But there is a worrying trend in baseball these days. While both Koufax and John, and a host of pitchers before them, were in the middle of professional careers, both over 30 years old, more and more these days, the surgery to repair blown out arms is being performed on children. According to a study by Chicagos Rush University Medical Center, the biggest age group needing Tommy John surgery in the country is between 15 and 19 years old.Kids whose arms have not yet fully developed now account for 57% of all surgeries nationwide. The son of the pitcher whose name graces the procedure, Dr. Tommy John, now practices sports chiropractic medicine in San Diego. Im seeing an injury rise in young athletes and its getting younger and younger and more severe. This most absolutely is a national problem, and its something thats bigger than one sport. In the past, we were dealing with common youth injuries, like broken bones and bruises, but now were seeing pediatric ACL reconstructions, concussions, Tommy John surgeries and stress fractures in spines. Quite simply, kids are being pushed beyond their limit. What is causing this rise in Tommy John surgery? As in any situation where surgery is on the rise, there are several overlapping factors, but the principal one seems to be the rise in year-round training. With the stratospheric rise in sports salaries and MLB salaries in specific, parents and coaches find the temptation to try and find the next prodigy too great to ignore. But lets not lay the blame all at the parents feet. Often they are given advice by coaches and trainers who see these kids as cash cows, funnelling more and more kids into their multi-billion dollar industry for nothing more than quick profit. Children as young as eight are being encouraged; and I only say that so as not to say coerced or forced; to play baseball all year. Summer leagues used to be a short wind-down from prep baseball, lasting two months at most. Kids were encouraged to play all sports; baseball in summer, but then football and basketball in the winter, plus tennis, golf, swimming, and in fact any other athletic endeavor on offer. No longer. With the rise of travel ball and winter ball leagues since the 1990s, young kids are carrying a workload that leads them to have the worn out arms of ten-year MLB veterans by the time they hit their mid teens. Tommy John, the former MLB southpaw, who managed to come back after his surgery to pitch even better than before says, This is about more than just baseball and elbows. Its about the way we are raising our children. The nations youth-sports industry is a $15 billion business. And more and more, that business pushes children to make decisions early about which sport they want to play, and then to pursue that sport to the exclusion of all others. And kids bodies are paying the price. The quest for speed So you want to work on your kids pitching? With ample rest and within the bounds of safety, still you want to train that young arm the best way? Stop looking at how fast they throw. The incessant focus on speed and speed alone is not only damagingly myopic in a baseball sense, it is dangerous and adds to the stress on young, underdeveloped arms. The best thing to focus on is control. Pinpoint accuracy. Once they become masters of control, and their arms are intact, a good college or minor league pitching coach can squeeze the best out of them. But for now, 85mph with good movement is better than a 95mph four seamer with no ride. One of the greatest ever, Greg Maddux, once said that when he found that he was losing control, he slowed down. Not just the process, but the pitches themselves. He worked on control, control, and then more control. Lets be brutally realistic. If your twelve-year-old cant throw a strike, another five mph wont help. And if he can throw strikes, teams will use him, scouts will love him, and best of all? His arm wont fall off. So what can you do right now? First of all, stop playing baseball all year. Take a break. Play basketball, or soccer, or swim, or skateboard, or whatever else your kid likes to do. And then, when you go back to baseball, just focus on strikes. Try to hit a spot at the top of the zone, the bottom of the zone, inside, outside. All two seamers, all control. And if your coach tells you that that your kid needs to play more baseball? Get another coach.
So many people forget that their kids and teens are still growing, their bodies aren't fully developed, but they're demanding adult-physique level outputs from them all the time.
It's not wonder injuries are piling up in major sports at all levels.