Glenn S. Fleisig, Ph.D., of the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, published the results of a ten year study of the effects of pitching on young athletes careers in the February issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine as reported in a press release from American Journal of Sports Medicine on February 1. 20111.
The study followed the career of 481 pitchers from 1199 to 2008. IN the beginning all the participants were in good health. The participants ranged in age from nine to fourteen at the beginning of the study.
The results indicate a repetitive incidence of injury that found only 2.2 percent of the subjects still pitching at between the ages of nineteen and twenty-four. Five percent of the participants had to have some type of surgery.
Fleisig recommends that teenage and younger pitchers pitch no more than one hundred innings in any calendar year.
The study participants who pitched more than one hundred innings a year were 3.5 times more likely to be injured.
It is a coaching and parental decision. Push your kid to be a star so you can retire in style or limit their activity so they can be healthy.
The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) has initiated the STOP sports injuries campaign to address this problem and other know causes of injury in youth sports. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Athletic Trainers' Association, National Strength and Conditioning Association, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Sports Physical Therapy Section, Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America and SAFE Kids USA have developed the program that can be reviewed at this web site.
The pitching information that the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham has to offer parents and coaches is available here.
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