The latest to suffer the fate has been Tanaka of the Yankees their $20+ million pitcher from Japan who started out the season like the best pitcher in baseball and then has faded over his last 4 starts. When he complained of medial side elbow pain the Yankees had an MRI done which revealed a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament i.e. the dreaded Tommy John injury. Tanaka is just the latest in a line of good, young pitchers who have suffered the same fate.
But the question still is out there as to how best to solve this dilemma.
I have my own thoughts which I will lay out shortly.
I still play baseball in two senior men's baseball leagues with players north of age 50. So I see lots of pitchers that have thrown a baseball competitively literally for decades in some cases. And what is remarkable is their durability.
What do I think accounts for this durability? I think there are two key factors: good mechanics and not overthrowing or relying on power to the exclusion of location and pitch variety.
Recently, one of our pitchers threw both ends of a Sunday doubleheader (2 seven inning games) and threw a shutout in the 2nd game. He essentially got more effective as the games went on. Why? Because he located well and didn't overthrow. The catcher said his ball had even more movement on it as he kept throwing because he seemed relaxed and fluid.
In addition, my one son played baseball in high school and college and still plays in a men's league. I have also trained a number of baseball athletes so my perspective on this issue is multi-faceted.
At it's essence the art of pitching is about keeping the hitter off balance. That means changing speeds, location and elevation so that the hitter can't focus on any on one thing. A good major league hitter can pound even a 100 mph fastball especially if it doesn't have much movement!
On the other hand, Jamie Moyer pitched at the major league level until he was 50 because of location and deception. He never relied on power so there was none of that to lose as he got older.
In an interesting recent article in the NY Times Sunday magazine they talked about the demise of the screwball at the major league level. One of the interesting facts revealed in the article was that research done by Dr. Carl Nissen, an orthopaedic surgeon, and others at the Center for Motion Analysis has shown that breaking balls pose no greater threats than other pitches in regards to injury risk. What does pose a risk is throwing volume and velocity. But MLB ,which gave the Center some grants to study pitching mechanics, didn't want to hear that as it contradicted commonly held beliefs in baseball. Baseball holds on to it's myths longer than any other major sport despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
So this is the hypothesis I posit to you: have we been looking at the wrong factors in this rash of injuries? Maybe not only volume but velocity should be looked at more closely. Is it possible that young developing bodies aren't meant to withstand the forces created when throwing 90-100 mph.?The coordination and timing may be off just a bit and the resultant forces placed on the musculature and connective tissues are just too great no matter how good the mechanics or smart the training program.
So in our endless quest for more and more velocity from our young pitchers we are, in fact, sowing the seeds of their future injury. Again, we are seeking short term numbers for the sake of longevity and resiliency. Does it really matter if a kid throws 90+ at 18 years old if he's had two Tommy John surgeries by the time he's 25 and will never be the pitcher he might have been without the injury. And contrary to another baseball myth you don't gain velocity and get better after Tommy John surgery.
So there are lots of things that have to change to at least stem the tide of these throwing injuries. These won't be easy to implement as there are some strongly entrenched special interests that won't like some of these measures. And bear in mind that there is no easy way or one solution in my opinion. This epidemic is multi-factorial. Here are some thoughts:
- Discourage early specialization especially amongst pitchers
- Have to take at least 2 months off every year especially from throwing. There are lots of studies that show kids from warmer climates that play/pitch year round are more likely to get injured. Even major leaguers take time off.
- Encourage participation in multiple sports for as long as possible. Age 12 is the very earliest to specialize in my opinion and I would suggest even playing at least two sports through high school. If you're good enough they will find you.
- Be especially vigilant with kids that are both catchers and pitchers. The combination can be deadly.
- Ultimately the parents have to be the guardian in terms of the safety of their kid as most coaches don't communicate between and amongst themselves which is to the detriment of the kid. Everyone should be thinking long term not about some local Little League tournament for a 12 year old.
- Encourage as much free play for as long as possible for your kids. This provides the basis for an athletic movement foundation that, unfortunately, is sadly lacking in many kids today. With little or no PE and all activity being organized the benefits of spontaneous free play have largely disappeared. This is apparent when looking at many young kids move. This capacity is the beginning of building the resiliency necessary to sustain a lifetime of activity and movement whether it involves baseball or other activities.
I would suggest you put these ideas, or one's similar to them, in a 1 page handout that you can give to all of the parents of your youth athletes. Though this article focused on baseball the principles apply to all youth sports. Find an appropriate time and place to give this to the parents and bolster your stance with research citations if you'd like. It will be difficult for all but the most obstinate/clueless of parents to ignore the facts.
These are just my thoughts as to how to curtail this throwing injury epidemic. Whether it can ever be slowed down, let alone eradicated, is a topic for debate. It may be that the act of pitching a baseball is inherently not good for the human body and all the prevention in the world won't make a dent in this problem. But it's apparent that the direction we've been going hasn't solved the issue and it appears to be accelerating. To paraphrase Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”