How many pitches should i throw to prevent arm injuries?

Question

I'm a 14 year old pitcher and I always have coaches, teammates, and just about everyone else telling me that I'm goinng to destroy my arm with all the pitching I do. I often throw over 250 pitches on back to back, and sometimes up to 4 days in a row. However, my arm feels amazingly strong and consistent. I've never had any arm/shoulder problems, but I'm being told that I'm on pace to blow my arm out by age 16. It seems like with every time i throw, i get stronger, not depleted. I was just wondering if what I'm doing is really going to hurt me or not.

Answer 1

my son is 12 yrs. old and he is a pitcher. His coaches and the doctors kept telling him to only throw about 75 pitches per game and only pitch 2 games a week. He was on three travel teams and he was pitching 4 all of them. He kept saying his arm was fine, and he actually tore a ligament and was out for the rest of the season. I just said "I told u so'. For ur age, my doctor says to throw about 90-95 pitches a game and only pitch 2 maximum 3 games a week. Hope this helps! Good luck with baseball

Answer 2

I can't believe some of the answers so far that I have read,

1) No need to throw 100+ pitches on back to back days...Muscle is built by there being micro tears in the muscle. You work out one day, rest the next, and on that day that you are resting, your muscle rebuilds itself. If you don't rest, your arm has no time to rebuild.
2)I would give yourself AT LEAST 2 days in between an 80 pitch day. You may want to long toss the day after you pitch, but you shouldn't pitch back to pack 70+ pitches. Long toss will get rid of the lactic acid buildup in the arm.

3)Any coach who allows you to throw as much as you describe is an idiot and has no business out there. Buy him a trophy and get him off the diamond.
4) 250 pitches a day, as you describe is too much for ANYONE, not just a 14 year old.

Answer 3

when I was young I also pitched every-day and never counted the number of pitches, and never had a sore arm. I dont think its the number of pitches but the kind of pitches, Curve-balls will hurt a young mans arm ,just concentrate on a fastball and change-up and of coarse throw strikes.I coached little league for many years and dont let my players throw more than 4 or 5 a game(curveballs that is) and mainly on a 2 strike count. back 50 years ago pitchers were throwing both games of a double header,that was before the relief pitcher was even thought about

Answer 4

its not about how good or strong your arm feels, the more tired you arm get the more suceptible it is to injury, you should try to throw about 80-120 pitches every third day, your arm will never get any stronger if you never rest it so make sure you give yourself at least 3 straight days of rest after thowing 100 pitches

Answer 5

You're young and spry, but your arm right now is in the best shape it will ever be - I promise, it's all downhill from here.

Never throw more than 100 pitches a night. Doing more will cause damage to your muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints that you might not recover from.

Answer 6

you should only throw about 100 pitches at 100% a night max.
take a two day rest you will be fine.

Answer 7

if you are serious, which i highly doubt you are... your gunna blow out your arm by next week not 16