What You Must Know About Injuries.

What you don’t know CAN hurt you. Each year I help a couple of hundred new kids recover from injury from around the country. Just because you are healthy now does not mean that will last. Here are some important points.
1-Most pitchers do not get hurt until they are strong enough to hurt themselves. You can get away with poor movements until the muscles get strong, but eventually different parts of the body pulling in different directions will cause things to tear and break.
2-Too strong in the wrong places is worse than being weak. A lot of pitchers think they need to “bulk up”. You are more like a sprinter than a football lineman. Do not jump right in and do heavy bench press or overhead lifting. Do not “max out”. Quickness, balance, and mobility are crucial. Work on your back muscles more than the front, but work with a professional who can do full functional movement screening to determine what you need. I see as many college pitchers get hurt due to improper weight lifting as on the field.
3-If it hurts, stop immediately. “No pain no gain” or “pushing through it” do not apply to pitching. Pain is a warning sign that something is not right.
4-The majority of serious injuries to pitchers appear as they reach high school age. Many try to push through bad movement patterns. Suddenly she sees other pitchers who are faster, so she tries to buckle down. It is like trying to drive 90-miles per hour over a speed bump. Something has to give.
5-A doctor is where most kids go AFTER the injury. Do not wait that long. When it hurts, stop and find corrections. General rules about a doctor: An x-ray can reveal breaks, but rarely detect stress fractures or softer tissue damage. Do not rely on those alone. Overuse is almost never a cause, but over-abuse is rampant. Tendonitis is a common diagnosis, which usually means something is inflamed, but they do not know why or how to correct. It will usually return if corrections are not made. Doctors are great. The goal is to take care of things before it goes that far.
6-Pitching Instructors do their best, and some of them are experienced and qualified. A few jump into it with no background and try things with kids like leaping, trying to get kids to “drive off the mound”, but they do not understand what they are trying to achieve, so the kid ends up twisting, turning, and unstable. Many self-proclaimed experts have no understanding of human movement. If it hurts in any way, communicate with us. If your pitching coach cannot stop the hurt, move to someone who can. Many of the kids I bring back to health have been through 3-5 pitching coaches before we get together and address the real problem.
7-We hear of coaches pitching a kid 4, 5, or 6 games in a weekend. Parents often stand by until it is too late. Fatigue causes compensation, the kid will completely screw up her form, or the parents will bring me a broken kid eventually. Parents, do not let your pride of seeing your daughter be the star override your good sense. Be the grownups.
We cringe when reading some of the posts and seeing drills that are promoted on the internet because we know the risks that they pose. We have been doing this for over 25 years now, and we have seen a few thousand kids come to us for help. Yes, get them back on the mound the vast majority of the time, but the sad fact is this. On rare occasions too much damage has been done. Even more heartbreaking is that almost every one of them could have been prevented.