Throwing An Adage A Curveball - Studies Show That the Curveball Isn’t Too Stressful for Young Arms For almost as long as children have been throwing baseballs, adults have been telling them about the worst thing they could do to their still-developing arms: throw curves.
The warnings go back to the earliest days of sports medicine, orthopedic surgeons say, at least to the 1950s. In the 1970s, Robert Kerlan, the eminent surgeon who cared for Sandy Koufax, condemned curveballs as murderous on the elbows of professional pitchers, “to say nothing of the young athletes whose bones and joints are still growing.”
That remains the mantra of many sports medicine experts. The orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, who performs more than 100 Tommy John ligament-transplant operations most years, cautions that children should not even think about throwing curves until they are 14.
Are those doctors all alarmists?
Maybe so, according to two studies in which scientists and surgeons evaluated more closely than before the effects of curves on young arms. The studies were done independently by research teams in Connecticut and in Alabama. Each compared the forces across the elbows of pitchers as they fired fastballs and curves. (The Alabama study also included changeups). Each study concluded that curves are less stressful than fastballs and, based on the data collected, contributed little, if at all, to throwing injuries in youth players.
click here for complete NY Times article by MARK HYMAN
Baseball Continued:
When pitch counts reach the century mark, the end is near ... but why?
Baseball's magic number: 100
Subject Update:
Arms-Control Breakdown
More and more youth pitchers are having operations on their elbows and shoulders. So why aren’t the grown-ups doing something about it?
click here for NY Times article by Ron Berler