Thrown a curve: a new take on youths, curveballs and overuse injuries
When it comes to youths and pitching, a longstanding conception has been the belief that curveballs are the worst types of pitches to be throwing, and that children should avoid throwing them at all costs in order to avoid injury of the elbow. The cautious approach to curveballs has been held since the early days of sports medicine dating back at least to the ‘50s, and some orthopedic surgeons today warn that pitchers should not be throwing curves at least until age 14. According to two new studies, however, curveballs are not nearly as dangerous as consensus has led people to believe, and throwing fastballs actually runs a higher risk of injury than curves.
The two studies, which were completely independent and unrelated to each other, were performed in Connecticut and Alabama, and both investigated the forces of fastballs and curveballs on the elbows of young pitchers. The Alabama study, conducted by the American Sports Medicine Institute, observed 29 pitchers between the ages of 9 and 14 and had them throw curves, fastballs and changeups as they would in a real game. Both studies came to the conclusion that curveballs are in fact less stressful on the elbow than fastballs, and that there was little (if any) data that proved they were responsible for throwing injuries in young pitchers.
Based on these findings, one might wonder why curveballs have been warned against for such a long period of time as inherently dangerous for young, developing arms. One theory is that word of mouth over time has simply obscured the truth and led the masses to believe something that may have little supporting evidence. Unfortunately, for many who have long believed in the risks associated with curveballs, their fears may not be erased quite so easily, and these new findings may wind up confusing more than they pacify. The other possible effect is that it might encourage parents and coaches to have kids throw more curveballs, which is not at all the point of the research. Therefore, conductors of the study go on to say that when it comes to young pitchers, the focus should not be the type of pitches they're throwing but the amount of pitches thrown and the frequency with which they're throwing. Another separate study observed youth pitchers throwing over a long span of time and found that those who threw more than eight months out of the year increased their risk of an injury that led to surgery by fivefold. Those who threw more than 80 pitches per game were four times more likely to need an arm operation than those who did not. Despite the fact that evidence proves curveballs are less dangerous than fastballs, parents and coaches shouldn't have young pitchers overcompensating with an abundance of every other pitcher, the study says. Instead, they should stress ample rest, time off from pitching and fewer pitches per game to avoid overuse injuries, which are incredible prevalent and dangerous for maturing athletes.
-As reported in the July 25 edition of The New York Times
-By Greg Gargiulo
