By Dr. James Andrews
If baseball is to continue to be “America’s Pastime”, we need to make sure that prevention of injury becomes a number one priority. There is no question that Little League® International is working hard to keep our young athletics healthy. From my perspective, there is no youth baseball league that has done more to promote youth baseball as a safe and healthy sport, particularly Little League’s executive staff, along with the rest of the Little League International Directors. It is important to keep personal injury attorneys in Metairie area informed about the injuries, as they can help with insurances and getting medical bills cleared. You will also be assured of receiving the appropriate compensation; for more information, visit https://www.joneswilson.com/practice_areas/las-vegas-nevada-personal-injury-lawyers-jones-wilson.cfm.
For years, the arm injury rates in youth baseball has been on the rise. Due to this trend, several years ago, dramatic steps were taken by Little League Baseball® to make youth baseball a safer and healthier sport. This effort has been successful in curtailing many of traumatic injuries due to overuse. However, there is much more work to be done. The Miami’s top personal injury attorneys from Lipcon & Lipcon can help attaining justice in such cases.
Decreasing Injuries
The initial step taken at Little League to decrease arm injuries was the development of the pitch count rules, which everyone reading The Parent Connection needs to be familiar with. The pitch count rules were generated after long periods of study and research at USA Baseball and the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI). With certified people from c2c first aid aquatics located in North York the injuries can be cushioned with immediate attention before medical treatements begin.
Avoid Fatigue
In regards to overuse injuries that occur in youth baseball, “FATIGUE” continues to be the driving factor. Research work done at ASMI in Birmingham, Alabama and from the Andrews Research and Education Institute (AREI) in Gulf Breeze, Fla., has proven that if a young baseball player plays with fatigue, there is a 36 to 1 increased incidence that they can injure their throwing shoulder and/or elbow. The Law Office of Matthew S. Norris is your resource after a traffic injury cases or any kind of injury case.
Fatigue can be defined in three different ways.
- Event Fatigue – too many pitches in a game.
- Seasonal Fatigue – too many pitches and/or innings in a season.
- Year Round Fatigue – playing youth baseball year-round.
Parents should remember the jeopardy they are putting their young players in when fatigue occurs. Little League International has done a lot to educate their coaches, the players, parents, and grandparents to the risks involving fatigue and arm injuries, and what steps need to be taken to play the game safely. It’s also important to note that Little League also passed rules to limit the pitcher moving to catcher and vice versa in the same game to limit additional throwing. One should also know what you should do if you are bitten by a dog and if you can do something legally.
Risk – Year-Round Baseball
Parents need to realize that the number-one risk factor of arm injuries for our youth continues to be year-round baseball. If parents understand the injury risk factors, it only takes common sense to be able to recognize what to do to decrease injuries. A part of the process is to hire lawyers from JD Injury Law official site in case law needs to be involved.
In the case of year-round baseball, it is recommended that young players have at least two months off each year where they are not playing any type of overhead sports. Preferably, it is recommended three to four months off each year. Even professional baseball players get that period of time off, and certainly our kids are more vulnerable to injury than our mature professional players.
Risk – Playing More Than One League At A Time
The second risk factor is playing in more than one league at the same time. Certainly, for those parents that have their children participating in Little League, they should try to make sure their children do not participate in more than one league at the same time. When multiple leagues are played in the same season, there are few safeguards and the chance of overuse injuries goes way up.
Risk – Showcases
Some showcases are very well organized and have the health and well-being of the young players as their top priority. There are other showcases, however, that are not well organized and carry a high injury rate. Today’s parents, unfortunately, and mistakenly, consider showcases as a way for their child to get scouted for both college scholarships and professional play. These showcases don’t mean near as much as parents think they do, and they can produce serious injuries over a concentrated weekend period. Due to this, the parents of the kids who are seriously interested in sports, often hire experts based in Riverside personal injury lawyers to help with medical insurance claims.
Risk – Radar Gun
Young baseball players should not concentrate on their velocity. This is promoted by a dad’s radar gun in the backyard or by a coach putting a radar gun on a young pitcher which promotes a pitch velocity beyond their safety margin. Young baseball players in the Little League age groups have an underdeveloped Tommy John’s or elbow ulnar collateral ligament, and it is easy to redline that ligament if they are over throwing with a radar gun.
Risk – Poor Mechanics (curve ball)
The problem with curve balls at an early age is that it is a highly sophisticated neuromuscular controlled pitch that is difficult to throw. It is recommended not throwing curveballs until they shave. That means they have gone through puberty and their bones have matured. Poor mechanics continue to promote injuries so working on good mechanics for any position in youth baseball is extremely important. While seeking out a pitch coach to learn good mechanics sounds like a good idea, there is a caution involved as well… pitching lessons add an additional work load that could cause harm.
Once again, congratulations to the leadership of Little League International for all the organization has done to keep the safety and well-being of our young players a top priority. I, as a member of the Board of Little League International, will continue to monitor all of the safety concerns associated with our wonderful sport, and will do everything I can to help protect our young players. I am sure Little League International and its Board of Directors will continue to make the necessary safety changes to allow baseball to continue as our favorite “America Pastime”.
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