Arm care

[lostcreek1]

That might be a little difficult to accomplish. Seems like a good reason not to do something to protect the health of our children. I guess baseball should just do away with it also, since it is impossible to keep track of.

 

[BigCountry]

Was this 23 innings in one day or two days, just curious.

It was over two days.

 

[BigCountry]

It was over two days.

GameChanger had her down for throwing 366 pitches in games. This does not count the warmup pitches she threw before the games to get warmed up. She’s in 2nd year 14U. She’s 14 and will turn 15 in September.
We took a few days off and then on Wednesday we threw some long toss just to get loose. Nothing to intense. She’s complaining of soreness from her shoulder blade area.
Thanks for all the input from everyone.

 

[BStine]

So this happened to my oldest, though she was about a year younger at the time. She was cruising along, pitching really well one weekend, and suddenly couldn't throw a strike. After the game she complained of a sore arm and mild pain in her shoulder blade area.

We shut her down for a week or two, but let her start pitching again when she "felt better". Though she said that she wasn't in pain any longer, the results were not nearly as good. We assumed at the time that it was just because of the layoff, though in retrospect she was almost certainly compensating for an injury. Notably, it didn't hurt her to throw overhand or bat.

She struggled through the rest of the summer, and because of the results we shut her down again. When we started to practice for fall ball she immediately complained of pain again, so we shut her down for the fall and took her to a trainer. She did PT for a while and we had her keep up with the exercises that winter, which she did for the most part.

In her case, she's never been the same pitcher as she was before the injury. I believe she lost some range of motion and/or tries to pitch in a way that doesn't bother her shoulder. She still does her shoulder exercises if we remind her and uses bands before and after practicing, but I'm not sure how much it helps now. I'm also sure there are probably exercises she could do to improve her range of motion, or she could start doing yoga or something, but she's already doing about as much as she seems willing to do so I don't push.

All of that said, based on my experience, if I were you I'd take it seriously and take her to see someone now. If you overreact, so what? At least you'll know. And if it's something more than soreness don't rush her back before she's fully healed like I did.

 

[uncdrew]

Lol your argument is lost to the fact that game changer is already a horrible representation of statistics.
It is not mandatory good luck find a solution and who will supervise it

Thousands of baseball games take place every weekend and they manage pitch counts easily and accurately. It's not hard.

 

[uncdrew]

GameChanger had her down for throwing 366 pitches in games. This does not count the warmup pitches she threw before the games to get warmed up. She’s in 2nd year 14U. She’s 14 and will turn 15 in September.
We took a few days off and then on Wednesday we threw some long toss just to get loose. Nothing to intense. She’s complaining of soreness from her shoulder blade area.
Thanks for all the input from everyone.

Time to talk with coach. You (and your DD, but mostly you) are the only one who will fix this. You need to tell coach what the pitch count for your DD is and that you'll be tracking it and she can't exceed it. Now you can phrase it more nicely than I just did, but if your DD gets injured they don't care nearly as much as you and your DD do. Now if your DD is P1, that may mean fewer pool games. Or coach needs to get another pitcher on the team. Or you need a new team.

I don't know if all pitchers and families of pitchers go through this, but in 10U we were all about making sure she got enough mound time.

Now, in the last 6 months of 12U, we're all about making sure she doesn't get too much mound time. I would much prefer my DD throw 100 pitches in a weekend and go all out on every one, than throw 300 pitches and have to pace herself, hold back, or get hurt.

 

[DonnyS]

That's a lot of pitches/inning over 2 days!

Just as a data point (not claiming to having it all figured out), DD is 14 as well and pitches on a 16U TB team. We target <120 pitches/game, <200/day if it is a double header, and <400 pitches/week (game pitches, not warmups). Obviously, how she feels and is pitching plays a big role in that.

Good advice above (e.g. J-bands, running, general conditioning).

I'll add the list: she does weight training/lifting, rowing machine, and we switched from using ice post pitching sessions to using a Marcpro for recovery.

 

[Beeg]

When DD was in 12U, we moved to this area, and she joined a new team. She became the go-to pitcher. No one did GameChanger, so I took that on. In one tournament, she pitched 200 pitches over the weekend. DD got very sore, and I took her to a chiropractor. Chiropractor taught her band work, and she recovered after a few weeks. After that, I told HC DD wouldn't pitch more than 120 pitches a weekend. HC did look at GC to check pitch count after each game, and we'd strategize how to fit in the other pitchers based on opponents. DD is also a SS, so that arm is pretty important. Don't expect the coaches care about your kid's well being. It is up to you to advocate that.

If she also play school ball, count that too. If she pitches for a school game, do not let her pitch too much for her travel team. Her travel coach probably doesn't know what she does for her school team and vice versa. I met a 14U pitcher who injured her elbow by pitching too much for school and travel, and her dad, who was her travel coach, regretted letting her pitch so much.