Wednesday, May 16, 2001

It's that time of year when youth baseball is going strong. Parents and grandparents love to get out and see their kids play the game. Coaches are doing their best to satisfy all the different egos and needs. They give their time and efforts freely.

Come game time, often coaches and parents forget about some common sense factors they otherwise consider very important. One game or one season is not as important as the arm health of a young player. We generally don't worry about the very young player warming up as he should. Then when he gets older and has the habit of not warming up properly we hear, "That's the way I've always done it."

That doesn't make it right. The kids should run, then stretch, then begin to throw. I heard it said best when a coach told the team, "Warm up to throw, don't throw to warm up!"

Next is my biggest pet peeve, pitch counts. Overuse injury is a common and sometimes serious result of simply not knowing what happens when you throw a baseball. Pitching is a violent and unnatural action for the body. There are camps and instructors where young pitchers can go to learn good mechanics to lessen their chance of injury. But unless you as a parent and you as a coach recognize that no matter how good a child's mechanics are, he can throw too many pitches.

Buy yourself a pitch counter and use it at the games. Give it to one parent and make it that person's job to count pitches. (Pitches fouled off count, too!)

With today's technology there is no good reason for a parent or coach not to be informed about the importance of pitch counts. There are web sites galore that cater to our sport. Pitching.com has a list of suggested pitch counts according to age and suggested recovery times. Every parent of a pitcher and each coach needs to set a similar guideline and follow it.

Don't think that it will not happen to my kid because he has always thrown a lot. As a coach and a parent you should want to build the player up, not use him up.

Be aware of the signs of a problem. Grabbing or holding the arm and wincing when the ball is thrown are obvious. Listen and explain the need to know if the arm hurts.

According to Chris Orlando, A.T.C. at Northeast Rehabilitation Health Network, you should "not ignore shoulder and elbow pain, especially if the athlete is less than 17 years old: the growth plates could be affected. Pitchers should ice after every outing and starters wait at least three days before their next start."

During the heat of the battle, we sometimes lose sight of the big picture. Help build that strong arm through warming up properly, using pitch counts to regulate the wear and tear on the arm and get professional training early.

Dave Williams

Baseball parent

Fayette

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