When you asked me my opinion about the number of elbow injuries in baseball, I was not prepared to answer, but the more I the read into the problem, the more I believe my initial thoughts. We are teaching kids that can create high arm speed to throw with finger pressure to generate a controlled movement on the baseball. The finger pressure is creating to much tension in the problematic ligament.
The culprit: Ulnar Collateral ligament damage
Cause-The torque and extension of the ligament is damaging the ligament.
I decided to research the subject and was shocked at the number of articles. A cause and effect type situation is evident, but I could not find any scientific reasoning. We know a couple of things to be factual, the human body and our ligaments can handle only so much tension before they break.
The most common reasoning in the media articles is overuse. Normally these articles blame the high school or select team coaches. The orthos are making comments about damage at youth due to growth plates and innings pitched.
Some doctors promote that kids need to rest their arms for longer periods, some even say it should be up to 4 months a year. For a comparison, a broken bone heals in six weeks, so I think this theory is based on something other than science.
I read comments from Dr. Jobe and he is still supporting that people should not throw at 100% of ability. I agree with him if that the person can generate enough arm speed to tear the ligament, Who am I to argue with a specialist, but I do believe that some guys have always been throwing at 100% and this is a recent epidemic, so I keep looking. The only time people stop throwing hard is when they get to the professional level and are manipulating the ball.
None of these really explain why half of Major league pitchers have this problem. We need the cause!
After studying and experimenting with finger pressure while throwing, I am leaning more toward my theory for the cause. My theory is that using the modern form of finger pressure to create ball movement with arm speed is physically not possible. The tightening of certain fingers has direct relationships with certain ligaments and tendons. Basically it is not natural and the ulnar collateral ligament is exploding.
I have personal experience with this injury. I blew my ligament out and created enough torque that the bone attached to the ULC broke completely off. I was in my late 40's when I let go of that football and my arm immediately started throbbing. The doctor told me that I could get the Tommy John surgery, but why bother when I have no reason to throw anything with that velocity. He also made an interesting comment that seems credible. He said that people with explosive fast twitch muscles and hyper flexible ligaments can create ligament damage through out the body.
The blame in my opinion is that we are teaching kids that throw hard an unnatural practice. This is an example of when our body cannot handle the PSI of the movement. There will always be super freaks that can overcome this movement, but with a rash of half of the pitchers in medical care someone needs to address the situation.
j.
