HOUSTON – For adolescent pitchers playing baseball across Houston, major arm injuries are on the rise.
Making the strenuous movements that are necessary in competitive pitching can lead to serious elbow damage for any pitcher, and the risks are even higher for the still-developing arm of a youth or teen pitcher.
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Along with the risks of needing Tommy John surgery for a torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL), pitchers also run the risk of suffering Little League Elbow, a condition caused by suffering trauma to a developing elbow plate.
The recovery time for these injuries can be months or even years, and the physical toll the rehabilitation takes on the body cannot be understated. However, the way these injuries can impact a teen’s mind can be just as concerning.
“If someone is coming back from injury, I have to put just as much into the mental performance as I do the physical,” said Dean Doxakis, vice president of Tom House Sports, which operates the National Pitching Association.
Doxakis, who is considered one of the foremost pitching performance coaches in the nation, admits that fifteen years ago, the mental approach was not a common as it is now.
Travel baseball is intensely competitive by nature, and an injury that sidelines a young player for an extended period of time can feel like a massive setback. Players are under a constant microscope, trying to impress their teammates, coaches and even college recruiters.
Being unable to suit up for months on end can seemingly have a massive impact on a player’s future opportunities, forcing teens to push themselves past their natural limits to play more baseball, often year-round.
Corbin Hedt, a physical therapist with Houston Methodist hospital who specializes in throwing injuries and rehabilitation, said an overwhelming majority of the players he works with play baseball all year.
“By the time that I get them, they’ve been playing for 95% of them playing year-round,” he said.
Dr. David Lintner, an orthopedic surgeon at Houston Methodist hospital who specializes in sports injuries, explained how social pressures to perform can impact not only a teen, but also their parents.
“It’s tough,” Dr. Lintner said. “The culture is so much, ‘baseball, play, compete.’ The good kids are invited to play on the select teams. There’s a fear—a natural fear as a parent of the child being left behind, of other players getting an advantage if their child isn’t playing as often, isn’t going to the pitching coaches is, and isn’t playing year-round ball.”
Severe injuries and recovery times can take players away from a game that they’ve spent their whole lives playing. They likely play or practice nearly every day and have strong friendships with teammates.
Hedt said he understands how these injuries can have a uniquely detrimental impact on teens playing baseball.
“[A severe injury] demoralizes them and it takes them away from their element. You’re talking about 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds, and all they’ve known for the past 10 or 11 years is playing with their buddies, playing with their team, and now you’ve encountered an injury and a surgery that takes them away from that competition entirely.”
He also said the negative impacts from these injuries can impact teens even outside of the diamond.
“You have issues where, you know, they’re depressed, where they’re sad and they cannot think straight at school and they’ve got all these other issues that they’re dealing with,” he added.
Will Young, an 18-year-old right-handed pitcher, has had two arm surgeries related to pitching injuries—the second of which was Tommy John surgery. He described to KPRC 2 Investigates the mental toll that taking extended periods away from baseball took on him.
“The mental toll of [my surgeries], like it takes a pretty big toll,” Young said. “I was I was barely 16 at the time of [my first] surgery. So, I mean, I remember vividly, that was a tough time in my life. When you kind of consume yourself with this one thing for 15 years before that, and then the rug gets pulled out from under your feet, that’s how it just that’s just how that that situation went. It was really hard. It was really tough. That’s the hardest thing—by far, bar none—that I’ve ever had to go through my whole life.”
The cognitive burden can even extend into a teen’s home life. With the immergence of “travel ball” culture, youth baseball has become a full family event, and because of that, an injury of this magnitude can have farther reaching consequences. Teenagers are susceptible to pressures not only from coaches and peers, but from their immediate family members as well.
Dr. Lintner explained how a serious injury can impact a family dynamic.
“It’s a family activity; Youth baseball is a family activity,” Dr. Lintner told KPRC 2′s Mario Diaz. “You know, you think of the time invested, not just by the player, but by the parents, the family members. The expense being on these travel teams, the coaching, the number of trips that they take. It’s a huge family endeavor, and to have an injury interrupt, that can really be disruptive to the whole rhythm of the family.”
So, what can people do to aid young players on a daunting road to recovery? According to Hedt, it’s as simple as being supportive.
“I think that’s where the art of what we do comes into play,” Hedt said. “Interacting with the patient, becoming their friend, kind of helping them through the process and getting them to understand that what they’re going through is a long road, but somebody is there with them the entire way. Even if we’re not seeing them the full 12, 18 months that it takes [to fully recover from a Tommy John surgery]. We’re establishing lifelong, partnerships with them throughout the process.”
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