Director of Sports Medicine at the Chicago Center for Orthopedics Preston Wolin, MD, is pushing for the Illinois High School Association to implement a pitch-count policy to protect young children's arms.
Here are six thoughts:
1. The sports medicine industry as a whole has seen an increase in the number of injuries to throwing athletes, with elbow and shoulder injuries plaguing the field. The most common is a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament which most times requires Tommy John surgery to repair.
2. At a high school conference game, Dr. Wolin observed a young pitcher throw 134 pitches ina game with his team ahead by eight runs.
3. Dr. Wolin, also a pitching coach, has seen the effect overuse has on the arm and its ligaments, and is urging the IHSA to implement a pitch count limit. He has discussed the issue at length over the last three to four years with the IHSA.
4. Dr. Wolin believes measures will soon be taken on the issue because of the continued persistence of the problem. Earlier in the month, the National Federation of State High School Associations announced each state will need to have a policy in place before the start of the 2017 season.
5. Dr. Wolin would like to see pitchers limited to 105 pitches with a four day rest period in between, but realizes implementation of the policy would be hard because of the variety of teams players play for and a lack of an industry-wide standard.
6. Dr. Wolin believes pitch count policy could make the sport safer.
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