Softball Pitching Guidelines from the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine

[sluggers]

Link to the article: Softball Injury Prevention

Just as an FYI, here are the guidelines from the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine:

Maximum Pitch Counts

Age 8-10: 50 pitchers on Day 1, 80 pitches on Day 2, Zero for Day 3.
Ages 10-12: 65 pitches on Day 1, 95 on Day 2, Zero for Day 3.
Ages 13-14: 80 pitches on Day 1, 115 on Day 2, 80 on Day 3.
Ages 15-over: 100 pitches on Day 1, 140 on Day 2, and 100 on Day 3.

Rest Periods

Once girls begin to play competitively, they often play two games per day on two or three consecutive days. Two days of rest for pitchers is essential to prevent injuries. Additional guidelines include:

Girls < 12 years - only 2 days of consecutive pitching
Girls > 13 years - only 3 days of consecutive pitching

Rest means no live pitches, including batting practice. Pitchers may need to 'loosen up' with a flexibility routine on the second rest day and can participate in hitting and field drills.​

 

[starsnuffer]

Interesting.

Most pitchers throw 50 pitches just warming up.

-W

 

[sluggers]

I don't know either. I hope that we start getting rules in place to limit pitchers.

 

[T Red]

Wow those numbers are much lower than what I would have thought. DD(15yo) regularly throws 50-75 pitches in practice daily without rest periods.

Starting pitchers throw way more than that in a weekend.

I may change DD's practices after seeing that.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

It doesn't say how the numbers were determined for the pitching limits. Even after browsing through the references (a few I have read before) I don't understand the correlation.

One of the "Expert Consultants" is a coach.

When I see a "fact sheet" that isn't backed by an independent peer reviewed research (with credible data), I tend not to take credence.

Just my thoughts...

 

[slingnit]

I'm sure that is more a guidleine than a rule. Depeneding on size, strength, soreness after throwing, nutrtion, weight training, use of proper mechanics, etc... I would think all those would be the factored in determining rest periods for each kid. This could actually be for mental recoup from injuries brought on by irrate parents after 2-3 days of throwing. lol

 

[starsnuffer]

After looking at this it looks like these are copies of LL rules with no real research or data attached.

-W

 

[sluggers]

Starsnuffer, where are you getting the information? I don't see anything from the LL that even remotely looks like this.