Young Pitchers Are Not Little Adults
We have a serious problem in baseball and you need to know about it. My purpose is not to employ scare tactics; my objective is to help you protect your son or your players. I thrive on baseball. It's the greatest game in the world for teaching lessons about life and that's why I coach. Life is sometimes unfair and painful. However, teaching young men that they have to keep going in the face of unnecessary pain is the poorest of lessons.
Youth pitching is not harmless fun. It's vital that you understand the magnitude (and likelihood) of pitching and throwing injuries. It's also critical to distinguish between adult and youth pitching injuries because young men, boys, are not little adults. Their bones and connective tissues are not mature. When kids injure skeletal growth plates in their throwing arms they close prematurely and the bone stops growing, robbing them of adult bone length. These are permanent injuries with life-long consequences.
In addition to developmental injuries, young pitchers also are subject to the same shoulder and elbow injuries as adults: connective tissue and cartilage injuries; shoulder labrum tears; tendon detachment and fraying; ligament rupture. And these injuries only scratch the surface of a comprehensive list.
Surgeons are operating more on young pitchers than on pros. For example, there is an increasing trend among high school and college pitchers needing ‘Tommy John’ surgery. This surgical technique replaces a ruptured elbow ligament with a tendon robbed from another place in the body. Even some nine-year olds bear these scars.
The RPM™ web site is a work in progress. It's going to take time to publish all of the references and solutions. I encourage you to check back frequently for updates. For starters check out the Adams study about youth throwing injuries (click here for the study overview) then join our low cost RPM™Forum baseball community discussions. It's up to you to make a difference.
