Open Letter to Pitchers' Parents

[Tucson]

In the early 70s, I saw a visiting coach go out and give his pitcher an injection in the arm, while she was still on the field. She continued to pitch.

I hadn't thought of that in decades.

[DonnieS]

From over use injuries to agenda driven shilling?

So in a nutshell you're not in favor of telling young women what to do with their bodies
unless it's their uterus.

DB, stay with the meds, its better for everyone.

[DonnieS]

I think that the issues that Sam and others before him raised came at a great time for my kid, I had read and heard about a number of these issues over the last few years. We are extremely careful to watch how much she works, and we are most definitely erring on the side of caution, like any responsible parent will. Any sign of pain, discomfort, if I see her wiggle her arm funny, and she would be out of a game or a practice or a warmup for that matter. That has happened once, she was 9 and had pitched two games, one itb game. Two hours later, I went to her, her coach asked how was she and I said 'how's do you feel' - she said 'dad, I'm done ' and that was it. Nothing magic, just common sense, remember that ? Because of what I read here and on the other board, I have tried to pull together more information to read and understand. And what I understand is that physical conditioning is critical, proper warmup, proper cooloff, icing at the end of the day are also critical. Her sports doctor is aware of these issues and my worries and I asked him to be aware of any issues with her arm, shoulder, etc.. when she is in for other visits.

But I also know that we have practiced for years to the tune of 20 to 25 minutes a day max for 3 to 4 days, we have always iced, always stayed in good shape, in the last several years, we have made sure we have other pitchers, and have used them and her pitch count and game count is way down from when she was younger. We have never had one hour practices, you dont throw for an hour in a game, so why do it in practice. You will throw 3-5 minutes, over and over, so condition for that.

[Ace]

From over use injuries to agenda driven shilling?

So in a nutshell you're not in favor of telling young women what to do with their bodies
unless it's their uterus.

WHAHAHhaah hahahaha hahahaha!!!!!!

[sball14]

i think what people from outside of california do not understand is most travelball players play 11 months out of the year(2 weeks off after nationals and 2 weeks during christmas/new years). alot of innings and pitches on young arms can not be good. if you ask sam he'll tell you no fall ball and i agree. i would rather be safe than sorry. after all nobody, but me, remembers or cares about all the championships i won when played youth sports and in time nobody will care about what dd did in 8u 10u 12u etc. what would really suck is your dd not being able to play catch with her kids because her arm was shot from overuse.

you could disagree with sam if you like and if he is wrong no harm done to your dd, but if he is right your dd loses and you will have no one to blame but yourself. injuries are part of the game but ruining your dd arm is just freaking stupid.

[CheckWriter]

[Sam]

I didn't even know this site existed until a friend told me there were folks on here talking about my daughter and her team in an open forum. I have read every posting, and now, as the mother of "that pitcher", I would like to set the record straight so we can all give it a rest. Although I don't owe an explanation to complete strangers, there are some things I can add that will hopefully be beneficial. My daughter did, in fact, pitch 4 games that day. All were 4.5 - 5 inning games. Two were no -hitters...very low pitch count. Was it still too much? Perhaps. Will she be scarred for life? I doubt it. Does it happen regularly? Absolutely not! This child is a rec ball pitcher. During the season she pitches 8 innings a WEEK. On alternate days she practices by throwing a max of 50 pitches per session. We're doing travel ball during the off season to keep her active. OC Fierce has only played 3 tourneys since Aug 1st, and this was the only time she pitched more than 2 games in a day. Overuse? I think not. Those of you who have questioned our parenting skills and suggested we trot our daughter out "like a show dog" are ignorant and misinformed.

Now, some of you have cited Dr. Werner's findings on softball injuries, but are taking out bits and pieces to make your argument. But let me also add that she says that overuse is does cause some shoulder injuries, the MAJORITY of injuries are caused by poor mechanics. She also states that, in tournament situations, pitching multiple games, and I quote, "is fine, but it can't happen every weekend." She further states that what may be extreme for one girl may be perfectly fine for another.

As parents, we all must be careful, informed and educated about our daughter's pitching, which leads me to my final comment. Make certain that your daughter have professional, quality coaching. Just because your neighbor's girl pitched varsity, doesn't mean she's equipped to teach your daughter. Make sure that not only does her coach teach her how to throw a wicked change-up, but that he/she teach your daughter and YOU proper mechanics and safety techniques so she can avoid injury. For those of you who have daughters injured, by heart goes out to you and your girls. Sincerely. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us so hopefully it may prevent other from the same unhappy ending.

As with anything else in life, let's keep things in perspective...

Congratulations...you've just bought into The Greatest Softball Myth of All Time....right in front of "softball pitching is underhand and is a natural motion"....Its all a huge load of horse crap. Overuse is overuse. You can justify your kid throwing 20 innings in one day if you'd like...you get to do that....you also GET to take her to the orthopedic surgeon....and you GET to watch them insert a 7 inch needle into her shoulder joint....and you GET to wipe her tears from her eyes as she goes through the excrutiating pain....and you GET to drive her to the PT so that she can attempt to recover as much range of motion as she can....and you GET to wash her hair every night because its something she can't do.

Don't flatter yourself. This post wasn't about you.....it was about a lot of wonderful young ladies whose parents might pay attention and learn from my mistakes...that obviously isn't you. I hope for your DD's sake that it doesn't happen to her.

[weekend4trvl]

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean anyone any harm, but when I hear about a girl pitching 4 games in a day, I figure that's one less kid my DD has to beat out come scholarship time.
What price an Octoberfest trophy?
It's sad really.
And worse, it's stupid.

50 warm-up pitches...5 warm-up pitches before every inning x 20 innings = 100 ....average 15 to 20 per inning x 20 approx 350 add them up and you throw approx 500 pitches if you pitch 4 games in a day. Not a good idea for a 7th or 8th grader.

[weekend4trvl]

Please remember that one of the most important things for pitchers is CORE training. Make sure the back is strong and the legs are strong! This is whaat causes most pitchers pain, the lower back. Dr. Werner stresses this to all her pitchers that she is coaching. The last 15-20 minutes of our lessons we do CORE TRAINING! And only Ice at the end of the day!! We ice after every lesson and tourney.

Sam - you have made Dr. Werners week with this post! The more people we/you/she can get to understand the importance of NOT over-using a female pitcher and that the same implications it can have just like baseball players, the better! I hope everyone has looked at that article.

For most of us our DD's day ends with dinner , homework and some American Idol. Core training and icing is not easy to squeeze in. Men played baseball for 80 years before the first piece of ice ever touched an arm. Core training was a 12 oz beer , but what they had that these girls don't have was an off-season. Time for your arm and back to rest and rebuild.

[Tucson]

We didn't have year around softball in IL., but DD had volleyball and basketball. I would think that volleyball would be a killer on shoulders and I know there was no icing after either of those activities. (She is 20.)

Both maturity and poor posture played into her shoulder problem. Once she started looking like a beauty model, instead of a boy, her pitching shoulder developed an impingement. Rehab did not help.

As far as a young lady that has continuous shoulder pain, I had that myself - but I was 45. I had a frozen shoulder. I couldn't begin to throw a softball. I couldn't even shake someone's hand. There were 3 forms of treatment - surgery or physical manipulation (breaking it open) or 6 weeks of rehab. I chose rehab. It was worse than child birth. I had it in both shoulders.

Some times body build helps girls stay healthy (Cat Osterman) other times it goes the other way.