from 3-5 games in a single weekend, which makes recommended rest and recovery impossible
5) My Fall programs have always ended in October, and will continue to do so, in order to give players, especially those who played Little League, Summer Baseball, and Fall Baseball all of November and December to rest their arms in anticipation of the next season.
Some injuries on the baseball field are unavoidable - on my own Intermediate Expos team we had a player break his hand after getting hit by a pitch just last week - but overuse injuries are 100% avoidable! We just need to follow the advice of doctors and give our kids the recommended rest during the seasons and time off from throwing during the off-season.
There are also tremendous emotional and psychological benefits to taking extended periods of time off from a sport every year, but that's a topic for another blog :-)
I hope everyone is having a great season so far - PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!