YOUTH BASEBALL

KILLING DREAMS

As baseball season has officially started in most parts of the United States, we have reached the time of the year where we lose some of the best players in the country do to stupidity. Every year kids with hopes and dreams of becoming the next Clayton Kershaw or Noah Syndergaard will go through something that ruins their baseball career. Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) damage might not sound very familiar to you, but as baseball fans, Tommy John surgery is all too familiar. As I sat and watched a baseball tournament last weekend, I saw part of the problem. Watching a pitcher during a 13-year-old game, it was very noticeable with the constant stretching in between pitching and the “shaking it out” type movements when stepping off the mound. He was done, he might have had something left in the tank but his arm was physically done. He finished that inning and then came back out and pitched two more innings for his team. I was shocked, not only did the coaches throw him back out there, where were his parents?

So what is the big problem? First, it is overuse. Kids use to play three sports a year if nothing else it kept them in shape and ready for the next season. Now you can play baseball throughout the whole year. It’s awesome, indoor tournaments during the winter and as soon as the sun pops back out during the spring, tournaments every weekend starts. The true three-sport athletes are gone, not too many do three sports at all. You will still find two-sport athletes, but baseball still seems to be in their agenda for most of the year. Overuse is a huge deal with new studies that have come out that says over 75 pitches in a game or over 600 innings in a year increases the risk of elbow damage dramatically for kids 9 to 12 years old. If you play year around, 600 innings can be reached rather easy.

Second, as a parent understanding is a big part of it. With your child playing year around for a travel team, throw in school ball, and pick up a tournament here and there with other teams it is important for parents to talk to their child’s coaches. Let them know what you are comfortable with. The best preventative method of Tommy John surgery is educating yourself. Understand your child’s actions, watch him or her, you will be able to notice when their arm starts to hurt. With children, Tommy John surgery has a 33% success rate, with 40% of them having some sort of complications.

There are several ways to help your child. First, find someone to teach him or her the correct fundamentals of pitching. Bad mechanics can create huge problems. Then understand that the forearm helps stabilize the elbow. I would personally never tell any 9 year old to hit the gym and lift weights, but understand the wear and tear of someone that pitches a lot, resistant training is great for our youth. Wrist curls and other forearm exercises are just as important as working out the shoulders, legs, and back. Teach your children the importance of allowing your body to recover. If you can take a day or two off from throwing, then do it. Most kids, who love baseball can’t stay off the field, so focus more on hitting for the two days after pitching.

Finally, one of the most common things that parents and coaches allow to happen is to let kids throw any type of breaking ball. The twisting of the wrist and strain on the elbow that a breaking ball demands is horrible for our youth. The best pitchers that you face is not the one with the nasty curve ball, it’s the one that can hit the outside corner of the plate with their fastball and their changeup.

I am not trying to discourage you from letting your child play baseball or be a pitcher. If you get with the right 10 or 11 kids, it could be one of the best summers of their life. Just be aware, and do your own research on the matter. Don’t ruin your child’s baseball career because they were trying to help win games at 10 or 11 years old. Let them have fun and talk to them about the importance of listening to their body.

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports