Week #8 Scores / Results

on the issue of arm troubles and surgeries among high school age kids, i have an opinion of why. I don't think it is that they are throwing too many pitches throughout the high school season. i think that in the past 10 years or so, with the popularity of travel/showcase type teams, more emphasis has been placed on "pitching" rather than building arm strength.

now I am not, by any means, putting down the showcase industry (i'll be coaching a 16u team in the summer) because it serves a great purpose, but there is absolutely ZERO down time for young arms. even major league pitchers usually take the month of november and do Nothing before beginning their offseason "throwing" program. many times it is mid January before they set foot on the mound again. and then there is the kid who "pitches" 115 pitches on friday night then dad makes him go out on saturday and "pitches" 120+ more simply becuase he needed to work on his curveball. that is complete ignorance.

kids are "pitching" 9-10 months a year from the time that they are 11 years old. there is not enough emphasis placed on long toss, throwing (not "pitching") mechanics, tubing, stretching, icing, etc., to actually build a kids arm.

i actually know of a high school coach (from a former player of mine) who actually told the team, and i quote, "long-toss is OVERRATED." now if that doesn't prove this point then i don't know what does.

i've actually rambled a little bit more than i should have. the underlying factor here is this...

kids need to develop the arm strength that will, in turn, lead to "pitching strength, and it takes parents and coaches alike to make sure that they do so.

 

Epidemic of Elbow Injuries in High School Baseball Pitchers Requiring UCL Reconstruct

I don't have a dog in this discussion but this is alarming news, and I'm sure at some point we have all seen a player throw too many pitches or go from the mound to a position or come into a game without proper warmup. I've even seen a player go from pitching 4 or 5 innings to catcher. I remember seeing a 9 year old 5 years ago throw approximately 100 pitches on a Friday night and then come back and throw approximately 100 pitches on Sunday! I don't know all the facts in the discussion above and my only point here is that there are an awful lot of injuries to pitchers these days because of playing almost year round, poor mechanics, too many pitches, improper warm up, not enough rest between pitching, and throwing curve balls before the growth plate has closed. Another factor is lack of conditioning. The following link is excellent for providing all baseball players with an excellent strengthening program.

www.asmi.org/sportsmed/throwing/thrower10.html



from ASMI:
In recent years, there has been an epidemic of elbow injuries in baseball pitchers requiring UCL reconstruction (“Tommy John Surgery”). For example, Dr. James R. Andrews operated on the elbows of 190 baseball pitchers (94 professional, 74 collegiate, 21 high school, and 1 recreational) between 1995 and 1999, and the elbows of 627 baseball pitchers (198 professional, 303 collegiate, 124 high school, and 2 recreational) between 2000 and 2004. Comparing these consecutive five-year periods, there were approximately twice as many elbow surgeries for professional pitchers, and four times as many elbow surgeries for collegiate pitchers. The amount of elbow surgeries for high school baseball pitchers shows the most alarming and drastic increase, as there was six times as many elbow surgeries when comparing the five-year periods. It is impossible to speculate what part of these dramatically increased numbers are due to an epidemic of increased number of injuries versus other factors, such as improved ability to identify injuries and improved recognition of our senior author’s expertise in this field. Regardless, elbow injuries requiring UCL reconstruction due to baseball pitching are clearly a growing problem at all levels, and particularly at the high school level.

Copyright © 2000, American Sports Medicine Institute
August 30, 2006

 

good point bats

I agree about the long seasons and most sports orthopedists recommend taking 2 or 3 months off. Also, many players at the pre highschool level are playing on multiple teams....even if they are not pitchers, the wear and tear of too much throwing cannot be good. The conditioning (especially rear shoulder) often goes over looked until its too late.

 

There are some good discussions on this subject but let's try to keep this thread about scores and recaps.

We can continue this discussion in this thread where the same points are being made:

http://www.thisboardrocks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124503&highlight=James+Andrews

 

Big showdown tommorrow night at east rowan. ND vs ER in a matchup between 2 teams tied for 2nd place in the conference along with Mt Tabor.

 

Many of you do not know what goes on behind the scenes at many high school programs. The coaching staff at North Davidson does a fantastic job keeping thier players in shape and away from injury. And as far as elbow injuries go there's is a kid on their team that had hardly thrown at all and had Tommy John surgery this spring, so it's not always dealing with the number of pitches that a kid throws. There are other factors in these injuries. Also talking about offseason workouts. North Davidson pitchers have an offseason workout that consists of long toss, running and ab workouts, and small amounts of wieghtroom lifting ( more lower body than upper body). So North's coaching staff knows just what they are doing. They take off basically 2 months off before getting back into any type of pitching. Now moving onto Zach White. He was not one of those kids out in the backyard throwing curveballs at age 9 or 10. He didn't even learn how to throw a curveball until he was almost 15 years old, so there should be no talk about that in this bulletin. Alot of kids that get injuried because they do not take proper care of their arms before and after they pitch. Not because they are throwing too much. As far as I see it. Zach White did what he had too do in the case of West Forsyth and instead of looking at all of the negatives we should find the positives in this.

 

Davie County at South Meck

Postponed until 4/23.

 

Swain 12 Andrews 2

Swain wins in 5.....
WP: White 5IP, 12 K's, 4 H, 2 ER

LH: Crawley 2-3 2RBI, Allman 2-3 3B 3RBI, Roland 2-3 2RBI, Bennett 2-3 RBI.

Andrews: #12 HR

Swain 13-3 (9-0 conference)

 

Freedom 3 Crest 2

123 456 7 R H E
Crest 101 000 0 2 6 1
FHS 002 000 1 3 2 1

WP- Z. Daw CG, 7 Ks, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 HBP

LP- J. Tisdale, 2IP, 1K, 1 H, 3 BB, 1ER
B. McFarland, 5IP, 2Ks, 1H, 2ER

Leafing Hitters

Crest- D. Quartlebaum 1-3 2B RBI, J Robinson, 2-3, RBI
FHS- S Dyson 1-2, RB1, R. Hasson 1-2 2B

Records Crest 12-6 FHS 6-11

Way to go Patriots!

 

AC Reynolds 6 Freedom 5

http://www.eteamz.active.com/patriotgames/