Unhealthy, Unnecessary, and Perhaps Unintelligent

It was the first week in November and I had just spent a very intense hour helping a 12-year-old pitcher overcome some form issues and design a plan for her development during the coming year. She surprised me by saying, “I will start on this as soon as our travel ball season is finished”. I stood there in disbelief.

She still had tournaments throughout November and, worse yet, they were small local contests. Are you kidding me??!!
We are doing a disservice to these kids by playing year-round. Because Tincher Pitching is totally focused on development, we strongly suggest a couple of rules that enable kids to reach their potential. Good pitchers should have at least 6-consecutive weeks a year where they do not touch a ball. Every medical expert and every strength training expert in the country agrees with this, and most suggest 8 weeks.
The second rule is that every pitcher needs at least two months a year with no competition so she can focus purely on development. She should have specific objectives like learning new pitches, maximizing speed, or becoming deadly accurate. If you play through November, it’s going to be really tough for her to have two months of “down time” and then find a couple more months to work on her skills.
If this still does not make sense to you, let me give you a few more good reasons why playing too much, and playing year-round, is harmful. Injuries are starting to hit pitchers at an alarming rate. You may think it’s great for our business, but we absolutely do not want to get new business in that way. If a kid’s form is not absolutely perfect, little things that did not bother pitchers few years ago are stacking up to cause major surgery today. A good example is the kid who has scapular dyskinesis. The majority of softball pitchers have this condition and don’t even know it. They get a little soreness around the back of the shoulder and it may radiate to the front as well. With the realities of year-round softball, she keeps pushing it, never has time to work on the imbalances that cause it, soon she begins trying to compensate for the weakness and pain by using other parts of the shoulder to handle the load. Using parts of the shoulder to create power that were designed to create stability means that ERA soon takes a back seat to MRI.
Sadly, we see some kids who were taught really dangerous things and they are in big trouble if they play a lot. Believe it or not, there are still people teaching kids to “open and close the door”. It is not only inefficient, but very dangerous for the lower back and shoulder. There are days when I get three or more calls from new students who want to see if I can help them pitch without pain. Things that did not hurt early in the season become serious with enough reps. I tell them we will consider working with them, but they have to be willing to accept some ground rules regarding limits on innings in a weekend and the length of their season, especially while we are fixing things. One dad recently asked me to work with his daughter, explaining that she is so good that her team sometimes pitches her 6 or 7 times a weekend. If he thinks that is a good thing, we have two entirely different philosophies. We would not be a good fit.
Recovery time. Why do we believe that sprinters, weight-lifters, and baseball pitchers need recovery time, but one of the most explosive positions in sports, softball pitching, needs none? We tell her to throw a hundred pitches a day for 12 months a year because someone created the myth that it is a safe and natural motion. Pitching more does not necessarily make you better, but can lead to fatigue which causes wear and tear that breaks down the form, and soon she hits a plateau. Then she begins going backward. When that happens, the natural tendency is to push harder, trying to gain speed by forcing her way through inefficient movements, which sets her up for even more problems.
Nutrition. One of the exciting developments in recent years has been the discovery of ways nutrition can, literally, change lives. It can balance hormones, prevent injury, give you energy, and give her the endurance she needs. But, it takes planning and time. When a kid spends 11 months a year running from school to practice to games, shoving down concession stand hotdogs and skipping meals, that is a short path to failure.
Sleep time. See our blog from September 19, https://tincherpitching.com . If you still think she can burn the candle at both ends after reading that research, you may be adding to the problem.
Grades. If you want to play in college, you gotta have good grades. They hear it over and over, but where is the support? As soon as school is dismissed she has to practice pitching, run to team practice, do a couple of after-school activities, leave on Friday for a three-day tournament. Oh, in her spare time, tell her to make good grades! A few kids can do it, but it is a gigantic stress builder for many.
Burnout. Last year several of our Certified Instructors had promising students simply walk away from the game. Your body and mind can only focus for so long. You begin to resent the game that used to be fun. This trend of colleges coming to scout 12U games just adds to the stress. Yes, many tournaments are advertising exposure opportunities for 12U kids. Suddenly 10U parents are feeling they need to start putting together profiles. The game that was fun last week is dead serious now, and soon they feel the urge to escape from the activity that used to be their escape.
Imbalances. The body cannot maintain muscle balance without a variety of activities to develop muscle balance and proception. Repeating the same motions over and over leads to dramatically higher injury risk and the loss of efficiency. There are times when less is more.
Money. Frankly, I don’t understand how these parents afford it. The kid had better get a scholarship because there is no savings plan for college.
Hormones. Some studies indicate that there are two days a month when most ACL tears, and other serious injuries, happen to females. These are days when she is better served to sleep late and do little else. You have to know when they are and allow her that down time. This is tough with the pressures of travel ball today.
Identity. This could be the most important of all and it is most often overlooked. If you are what you do…….who are you when you are no longer doing? If a kid eats, breathes, and lives softball, what if she gets hurt, suffers burnout, or what if something happens to your health or finances so that it becomes impossible for her to continue playing at high levels? Far too many kids tie their entire identity to the game. We should not even need to explain the risks in that.
I love the game. Nobody has put more kids into D1 programs in the last two years, so yes, I get excited for my kids, love to see them pitch in games, and there is just something special about the atmosphere when I see them pitch in college. But, lately I have seen changes that worry me. And, it only seems to accelerate. Far too many people are letting others drive. It may be a good time to step back, take a deep breath, and decide what is right for your daughters on the long term.