Youth sports

I can't stand the politics. I don't understand the need to win a 7-8 year old league. I try to make my team better and assist other teams players. I mention something to a kid, trying to help him out and the coach says "I can handle it, worry about your own team" or something like that.

The league is a township league. All the kids are going to go to the same high school. In the big picture, they are all on the same team.

We're having a 7-8 year old tourney after the season with a couple of nearby towns. I may volunteer to ump to toss some of these hardcore assholes out of the game

as someone who has studied sports psychology, the literature and research concludes that up until age 11, kids do not care if they win or lose. all they care about is whether or not they have fun with their friends. people put too much pressure on these kids at such a young age. most kids eventually burn out because they do not want to feel that pressure from coaches or parents.

when i was a kid i played in a church league that played 14 games. i played in that league from age 5 until 12, and then i switched to a much more competitive league where like 30 games were played. i did not play serious travel baseball until high school, and that is what prepared me for the 2 years of division 1 college ball i played.

the thing parents have to be wary of is the "win at all costs" coaches at such a young age. these are the coaches who have no regard for the kid's safety. these are the coaches who will take one pitcher and ride him every game all year. i see kids like that weekly in our MD office. they end up with stress fractures in the growth plates of their elbows and shoulders. this is want is called "little league elbow" or "little league shoulder". if your kid has this injury, they are completely shut down from baseball and any use of that arm for 3 months. then they have to complete 3-5 weeks of physical therapy to regain strength after the injury. once PT is completed, then they can begin a graduated return to throw and return to pitching protocol, which takes about 3 weeks barring any setbacks. once they complete that then they can return to baseball with no restriction. if this fails, and if the injury looks bad on the mri, like if the growth plate is displaced, sometimes they need surgery.

there are established pitch counts for every age group broken down by age (skeletally immature ages, up to age 16 for boys) that breaks down the maximum safe number of pitches per game, per week, per month, and per season. it also breaks down appropriate ages when they can start throwing breaking balls. these pitch counts were designed with injury prevention in mind. every kid we see with a little league elbow or shoulder was unaware of these pitch counts and the coaches kept the kids in there way beyond the maximum number of safe pitches.

i guess the point of my post is just make sure the kids are having fun, don't put too much pressure on them, and make sure the coach adheres to the established pitch counts/safety standards.

this is the one that ours is based on. we have changed it up just a little bit because this one looks crowded with the clip art and stuff, but the pitch counts and ages are pretty standardized.

http://www.csosortho.com/pdf/baseball-p ... -types.pdf

just to clarify, the injuries i talked about are not just specific to pitchers. in our practice we see just as many catchers with these overuse injuries. to a lesser extent shortstops and 3rd basemen. we rarely see it in an outfielder just because they make significantly less throws per game. unless they also pitch. that is when we usually see it in outfielders. but the pitch count applies to all pitchers, whether they primarily pitch, or whether they pitch in a secondary or tertiary role.

I didnt see a thread on this and found this on a search.

Just wanted to say that Youth Sports are literally insane.  My son is only 8 (soon to be 9), and I think I can write a book on what we have been through.  Worse yet, I feel like I'm probably a piece of the insanity as well.  You need to be.