Prevent Little League Elbow Published June 2, 2006 By Staff Sgt. Marc Sellers 60th Equipment Maintenance Squadron TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- It’s that time of year again … the smell of a fresh cooked hot dog in the air, the crack of a bat in the distance, the thundering roar of the crowds overhead. That’s right sports fans; it’s baseball season. Most of us have children who are already playing. Some of us may even be close to the end of the regular season. But as we close in on yet another perfect year, I would like everybody to keep safety in mind. Ninety-five percent of big leaguers who have had elbow surgery actually received the injury in little league. It’s quite an amazing statistic if you ask me. I have known this for some time; I found out the hard way. My son started to get elbow pain at the age of 6. After a brief online search, I ran across my son’s condition — Little League Elbow. Dr. Mitchell Story from the Association of Professional Team Physicians and Team Physician for the Seattle Mariners classifies Little League Elbow as a “condition of pain in the elbow joint due to repetitive throwing.” The ligament attached to the inner side of the elbow begins to pull one of the growth plates away from the rest of the bone. Dr. Mitchell states “throwing too many pitches or throwing the wrong type of pitches (i.e., curves or sliders) puts great stress on a young pitcher’s elbow ligaments.” Because the bones are still growing, the growth plates of the bones are weak and susceptible to injury when the ligaments attached to them are stressed by overhand throwing. The most important thing to remember as the season drags on is to always ice your child’s elbow and shoulder after each and every outing on the pitching mound. In addition to ice, make sure you’re paying attention to the official scorebook. Keep tabs on how many pitches your child has thrown. Little League Baseball recommends the following: - Children ages 10 and under should throw no more then 75 pitches per day with four days rest in between. - Children ages 11-12 should throw no more than 85 pitches per day with four days rest in between. - Children ages 13-16 should throw no more then 95 pitches per day again with four days rest in between. It is critical for parents to get proactive in their child’s playing time and ensure that he/she is not getting used up. Also remember if they throw 60 to 80 pitches at practice, they should not be pitching in the next day’s game. Travis Little League operates a competitive baseball program at Travis and they are very proactive in protecting your child’s pitching arm and pitching future and have adopted pitch counts that are very limited. If your child plays in the Travis Little League, you can contact the safety officer, Troy Moore, at 437-1327 to address any concerns you may have. Here is wishing everyone a very safe and productive season. Play ball!