Good Throwing Habits Start Young
Humans are creatures of habit. Our bodies and brains typically get used to performing tasks and movements in a certain way. Throwing is no different. If we are able to create good throwing and recovery habits young, there will be two major benefits. The first benefit is creating protection for the shoulder and elbow to the stresses that are placed upon them during throwing. The second benefit is giving the athlete more opportunities to gain experience with much less likelihood of injury. Here are three easy tips to help protect your young athletes’ shoulders by building good arm care habits.
Warm-up to throw. Don’t throw to warm-up.
This concept is very simple, yet the vast majority of little league up to high school varsity teams do not perform a warm-up prior to throwing a ball. No, the light 10 foot throws or “wrist snaps” don’t count. What has been being performed for baseball is the equivalent of basketball and football players jogging back and forth 20 yards three to four times and saying they are ready to play a game or practice.
The warm-up doesn’t have to be super in depth or baseball specific, but the kids should be sweating or starting to sweat before they start throwing. A simple warm-up could include jumping jacks, high knees, butt-kicks, arm circles, broad jumps, hops, bear crawls and crab walks.
Tracking number of throws
Tracking the number of throws for all throwing athletes is something that is often overlooked. The stress that is placed on the arm during throwing should be considered like any strength training workout. For most athletes, you wouldn’t have them perform 75-100 full-effort squats or bench presses two days in a row let alone in the same day. The same philosophy should be applied to throwers.
Throws during pre-practice and pre-game routines should also be tracked. Any throw places stress on the arm, and that cumulative stress is the main issue with young throwing athletes. USA baseball and the American Sports Medicine Institute guidelines have been developed for the number of pitches in a game, pitches per week, pitches per season and year. Check out the guidelines if you’re curious. However these guidelines are for strictly pitching on the mound and don’t take into account warming-up and throws in between innings. These numbers also don’t take into account athletes playing for multiple teams at the same time. As athletes' volume of throws increases, it becomes much more important to manage pitch count to protect from injury. It is vital to track the number of throws, not just pitches.
Post-throwing recovery
Recovery after pitching is just as important as a good warm-up. A little can go a long way, but there are some important things to consider. Recovery after throwing needs to be active and should generally be low intensity. This could be raising the arms overhead, making snow angels (standing or laying down), or slow arm circles. The exercises could be more specific physical therapy-type exercises, too. Active movements will help bring fresh blood and healing materials to the shoulder muscles and tissues quickly after throwing occurs. Other aspects of recovery and overall wellness such as hydration, nutrition and sleep also are vital to the recovery process.
What is more important than protecting the safety of your child - especially long-term safety? Not a lot. If these three habits are built early in an athlete’s career, this will quickly put them ahead of their peers in terms of strength that don’t have these habits in place. These habits will help keep your athletes on the field and playing, and it will help them take care of their shoulders for the rest of their life.
If you have specific questions for your athlete or a team you coach on recommended warm-up and recovery routines and throw counts, contact us today!