surgeon Dr. James Andrews wants your young athlete to stay healthy by playing less

[T Red]

Seen this on another board. Good stuff here. I feel like fastpitch parents need to be aware of this.

Noted surgeon Dr. James Andrews wants your young athlete to stay healthy by playing less | cleveland.com

PD: The best advice you would give parents of a young athlete?

J.A.: The first thing I would tell them is, their kid needs at least two months off each year to recover from a specific sport. Preferably, three to four months.

Dr. James Andrews on seven major sports health myths | cleveland.com

6: Fast-pitch softball, with its windmill delivery, can't produce injuries to the thrower's shoulder or elbow.

There is a common belief that throwing underhand is a natural way to keep the player safe from injury, but this definitely is not true. ... Pitching limits matter in softball as much as they do in baseball.

 

[softballphreak]

Good article, but it sounds more like mechanical flaws, or accidents than it does overuse. As much as I see players play I don't see injuries I would attribute to overuse as much as I see accidental injuries or flawed mechanics (especially); in softball.

I've only seen one ACL injury over the years on any of our softball teams. I've seen quite a few more ACL injuries in basketball, including my DD. Her ACL/meniscus injury had a positive consequence, though. She earned her Doctorate in Physical Therapy later.

 

[Rocketech1]

My DD's pitching coach blew out her shoulder in college after her sophomore year, had a couple of surgeries and that was end of her pitching career. She attributes her injury to overuse, especially in travel ball where she would pitch up to 5 games a day. When possible, I like my DD to only pitch every other day so her body has a chance to rest and heal before her next session. As sluggers says all the time, after college your DDs softball career is over but she needs a healthy arm for the rest of her life. Lets err on the side of caution with our kids.