Another viewpoint on kids and curveballs

Found this at Checkswing.net, which is hosting a lively forum on kids, curves and the Times article. This post was written by a gentleman named Tom LaPrade:

"It amazes me that so many youth coaches who I've shared this article with refuse to acknowledge the validity of the studies. It's as though the notion that a curveball is more dangerous than a fastball is a religious crede of some sort, Not one of the youth coaches I've talked to is a scientist of the biomechanics of throwing, so what other reason could they have for their resistance to these studies than the fact that, for them, the "danger" of throwing a curveball is merely continued worship at the altar of baseball myth?

"But one thing that is obvious is that the act of throwing in any fashion is violent on the arm. Thus it is a legitimate question to ask which methods of throwing are MORE violent. There are probably a handful of experts without an agenda who are qualified to answer this question. And Nissen and Fleiseg are those people.

"So I accept this study as a scientific breakthrough. It’s the role of science to challenge received wisdom and preconceived pieties. I have no personal reason to doubt the study. I never felt any different as a kid throwing one kind of pitch over another, and as a coach I've never heard a kid complain about throwing curveballs v. fastballs. If a valid, peer-reviewed, blinded, controlled study by leaders in the field of biomechanics of throwing conclude that a curve is no less safe than a fastball, wouldn't it be awfully presumptuous of us to dispute it just because most people I know think curveballs arent as safe as fastballs? Who's to say the act of throwing the changeup with the unnatural grip and awkward pronation of the wrist (does anyone throw anything with that motion except a baseball pitcher tossing a changeup?) is not the most dangerous of pitches?

"People used to say the world was flat because that's what the smart people used to say, it looked flat, and everybody repeated the "fact" that the world was flat. Thankfully there were people who had the temerity to challenge these convictions that were based more on certitude than certainty. Think about it, if in fact these studies are correct, then we may be hurting kids by telling them to throw fastballs. Shouldnt the truth be more important than our cherished shibboleths?"

"Now you tell us that curves don't destroy arms?"

Reaction to Sunday's curveball article in the Times.

Rob Neyer, ESPN.com

"Wait a minute ... Now you're telling us that curveballs don't destroy the tender arms of adolescent pitchers? I can't say I'm all that surprised."


St. Louis Post Dispatch

"The larger issue in childhood arm injuries may be overuse: Too many pitches thrown in too many games too close together. The study suggested that young pitchers be allowed to throw no more than 80 pitches in a game, and that seasons should be limited."


ESPN Sports Nation TV
"Would you teach your kid to throw a curve? New research contradicts the conventional wisdom that throwing curves destroys young arms. Dr. James Andrews strongly disagrees with the findings."

Also:

Tim Keown, ESPN Radio Extra Point

Then, a worthwhile discussion of the article and the issue at BaseballFever.com.

And also chatter about kids and curves yesterday on Pardon the Interruption (with Mike Wilbon reflecting on his childhood bender) and the Dan Patrick Show.

Finally, I found this recent article on Dr. Andrews, Glenn Fleisig and their research at ESPN the Mag. Hat tip to Chris Sprow.

More on youth league pitchers and curveballs

In yesterday's New York Times, I wrote about kids and curveballs. Physicians and coaches have been warning about the dangers to young arms from curveballs for decades. Are they too cautious?

Maybe, according to two recent studies that found no connection between curves and elbow injuries in kids.

The article includes reaction from orthopedic surgeons who don't see the research as the last word.

Here's an interview that didn't make the article. I spoke with Joseph Chandler, Director of Medical Services Emeritus for the Atlanta Braves and an expert on kids and baseball injuries. He's not convinced that curves are harmless.


Question- Your reaction to the curveball research? (performed at the American Sports Medicine Institute)

Answer- This is a study that needed to be done. The problem is how it is interpreted, how the results are used. People need to remember it is a laboratory study done under laboratory conditions using a small number of pitchers, a small number of pitches.


Q-Are the results a setback for surgeons hoping to discourage curves for kids?
A-I think a lot of people wish the study had shown the curveball is a terrible pitch. It didn't really show that. So perhaps the curveball is not the devil. But there are certainly troubling things associated with kids throwing lots of curveballs.

Q-For instance.
A-Overuse. Kids throwing too many pitches. Kids pitching year round.

Q-How should parents and coaches interpret the curveball research?
A-One of the interesting things in the study is this: People see what they want to see. They focus on what they want the study to show. Some will take from this: Oh, you see the curveball is not a bad pitch. When they could be saying: what a great pitch the changeup is. (The study showed changeups generating less force on young elbows than fastballs or curves) So maybe the curveball is not the devil. But when you start throwing it so young, it makes it harder for a kid to truly learn how to pitch and build arm strength.

Q-In light of the new research, have your thoughts changed about when kids can safely begin throwing curves?
A-My philosophy has always been and to this day is not before fourteen-and-a-half. Why do I come up with that? It's an age where general body maturation is to a point that it can withstand more stress on the arm. Waiting until 14 protects the arm and gives a kid a chance to learn how to pitch.

Q- Little League Baseball has no rules regarding curves. The kids are 11, 12 and 13. Should there be a policy?
A-I think there should be a statement or policy discouraging breaking balls. I think it would be very difficult to prohibit curves. Who is going to monitor that? Who is going to decide what is a curveball?

Q-You polled 100 major- and minor-league pitchers in the Braves organization about when as youth players they began throwing curves. What did you learn?
A-For the most part, they didn’t throw them when they were 10-11-12 years old. The average age was 14. For major leaguers, it was 15. That's not firm scientific data (that kids who defer on throwing curves remain healthier and ultimately have more success). But it's pretty darn good.

A youth sports game and a family reunion

This made me smile.

Why to repair a young athlete's knee asap

This sobering advice from a University of Pennsylvania study:

Young kids who injure their knees so badly that ACL surgery is needed should strongly consider having their repairs asap. This despite the fact that such operations, when performed on youth athletes, can disrupt normal bone growth.

Kids whose operations were delayed more than 12 weeks faced multiple risks, including:

- about a four-fold increase in irreparable medial meniscus tears.
- an 11-fold increase in lateral compartment chondral injuries.
- a three-fold increase in patellotrochlear injuries.

More on the study here.

A youth sports game and a sub sandwich

Today's youth sports challenge: Tote up the corporate logos. First reader to correctly count the "Subway" signs in this 75-second clip wins a free Meatball Marinara sub, medium drink and baked Lays.

(Note cameo appearances by Fred Lynn, Dave Winfield and Larry King).

One game every season, no coaches or parents

In the Albany Times-Union, staff writer Mark McGuire makes a bold proposal. From McGuire's June 26 column:

"Every season, for at least one game, every recreational sports league for kids, say, ages 8-16 should play one adult-free game.

"No parents watching. No coaches/managers; captains run the teams. You can have refs/umps, or not. An adult not affiliated with either team could be on hand to help organize, or not. Kids would figure it out. Believe it or not, they can go out and play without you.

"You may not like the idea, but your child might."

Whether the mere presence of adults diminishes youth sports is a topic for another day, and possibly a doctoral thesis. We do some things that kids wouldn't, perhaps couldn't. Mostly safety stuff. Few 11-year-olds would wear batting helmets if not hectored by an adult. We share our experience, too. We can be good teachers, even mentors. On balance, though, I'd say we've deluded ourselves into believing that children at play need us far more than they do.

I also like McGuire's minimalist vision. Not just as it pertains to adults, but to all the stuff that surrounds sports for kids. This morning, I peered into my sons' bedrooms. Piled on shelves is a 12-year supply of ribbons, medals, plastic participation trophies. In many ways, less would have been more.

Gender equity in the game, but not yet on sidelines

Difficult to argue with the transformational power of Title IX on girls' participation in organized sports. As noted in Until It Hurts (page 45, if you're reading along): "The year Title IX took effect, 1972, boys playing high school sports outnumbered girls by twelve to one. Twenty years later, the edge had shrunk to fewer than three boys for every girl. The latest statistics from the National Federation of State High School Associations show girls comprising about 40 per cent of high school athletes."

All the more puzzling then that female coaches have achieved such modest gains and, in some cases, actually lost ground. Nicole LaVoi, associate director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sports, has been tracking this stat. So have other sport researchers including pioneers in the field, Vivian Acosta and Linda Carpenter. Last month, I visted Nicole at the Tucker Center's home base, the University of Minnesota, to hear more.

Before we go trumpeting across-the-board equality for women in organized sports, consider this:

At the college level, just 21 per cent of all men's and women's teams are coached by females. Less than half of WOMEN'S teams - 41 per cent - are coached by females. Prior to the enactment of Title IX in 1972, more than 90 per cent of head coaches in women's sports were females, according to data from Acosta and Carpenter.

LaVoi and Mike Messner, the noted kids sports researcher and professor of gender studies at the University of Southern California, each has extended the coaching analysis to rec sports. They've found women under represented there too.

LaVoi's survey of the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association showed 15 per cent of head coaches were women - 24 per cent for girls teams, five per cent for boys. Messner studied a Southern California youth sports community, reporting that just 13 per cent of head coaches in the American Youth Soccer organization there were women. I highly recommend Mike's recent book on these issues: It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families and Youth Sports.

What this means for girls'/women's participation overall in youth sports is unknown but not too difficult to surmise. Seems to me the situation is self-perpetuating. Fewer female role models on the sidelines means fewer girls aspiring to one day become coaches.

Little League Baseball = Free grape snowcone

About kids' sports injuries and hospital visits

New data gleaned from an analysis of children visiting hospitals. No surprise - sports injuries are keeping docs busy. Surprising (to me) - boys seek treatment in far greater numbers than girls. The disparity is huge - that's the surprise.

Some of the findings:

* Twenty-two percent of kids’ hospital visits came on account of sports-related bruises, scrapes and broken bones
* Three times more boys than girls needed hospital treatment for sports injuries
* Teens were five times more likely than younger children to need sports-related emergency room treatment
* In almost 99 percent of sports-related emergency room visits, the children were treated and released without hospitalization.

Thanks to Bill Salganik and to Healthjournalism.org.

Researchers seek answers to energy drinks

Johns Hopkins University is offering teens a chance to participate in the rare research study that advances medical science while quizzing them about their consumption of highly caffeinated energy drinks. JHU researchers are probing the effects of the drinks - Red Bull, Rockstar and alike - which can bring on many troubling health effects. Kid athletes who drink them, especially on hot days, have suffered dehydration, tremors, heatstroke and heart attacks, notes USA Today.

The article points out that some experts have called on the Food and Drug Administration to require manufacturers to post warnings on their bottles about possible health consequences. That isn't possible because the FDA doesn't have regulatory authority over such drinks, agency officials told USA Today.

Also problematic are the attitudes and habits of kids. Many fail to realize energy drinks are potent and potentially dangerous, viewing them no differently than sport drinks like Powerade and Gatorade. Youth players also are increasingly viewing the sports nourishment as a substitute for their normal meals, skipping them routinely and "substituting protein bars and shakes for real food."

From the article:

"Eric Small of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan told of treating a 17-year-old female runner suffering from chest pains and fatigue. She collapsed at the finish line of a race and was rushed to an emergency room. It turned out she liked to skip breakfast in favor of drinking two or three cans of Red Bull each morning, Small said.

"They think being lighter and eating less and drinking less will improve their performance," Small said."

Volunteers are still needed for the study. (Scroll down to heading: "Caffeine Use.")

Tommy John surgery comes to high school

For parents - and there will be plenty - spending July 4 weekend in
the bleachers at youth baseball tournaments, consider this.

The table below is a window into the operating room of James
Andrews, the prominent orthopedic surgeon and sports doc to many
pro athletes. Note the spike in kid athletes undergoing Tommy John surgery. Fifteen years ago, patients coming to Dr. Andrews for the ligament replacement operation were exclusively college and professional pitchers. Not a single high school pitcher. Certainly no patients younger than that.

Now, a different story. In 2008, kid players accounted for nearly one in three of Dr. Andrews' TJ patients. Frightening.

Click on the chart - much easier reading.