So, I’ve been having this conversation on Twitter with a baseball guy about pitch counts.

If you’ve never checked out Twitter, it’s a pretty cool “micro” blogging community. Basically it’s short updates about what people are doing all around the world. If you have a f*ree account, you can login and see the updates from all the people you are following. There are even some cool softball people on there. Like I said, there’s no cost to use this tool – check it out at www.Twitter.com – follow me at Twitter.com/staciemahoe

Anyway – back to the story about my conversation…

One day on twitter I mentioned that I think that baseball people seem to be overly obsessed with pitch count; that they seem almost “religious” about it. Of course, this baseball guy responds that it’s not religion, but science. He said that if I’d seen the injuries to young pitchers arms (bone spurs, rotator cuff issues, damage to growth plates etc) that I’d understand.

I completely understand wanting to prevent devastating injuries to young athletes. I’m all for that. I just don’t think pitch count is an effective way to do that. In my discussion with baseball guy I talked about how I feel too many coaches are using pitch count as a “rule” rather than as a guideline. I think that there is sooooo much obsession with “pitch count” in baseball that coaches put too much emphasis on it and not enough on proper training, proper mechanics, proper care, proper warm-up, and listening to your body.

I feel that pitch counts are excellent…as a GUIDELINE!

Baseball guy said that rules have to be used when people don’t know how to properly use a guideline. However, I feel that if coaches are overlooking those other critical issues and just using pitch count as a rule, they could HURT their pitchers with their pitch count “obsession.”

For example, maybe a particular pitcher is not supposed to go over 80 pitches per game. But what if that number is actually too high for that particular pitcher, and their coach incorrectly thinks they are “safe” so long as they stay under that number? The pitcher could actually get hurt pitching up to that number because it’s not an accurate number or because maybe today he pitched 200 pitches during warm-up due to a delay of the game vs the “normal” 100 he usually does.

This idea of being “safe” so long as you are strict on pitch count is silly.

First of all, who came up with that number for that pitcher’s count and what did they base it upon?

What each individual person can handle varies greatly depending upon a huge number of factors.

One pitcher can be bigger and stronger physically, but maybe he has mechanics that are not as physically sounds as the next pitcher who is not as physically strong and fit. The one with great mechanics may be able to handle throwing more pitches even if the other pitcher is bigger stronger and does all the non-pitching training (strengthening, conditioning, etc) correctly.

Then problem I have with “pitch count” is that a number of baseball people have told me you don’t count pitches in practice or in warm-ups. Why not?

I was told that they are not “game intensity” so they are not counted.

Again, that makes NO sense to me. Are you saying that none of those pitches have any effect on the strain or stress put on the pitcher’s arm? He can throw 1000 pitches in 2 days of practice and the number of pitches he throws in tomorrow’s game is the only number that holds significance?

If you are going to be so obsessed with pitch count, I would think ALL pitches need to be counted to have any kind of accurate feel for what kind of strain is being put on a pitchers arm. Why should only certain pitches count? What do you think? And I also find it hard to believe that baseball pitchers practice at one intensity then throw at another in game situations. Do they not practice how they play?

I’ve always thought that softball pitchers had a tougher time in practice because they often pitch for 45 minutes to an hour straight with no breaks. In games, they’d pitch an inning, then get to rest, then pitch again, then get to rest.

What about the players who’s parents work out with them outside the team practice. So you have 2 pitchers who have pitch counts of 80 pitches for a game. You also monitor their practice time, but one only throws in practice (where you see every pitch and know what’s going on), then the other is throwing hundreds more pitches each week at home with dad. Does the game pitch count number really have “that” much significance or mean anything?

Then what about outfielders? I mean these guys (in baseball) are often trying to throw a ball hundreds of feet as quickly or as hard as they can (if they are practicing to throw a guy out at 3rd or at home) – yet no one counts their throws. Do they not put strain on their arm as well for throwing? I’m sure there are some outfielders out there who will take hundreds of balls a day maybe even six days a week, yet no count cares to do any kind of count for them.

Baseball guy also talked about how softball people wouldn’t understand because our pitchers have a motion that is less damaging to the arm. Well, there was just a study done that shows the underhand windmill may actually cause more strain on the anterior shoulder than an overhand throw. (The link to that blog post and video is: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/04/why-do-softball-pitchers-experience.html )

After seeing this information about strain of softball pitching, baseball guy tells me that maybe softball should have pitch count rules too (he said it with a smile of course).

This is the summary of what I said back to him…

All physical activity puts strain on our bodies and what each person can handle varies greatly depending on a number of factors (does this person warm-up properly, do they do other strengthening exercises for supporting muscles, what are their mechanics like, do they practice outside of practice, do they have tightness anywhere in their body that may alter their motion just a bit from what it normally is, did they sleep well last night, etc, etc, etc).

Again, pitch counts are great as a GUIDELINE, but educating your players, doing proper warm-ups, proper training, using proper mechanics, and learning how to listen to your body are also critical. These issues are too easily overlooked when pitch counts are being used as a hard, fast rule vs as a guideline.

I’ve seen situations where very good softball players (strongest arms on their team) and they are the ones experiencing arm pain. Why? Because they often throw with ONLY arm. Everyone else on the team has to use their WHOLE body to get their strongest throw off.   But players with really strong arms can use just their arm and still throw harder than just about anyone on their team. They are very STRONG. They may never have had coaches get on them to use their legs or the rest of their body to make their throw. Sometimes coaches are looking at the end result only (Wow! What a smokin’ throw!) and pay no attention to the process (yeah, the throw was great, but they could have done it better – used their leg/body vs just their arm).

As a coach, in practice, I don’t care so much if the end result “looked good” I want you to do it RIGHT! And I want you to do it right over and over and over and over again until it’s second nature and you no longer have to think about it.

Do you know what was in baseball guy’s response?

“Agree absolutely, but that assumes a coach with player interest paramount…”

Ouch…okay, now my heart hurts because this just brings to light the unfortunate truth that there are coaches out there who are NOT coaching with the player’s best interest at heart. That’s another topic, but disheartening all the same.

Do I think you’re a bad coach if you don’t make every call right? Do I think you’re a bad coach if you put your player’s in to situations every now and then that DO push their limits? No I don’t. It happens to all of us. We won’t always make the right call. We may get “stuck” in situations where we have to push players a little farther than we’d typically like physically, but do to so in and of itself doesn’t make you bad. However, do to so without any regard to what’s best for the players is just not right. The ones who DO have their player’s best interests at heart with likely do everything they can to minimize the negative effects of their “push” before (if possible), but certainly during and after.

There is one more thing to consider in regards to boys vs girls in this whole strain on the body issue. As a coach who deals with high school aged girls – fact is MOST are just about done growing if not completely done. There is typically no more serious growth going on with these players. However with baseball that’s not necessarily true. With high school aged players and maybe even college players, there may still be significant growth or development still taking place with throws yet another factor in to play for baseball players, coaches, and parents.

Thanks for letting me share ALL of that with you. My venting is done for the day. And imagine…this whole “conversation” took place right there on Twitter. Like I said, it’s a pretty cool thing. Follow me and join in a conversation with me at Twitter.com/staciemahoe.

See you there!
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Don’t forget, you can also connect with me and many other great fastpitch fanatics at Fastpitch World. http://fastpitchworld.ning.com