ArmCare.com

The Truth About Pitch Counts: Are You Risking Your Arm?

Traditional pitch counts are outdated. They treat every player the same—ignoring players arm strength, fatiguability and how well they recover. That’s a recipe for injury.

Individualized Pitch Counts change the game. Instead of guessing, we use real data to set daily limits based on your arm’s condition. Strength, fatigue, recovery—it all matters.

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STOP PITCHING KIDS ON BACK-TO-BACK DAYS.

Every weekend, travel-ball coaches try to save their best pitchers by throwing them just 1–2 innings Saturday, then bringing them back Sunday.

But those short outings still create fatigue.

After analyzing over 161,000 paired arm strength exams from the ArmCare database, including pitch-count data, we found that less than 30 pitches:

28.4% lost more than 10% of their arm strength.

8.2% lost more than 20%.

Research has also found that pitchers who regularly throw while fatigued had 36× the odds of being in the group requiring shoulder or elbow surgery.

There's a better way.

Let pitchers work deeper into Saturday's pool games within appropriate pitch limits. Save fresh arms for Sunday's championship run. Add pitcher-only players if needed.

Winning a tournament isn't worth risking a kid's arm.

PITCH-COUNT ELIGIBLE DOES NOT MEAN RECOVERED.

@USABaseball @ASMI

NEW DATA: How recovered is a pitcher's arm the day after throwing?

We analyzed 22,272 cases where arm strength was measured before pitching, immediately after, and again the next day.

Among pitchers who lost 20–30% of their strength after throwing:

77% had NOT fully recovered the next day.

41% were still down more than 10%.

Yet pitch-count rules may still allow these athletes to pitch again.

The rules measure pitches. We measure recovery.

Pitch-count eligible does NOT mean recovered.

Stop pitching kids on back-to-back days.

STOP PITCHING KIDS ON BACK-TO-BACK DAYS.

Coaches think they're saving their best pitchers by throwing them just 1–2 innings Saturday, then bringing them back Sunday.

Our data shows why that's a problem.

After just 1–29 pitches, youth players ages 8–14 showed:

28.4% lost more than 10% of their acceleration strength.

8.2% lost more than 20%.

Here's why that matters.

Research from ASMI found that pitchers who regularly threw with arm fatigue had 36× the odds of being in the group that required shoulder or elbow surgery.

Yet pitch-count rules can still allow these players to pitch the next day.

PITCH-COUNT ELIGIBLE DOES NOT MEAN RECOVERED.

There's a better way.

Let your pitchers work deeper into Saturday's pool games within appropriate pitch limits. Then bring fresh pitchers on Sunday for your championship run.

Need more arms? Add pitchers to your roster or bring pitcher-only players.

Stop trying to save arms by spreading short outings across two days.

Protect their arms. Change the strategy.

@USABaseball @ASMI

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.