I think we'll post this every Friday before weekend tournaments begin. Please help circulate this so all travel ball coaches have seen it. There’s a massive problem causing arm injuries at youth travel ball tournaments, and we can change it today. Stop pitching kids on back-to-back days. Every weekend, teams play two pool games Saturday and potentially 3–4 more Sunday. Coaches try to “save” their best arms by throwing them just 1–2 innings Saturday, then bring them back Sunday. But those Saturday innings still create fatigue. And the research is alarming: - Youth pitchers who threw on consecutive days had 2.5x the odds of arm pain. - Another study found that pitchers who regularly pitched with arm fatigue were 36x more likely to be in the group that required shoulder or elbow surgery. Pitch-count eligible does not mean recovered. Coaches need to step up and protect your players. This change can happen now, we don’t need to wait for a change in pitch count regulations. Here is the change: Treat the pool play games like you would any other game, letting the pitchers give you quality innings. Then on Sunday - use the fresh arms that didn’t pitch on Saturday as well as having a couple extra (pitcher only) to help you make a championship run on Sunday. Test arm strength to confirm recovery. If strength hasn’t returned to baseline, neither has the arm. We can debate pitch-count rules and tournament regulations. But there’s one change we can make this weekend: Stop pitching kids on back-to-back days.

Injuries occur when stress overcomes the capacity of the joint or tissue. In pitching, increasing velocity increases the force applied to the shoulder and elbow regardless of mechanics. The only way to combat the increase in force is to increase the size and strength of the tissue. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments all respond to training by increasing thickness and resistance to tensile stress. As a result, when pitchers strength train, they can reduce mechanical stress. On the flip side, when muscles become weak and atrophy, stress increases due to less tissue area.

youtu.be/MxA7zNBLmvs?si=8Wqv… 100 mph is no longer rare. Unfortunately, arm injuries aren’t either. After watching this outstanding video by Joon Lee and Adam Ottavino on the rise of 100 mph pitchers, the message felt clear: velocity keeps climbing, injuries keep climbing...and there may be no real solution to the arm injury epidemic. I disagree. The solution is here. The challenge is having the discipline to listen. Here’s what makes this so difficult...ArmCare tests a pitcher’s arm before they throw and compares that data to their normal baseline. If arm strength is down 8+ lbs, if fatigue is showing up, if imbalances show up, if recovery is off...the app doesn’t just show the data. It flags it and may tell that pitcher: do not pitch today. And I get it...it’s a big game. Your ace is on the mound. You run the test, see the alert, question it, test again...same result. The arm is fatigued. Now the coach has a decision to make. Listen to the arm...or roll the dice. Research has shown pitching while fatigued is the #1 risk factor for injury, making a pitcher 36x more likely to get hurt...not 36%, 36 times. That’s the uncomfortable truth. Most major arm injuries aren’t coming out of nowhere. The warning signs were there. The data was there. The arm was talking. And here’s what’s often missed...fatigued arms usually don’t perform their best anyway. Command is often the first thing to go. More missed spots. More stressful pitches. More fatigue. More risk. The hardest part in baseball isn’t collecting the data. It’s having the courage to trust it when the game is on the line.

“In my 52 years of coaching pitchers, ArmCare is the single most important advancement in baseball.” — ABCA Hall of Fame Coach Terry Ayers

🔥 NEW PRODUCT 🔥 – Crossover Symmetry TORQ System Now available: armcare.com/products/torq-sy… Build Rotational Power The Crossover Symmetry TORQ System is built for rotational athletes who want to throw harder, hit further, and move with more power. Pitchers—CS TORQ builds the rotational strength and stability needed to add velocity, sharpen command, and stay strong all season. Hitters—CS TORQ trains the explosive core power that drives bat speed, exit velocity, and hard contact. This isn’t just a workout—it’s a complete strength system that trains your body to produce more power, transfer it efficiently, and turn it into on-field performance.

We're excited to see @PerfectGameUSA leading the way as the first organization to implement Arm Health assessments at this level! 💪⚾ This partnership is a game-changer for player development and injury prevention.

Kenny Cosgrove: He transformed his game by strength testing his arm and completing the individualized Arm Care program prescribed in the ArmCare App. Kenny boosted his arm strength from 88 to an impressive 110. The result a 12 mph increase in throwing velocity. @cosgrove_k42844

109 Arm Score is legit. Keep it up!

Better Mechanics?

It's about to go down on January 5th at the @ABCA1945 The debate to end all debates! @108_Performance will take on @ArmCarecom Topic: What matters most- Strength or Mechanics to end the injury epidemic. Details to follow. Going to be epic.

Change my Mind: Pitching Mechanics Don't Cause Arm Injuries While it's a common belief that pitching mechanics are directly linked to arm injuries, current research suggests otherwise. Although optimizing mechanics can certainly improve performance (increased velocity & command), there isn't substantial evidence that poor mechanics cause injuries. History has shown us pitchers with textbook mechanics who have succumbed to injuries, as well as those with unconventional techniques who thrived. At the highest levels of baseball, we often find that the differentiators for health and performance are arm strength, muscular balance, and recovery capacity. The injury data points to fatigue, muscular imbalances, and weakness as the primary causes - all indicators that strength matters most. Fatigue is the strongest risk predictor for injuries by far because it causes compensation, a change in mechanics. This is different from poor or optimal mechanics as there is no way to define what poor or optimal means. The definition of poor mechanics is currently not qualified in sports science research as it relates to career longevity. How would you define optimal mechanics? Many would argue Shohei Ohtani is the best player ever with the best hitting and pitching mechanics ever seen but he’s had 2 TJ’s and missed a ton of time. Do you consider him to have poor mechanics? In the media, he referenced arm fatigue throughout the entire year. He’s also a starter. There’s a high likelihood that fatigue wasn’t quantified and his motion changed overloading torque on his weak arm. So how do we combat fatigue? Players need to focus on arm strength, muscular balance and monitor fatigue. Then use this info to make adjustments to throwing workloads & guide arm care training. This will reduce injury risks significantly. Our question for the baseball industry is, “if the throwing arm has optimal strength, fatigue-resistant and no muscular imbalances, the athlete also has no pain and is performing well -would you alter his mechanics?” How do we know if our idea of “poor mechanics” whatever that is and changing an athletes’ motor preferences is not the real reason for injuries… increasing throwing arm fatigue by increasing effort of muscles that are unaccustomed to the athlete? Long held injury beliefs about the inverted W have not been shown to prove true. Any arm action is at an equal risk. A change in trunk position and trunk speed has been an injury factor, but the change in typical trunk motion comes from lower ground reaction force production from lower body fatigue and also slower arm speed which arises from rotator cuff and elbow extension speed. This momentum shift has been shown to fatigue the arm further. Fatigue causes Weakness. Weakness causes Compensation. Movement Compensations coupled with weakened dynamic stabilizers are a recipe for disaster. #PitchingMechanics #ArmCare #InjuryPrevention