Helping Your Baseball Pitcher Recover from Arm Injuries: A Guide for Parents

As a parent of a young baseball pitcher, watching your child experience an arm injury can be tough. Baseball injuries, especially to the arm, are increasingly common in youth sports for a variety of reasons. It’s essential to understand how to help your child recover safely and confidently, ensuring they can return to the game stronger than ever. Below, we’ll discuss some key aspects of arm injury recovery for pitchers and provide tips to support your child throughout the process.

1. The Importance of Proper Physical Rehab

After an arm injury, the primary focus should be on physical rehabilitation that focuses on restoring strength and range of motion in the injured arm and identifying deficits in other areas (i.e. thoracic spine, hips, core strength) that could be placing excessive stress on the arm with throwing. Once a pitcher has developed foundational levels of strength, endurance and stability, they will then begin an upper body plyometric progressions with medicine balls and plyo balls. Upon completion of their plyometrics, they will begin an interval flat ground throwing program with a gradual return to the mound.

2. The Mental Side of Injury Recovery

While physical rehab is crucial, there is a signficant mental component for athletes especially if this is their first time being injured and away from game competition. mental rehabilitation often gets overlooked. This is why it is important to encourage them throughout the rehab process and helping them stay focused on the long-term goal of returning to pitching pain-free.

3. Gradual Return to Throwing

Dr. Jeff Lewis emphasizes that a pitcher’s return to throwing should be gradual. Ultimately, the length of the throwing program will depend on how long they were shut down from throwing. If a pitcher was shut down for only 3 weeks, they will return to games much quicker than a player that was shut down for 3 months. This process involves starting with light throwing at shorter distances, then throwing at greater distances, a gradual mound progression, facing hitters and then returning to games.. It’s important not to rush this phase to prevent re-injury. Make sure your child follows their rehab plan closely, with guidance from their therapist.

5. Injury Prevention for the Future

Once your child has recovered, focus on injury prevention. This includes ongoing strength training, proper warm-up routines, and ensuring they don’t overuse their arm during the season. Staying proactive can help reduce the risk of future injuries.

By understanding both the physical and mental aspects of recovery, you can support your young pitcher on their journey back to the game.

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