This is Serious

If you missed the New York Time article today "When an 18-Year-Old Son Needs Elbow Surgery" and you have a son or daughter playing sports you should definitely take a moment to read this piece. What strikes me the idea that as parents, we can make mistakes even as we have good intentions.

I found myself in a conversation with a fellow father who has a daughter and a son playing softball and baseball respectively. His son, about 8 isn't a great player. In fact, he told me that his son last season barely even fouled one off all season. As a result, he's put his son into a hitting clinic with a personal coach and is looking at signing him up for winter leagues to augment his spring and fall season.

I wonder first of all, does the kid even like baseball that much that he wants to opt out of doing other things. Secondly, I wonder if this father has bothered to read any of the research or recent books about this topic. According to the NYT article, "one study, conducted by the American Sports Medicine Institute, led by the prominent surgeon Dr. James Andrews, found high school and college pitchers at sharply higher risk of injury requiring surgery when they exceeded certain thresholds: 400 percent when tossing more than 80 pitches a game; 500 percent for pitchers whose playing seasons lasted more than eight months a year."

I wonder what those thresholds are for 10 year olds, whose bodies haven't completely developed. I assume the thresholds are much lower and that you can inadvertently damage or ruin your own child's playing future by simply having them play too much.

Parents should get informed, especially if they have a star player who really loves the game. I believe it's prudent to make sure that whomever is coaching these players understand and respect your wishes of pitching and catching limited innings to save their arms irrespective of the league rules. Parents should also consider how many months to allow their kids to play a single sport. Playing multiple sports helps them develop different muscles and gives them a chance to make new friends and learn new skills. Young kids should not over commit to a single sport anyway, in my opinion.