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Tommy John and Its Impact on the Younger Generation
by Brennen S.
Pedro Martinez
Brennen's Personal Baseball Story: To start off, I do not coach a team myself but I am a pitching instructor. I am also in college and play competitively for my respective school. When I came home for the summer I gave a few lessons to some guys I worked with in the past. They are little league aged but I told them all the same thing. "Be Smart, your arm is the most important thing to having a future in baseball. If something doesn't feel right, speak up." For me in a coaching point of view I would never want anyone to go through this procedure. It is preventable. At all my lessons I ask how they feel before they start to throw, how they feel during their bullpen and how they feel after. They do not throw more than 40 pitches per bullpen. Kids need to know that arm pain is no joke. Baseball is a game. Games are fun. Baseball is not fun when you are playing in pain or not at all because of your arm. In my opinion the regiment of warming up and being smart about pitching starts when they are young. It should become a permanent part of their life before a game or practice. This is also the responsibility of the coach to make sure his players are warmed up properly and that if they do have players with arm pain that they speak up. Set strict pitch counts for guys and stick to it. I love the game. It is hard to wake up unable to go play everyday and just think about throwing. I learned from my experience that the game can give you the world. I may not be able to play but I can give to the up and coming generation of baseball players so they learn from my mistake, and hopefully pass their knowledge and experiences down to the following generation. Rick commented: Brennen, sorry to hear about your situation. I appreciate you sharing your story, and sharing what you have learned. It is sometimes hard to get young players to follow a disciplined regimen for throwing. Warmup time quite often becomes socialization time, which can surely lead to arm problems at almost any point. Warming up properly and paying attention to how your arm feels at any given time can certainly help avoid arm issues. Pitch counts are also a help. Proper mechanics as well. Yours in baseball, Rick
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