In 2010 when your child was 10 years old you sent him out to the diamond with his friends to have some fun and hit some baseballs. The next week your son decides that he wants to play competitive baseball with his friends on the local travel team. They will have practice all winter inside and will travel throughout the surrounding area and in many different states. A few years later you find yourselves in the hospital watching your young pre adolescent child getting his arm operated on because his coach didn’t have any concern for his future in sports. He was diagnosed with a torn UCL which is the main tendon in the arm that is stretched through the elbow, Similar to the ACL or MCL in your knee. It all happened because the coach pressured …show more content…
What many do not know is that the curveball is the root for many arm complications in young players. The two most common injuries in all of baseball is the tearing of the Rotator Cuff and the UCL (ulnar collateral ligament). Many, if not all of these arm injuries in pitchers happen due to the overthrowing of the curveball, or throwing the curveball with bad mechanics, causing the twisting and turning of the ligaments in the player’s arm. Although curveballs are important and crucial pitch in the game of baseball and many players say they are a necessity to succeed, young baseball players shouldn't be able to throw curve balls until their arms are fully developed because curveballs contort young players arms and put large amounts of tension on undeveloped tendons and bones, ultimately ending in Tommy John surgery and months, or even years without throwing a baseball. This great epidemic is having a great impact on the young players of this generation and on the game of …show more content…
Many believe that an ace can't make it to the big leagues without a curveball and many coaches say that they don't have an effect on the arm. Alex Lange was a tall and lanky right handed starter who commited to play baseball at LSU, a school with a very reputable baseball program that has won many National Championships. Alex was selected by LSU due to his mid-nineties fastball and his foolish curveball that hitters couldn’t touch. After his college career he was selected to play in the Major Leagues by the Chicago Cubs in the first round of the draft.(Chatelain) After careful analysis, we can see that Chatelain is trying to show that Alex was able to build up his draft stock and make a name for himself because he had a great sweeping curveball that was appealing to MLB coaches everywhere. He was able to be successful by throwing the bender from a young age and finding the perfect balance of spin and deception to make himself successful. Many pitching coaches believe that if a curveball is thrown correctly it has no effect on the arm. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, a youth physician and baseball researcher, “In a study that was