Baseball is America’s third-most-popular sport among adults and children. For children, the crowning achievement is to play in the Little League Baseball World Series. It is an annual event held every August that mimics the professional version, except that it involves 10- to 12-year-olds. Here, the most important position is arguably the pitcher, who must throw the ball as fast as 70 mph for a distance of 46 feet. This can cause a lot of stress on the elbows, which can lead to pain, lower performance, and potentially injury. Thus, doctors have created a pitch count limit to mitigate those negative effects. It is up to the coaches, athletic trainers, and players to enforce these limits. However, for various reasons, they do not always follow these guidelines.
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According to Dr. Toshiyuki Iwame from Tokushima University, pitchers who exceed their pitch count limits, based on pitching data from the Japanese Society of Clinical Sports Medicine (JSCSM), are more likely to experience elbow pain. Dr. Iwame and his team studied 149 Japanese pitchers, ranging from ages 7 to 11, without any pre-existing elbow pain. He discovered that pitchers who threw beyond their age group’s recommended guidelines, which were more than 50 pitches per day, 200 pitches per week, or 70 games per year, were more likely to experience pain due to less time for the bony and soft tissues to repair themselves. Dr. Iwame admits that more research needs to be done on older pitchers outside of Japan, but it’s reasonable to hypothesize that pitchers of all ages shouldn’t over-pitch.
One reason coaches may be playing pitchers more often is to maximize their team’s chances of winning. However, this can come at the expense of the pitcher and risk of overuse. Furthermore, added pressure from the parents and the pitchers themselves to not let the team down can lead to “toughing out” the pain and possibly more serious injury. Although winning and celebrating with teammates is fun, getting injured is not and can jeopardize one’s playing career. But Dr. Iwame hopes that with the findings from his latest research, players, coaches, and parents will abide by pitch limits to prevent elbow injuries.
Featured Image Source: Hanley Ramirez Injury By Keith Allison
