FORT BEND, Texas – Young boy and girl athletes are at risk for overuse injuries, especially if they’re playing sports year-round.
Connor Samp, for example, was a baseball pitcher in the Fort Bend’s Sienna neighborhood for years.
“Baseball is definitely a fall, spring, summer thing, “Samp said. “You don’t take any days off, any years off because it puts you behind a little bit.”
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During high school, Samp injured his elbow. He had to have surgery and quit playing baseball.
“I wish that I would have like taken it a little easier sometimes,” Samp admitted. “Wish I was taught, like how to treat your arm at a young age, because I feel like that is a big problem, especially with kids now that want to throw as hard as possible every pitch.”
He’s right, it’s a problem. For several years doctors have noticed a rise in overuse injuries.
Texas Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine Dr. Joseph Chorley said kids need summertime to take a break but often times year-round sports don’t offer much time to rest.
“Year-round sports are really set up for overuse injuries,” he said. “If kids didn’t have four months off, they were six times more likely to have shoulder or elbow problems than those kids who had those four months off.”
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Four months might sound like a lifetime to a kid, but the solution is simple.
“They don’t have to sit on the couch for four months, but playing something different,” Chorley said. “If you have a baseball kid in the fall, playing basketball is a time away from over-stressing those growth plates that they have and those kinds of things. I think interestingly, if you look at elite athletes, they’re not the kids that actually specialize in a single sport early.”
Dr. Chorley said the most common injuries are in the knee, elbow, and shoulder.
“No matter how fit they are... there’s just a finite limit to how much they can do,” Dr. Chorley said. “The stronger they are and the taller they are, the more force they have... that’s the combination that’s very good because they can throw the ball hard, but it’s very bad because when they throw the ball hard, it can injure those structures of the growth plate and, and the ligaments.”
If your child plays baseball this message is incredibly important:
- Take time off - ideally four months off from one sport
- Do not pitch and catch in the same game - ideally alternate games when you throw
- Do not throw until your arm is tired
- Don’t throw as hard as you can, for as long as you can
“There are a lot of recommendations on pitch counts and those kinds of things. But the problem you get into is if you play on multiple teams and you have multiple pitch counts, I don’t think anybody’s adding them all up,” Chorley said. “You do not want your best days of baseball to be when you were 11.”
Samp is now playing golf, and according to Dr. Chorley that decreases his chances of any long-term problems from continuing to play baseball.
“I mean, it’s been a great experience. It’s good to meet new people and see new faces and see how far it takes me,” Samp said.
