A recent study conducted on Major League Baseball players
revealed that professional pitchers reach fatigue factor in their
arms around 85 pitches.
A recent study conducted on Major League Baseball players revealed that professional pitchers reach fatigue factor in their arms around 85 pitches. With offseason conditioning and arm strengthening programs they can probably maintain their velocity beyond that pitch count. One thing’s for sure, though, their arms are beginning to get tired.
So how does that translate into youth pitchers? Well, somewhere around 50-60 pitches a youth pitcher will reach the fatigue factor, or roughly two to three innings if he’s averaging 15-20 pitches per inning. This pitch count, however, does not include in between inning warm-ups and pre-game warm-ups in the bullpen. With these two factors worked in, coupled with the total pitches in a game, a youth pitcher may throw over 100 pitches on any given game day. That’s quite enough!
Youth coaches sometimes get very involved in games and innings and forget about pitch counts and what the young arm can endure. Parents are watching the game and are not aware of how many pitches their son has thrown. Leagues have rules about the number of innings a pitcher may throw in a week and the number of days he must rest in between. While that sets down some good parameters, parents and coaches need to focus on pitches, not innings.
I’ve heard horror stories about 9-year-old pitchers throwing 119 pitches in a game or standing on the mound and throwing 40 pitches in one inning. On both accounts, that’s way too many, and anyone letting that happen is only concerned about winning, not development. Our society is based on winning and losing but that can’t get in the way when we’re talking about a young child’s arm.
Taking into consideration the previously mentioned pitch count, arm injuries can also occur if you‚re going beyond the fatigue factor. Growth plates, as well as ligaments and tendons are still developing. If a pitcher isnt throwing with good mechanics and he reaches his fatigue factor he may very well injure himself or his arm will be very sore. His recovery time will be longer.
How many times has your youngster stayed within the 50-60 pitch count? If you don’t know, now is the time to start paying close attention. Don’t forget the pre-game bullpen and between-inning warm-ups. If the coaches on the team don’t keep track, tell them they should be.
Monitoring things now leads to healthy arms later.
Rich Taylor is the owner, head instructor and CEO of Taylor Made Baseball. He is a former pitching coach at Pepperdine University and Chicago White Sox scout. He founded the West Coast Baseball School. He has 26 years of youth coaching experience and wrote the book “Molding the Young Pitcher.” His column appears on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.
