1. Ramp up slowly and warm up properly

The data on youth baseball injuries are limited, but studies of MLB players indicate that injuries are more likely to happen at the beginning of the season than at the end. One such study suggested that players were 10 times more likely to get hurt in the month of April than in September.

Why?

First, many players go too hard too soon at the start of spring training. This is especially true of young players, many of whom have not picked up a baseball in months. Baseball is a power sport that involves explosive movements. Adding too much volume to these movements at the start of practices can lead to a variety of overload injuries. Coaches need to gradually increase the number of repetitions that players perform during early-season practices.

Second, the weather is cold in most of the country at the beginning of baseball season, and lower temperatures make it harder to get the body loose and stay warm throughout a game or practice. Coaches should mandate a thorough warm-up before any team activity and spend extra time warming up when the temperature drops.

2. Monitor pitching quantity

One of the easiest ways to get injured in baseball is by pitching too much. Every year, as more kids play year round and play more games, the number of pitching-related injuries rises.

RELATED: How Baseball Players Can Prevent Hamstring Injuries

A 2012 study titled Prevention of Elbow Injuries in Youth Baseball conveys some alarming statistics and provides guidelines to avoid pitching-related arm injuries. According to the study, kids who:

• Pitched more than 100 innings per year were three times more likely to need surgery
• Threw 80-plus pitches per game were four times more likely to need surgery
• Pitched competitively for 8-plus months per year were five times more likely to need surgery
• Pitched regularly with arm fatigue were 36 times more likely to need surgery
• Pitched and played catch increased their risk of injury due to increased throwing volume

Simply put, throwing a baseball is incredibly taxing on the arm, so monitoring pitching quantity can go a long way toward preventing injury. In addition, as pitch counts rise, coaches should monitor throwing mechanics and look for signs of fatigue. Players should communicate with their coaches when their arms are tired or they begin to feel pain.

3. Maintain strength and mobility

Throwing, hitting, running and pitching are all powerful, explosive movements that require a great deal of strength and coordination. For example, throwing a baseball requires incredible contributions from the lower body to generate force; a strong, stable core to transfer force; and a mobile shoulder joint and strong scapular stabilizers to move the arm to throw the ball. If any link in the chain loses strength, mobility or stability, the whole movement is affected.

If strength, stability or mobility suffer, mechanics will change—which is a leading cause of injury. A study done at Northwestern University showed that pitchers who had more muscular strength placed less stress on their elbows when pitching. Their muscles were better able to protect their elbow joint.

Baseball is unique in that games are played often with few off days. During the season, players should strength train 2-3 times per week to maintain their strength. Workouts should be shorter than off-season workouts and should focus on the entire body. Below is a sample in-season workout:

• Deadlifts – 2-3 x 5-8
• Push-Ups – 2-3 x 10-15
• Walking Lunges – 2-3 x 10/side
• Dumbbell Rows – 2-3 x 10/side
• Planks – 2-3 x 30 seconds

Along with maintaining strength, baseball players need to work on mobility as the season wears on. They should spend time foam rolling the major muscles of their upper and lower body to keep their muscle tissue functioning optimally. In addition, they should focus on the areas of the arm that take much of the stress during the throwing motion: the posterior shoulder; the biceps; and the inside of the  elbow, below the joint. It is well known that throwers lose internal rotation of the shoulder and elbow extension over the course of the season, leading to more stress being placed on the shoulder and elbow. Doing soft tissue work on these three areas can go a long way to helping them maintain mobility and lower their injury risk.

Try this:

Posterior Shoulder

• Place a lacrosse ball on back of shoulder.
• Cross arm over chest.
• Roll muscles in the back of the shoulder for 1 minute.

Biceps

• Place a lacrosse ball on biceps.
• Roll ball over length of muscle moving up and down for 1 minute.

Inside of elbow, below joint

• Place a lacrosse ball on inside of elbow just below the elbow joint.
• Roll area for 1 minute making sure to not roll on the bone.

RELATED: 

• Prevent Baseball Injuries With This 10-Minute Warm-Up 
• 5 Bodyweight Exercises to Prevent Baseball Injuries

During this break, there are two things you can do to improve your recovery and set the stage for better performance and lower injury risk.

1. Take time away from baseball

As much as you love playing baseball, time away is essential, both mentally and physically. Physically, baseball is a frontal (side-to-side) and transverse (rotational) plane-dominated game. Throwing and hitting, the two most common activities in the game, are examples of frontal and transverse movements. In addition, almost every movement in baseball is an explosive, powerful movement. Over the course of a six- to seven-month season, countless throws, swings and sprints can take a toll on the body and lead to injury.

Give the body time to recover from this volume of work.

• Avoid frontal plane movement such as Side Lunges, Heidens, Shuffles, etc.
• Avoid rotational work, such as Medicine Ball Throws, and limit hitting.
• Limit plyometrics and sprint work.
• Put the bat down and take a break from hitting.
• Take time away from throwing, especially pitchers.

Baseball pitching, especially, puts a tremendous amount of stress on the entire body, especially the shoulder and elbow.

According to Glenn Fleisig and James Andrews in their 2012 study, the number one risk factor in a throwing-related injury is pitching too much. Among many other statistics, they state that pitching more than 8 months a year can lead to an increased risk of serious elbow or shoulder injury.

2. Restore your body

Given the repetitive nature of baseball, you risk overusing many areas of the body and losing mobility and stability over the course of the season. This is especially true of throwing.

In the pitching motion, the humerus internally rotates at over 6,000 degrees per second, and certain muscle groups work hard on every throw to slow the arm down. So by the end of the season, some parts of the body are pretty beat up, including the posterior (back), shoulder, biceps, and medial (inside) elbow.

In addition to the muscles that help slow down the arm, the muscles that help accelerate or internally rotate the arm—the lats and pecs—can show a loss of mobility over the course of the season. Restoring proper tissue quality in these areas can decrease injury risk in the throwing arm.

Finally, the lower body can take a beating during the season. Spend some time foam rolling the adductors (inner thighs) and quads to allow for proper lower-body function.

Use this foam-rolling circuit to restore normal tissue quality in these areas.

Spend 1-2 minutes on each area:

• Lats (foam roller)
• Quads (foam roller)
• Adductors (foam roller)
• Pecs (lacrosse ball under collar bone)
• Biceps (lacrosse ball along length of muscle)
• Inside of Forearm (lacrosse ball on forearm)

RELATED

• Should Pitchers Ice After Throwing to Prevent Shoulder Injuries?
• Get Stronger in the Off-Season With This 16-Week Baseball Training Program
• Why Baseball Players Shouldn’t Bench Press

This debate has become a hot topic because of the struggles of Aaron Judge in the first few weeks after he won the derby. As of Aug. 4, Judge, who was the front runner for American League MVP and Rookie of the Year, is hitting just .164 since the All-Star break. So, is there evidence to support his struggles coming from participation in the Home Run Derby?

To determine if there is a decline in production, home runs per game, batting average and ops (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) were analyzed from 2000-2016. The participants of the Home Run Derby were compared to the top 8-10 (depending on season) home run hitters not in the contest. Players who played in fewer than 55 games in either the first or second half of the season were excluded. Here are the numbers:

Home runs per game

(Pre All-Star Break / Post All-Star Break Change)

Home Run Derby Participants: .24 / .20 (-.04 difference)

Didn’t Participate in Home Run Derby: .28 / .22 (-.06 difference)

Winner: HR Derby

Batting Average

(Pre All-Star Break / Post All-Star Break Change)

Home Run Derby Participants: .300 / .287 (-.013 difference)

Didn’t Participate in Home Run Derby: .289 / .280 (-.009 difference)

Winner: Non-Derby

OPS (On-Base + Slugging)

(Pre All-Star Break / Post All-Star Break Change)

Home Run Derby Participants: .958 / .901 (-.057 difference)

Didn’t Participate in Home Run Derby: .955 / .901 (-.054 difference)

Winner: Non-Derby

The first takeaway from these statistics is that almost across the board, offensive production drops in the second half of the season. There were only 5 of the 17 seasons in this study where any of the 3 statistical categories improved after the All-Star Break. This could be due to a number of different factors including fatigue, injury, more detailed scouting information available, or many others.

The second conclusion is that there is almost no statistical difference between the two groups. The Home Run Derby group had a smaller drop in home runs per game, but a slightly bigger drop in batting average and OPS than the non-derby group. However, these differences are negligible. Both batting average and OPS are about the difference of one hit over the course of the second half of the season.

There will always be outliers such as Brandon Inge, who participated in the 2009 Home Run Derby. Inge hit .268 in the first half with 22 home runs and an OPS of .876. After the break, he hit .186 with 6 home runs and an OPS of .542. However, over the course of the past 17 seasons, there is little to no difference between those who participate in the Home Run Derby and those who do not.

READ MORE:

• The 4 Fundamentals of Hitting a Baseball
• Baseball Swing Exercises to Improve Hitting Power 
• How Dustin Pedroia Develops Home Run Power