You may not know this, but top orthopaedic surgeon’s offices are filled with young boys, usually 11-12 years old, getting Tommy John surgery – or some other surgery to try and fix the damage done from throwing a baseball improperly or too often without sufficient rest.
The damage, by the way, is almost always to the tendons. It’s not the muscles that get injured.
This is a subject near and dear to my heart as my son is an 11-year old pitcher with a cannon for an arm. I can assure you that I give him many exercises to make sure he is throwing properly, as well as to continually strengthen the tendons in his body. And these exercises are never anything to stop doing or think you’ve mastered. They’re foundational.
Now, I can assure you that my way of training my son is NOT the norm. Most coaches and parents don’t listen to their injured child when his arm is starting to get hurt – and when he is injured, they either keep pitching him or give him a rest that is grossly insufficient. And even if the child is rested, there is almost always ZERO effective rehab and/or strengthening work done for the injured tendon. If anything is done, it’s most likely for the muscular system.
Sad, but true.
Many, many promising young athletes are ruined before they reach high school.
Earlier today I received the following letter from a father/baseball coach who followed my advice when his son, a catcher, injured his arm throwing a runner out:
Matt,
Back in early May my son, Evan, hurt his elbow throwing a runner out from the catcher position. He pulled himself out of the game right after the throw, told me something felt weird in his elbow. I could’ve done what so many dads might do in this situation: Call their son a “wuss” and tell him to “get back out there.”
But I know my son. He doesn’t say he’s hurt unless he is, so I didn’t question him and sat him for the rest of the game.
One of the coaches on our staff is an orthopaedic surgeon. He looked at my Evan’s elbow and noticed some swelling and told us to ice it and rest him a week. So we did.
The following week at practice Evan was still in pain and didn’t practice. Doc had us come to his office the next morning for x-rays. Good News…growth plates looked good; no stress fracture. “Let’s give it another week of rest,” Doc said.
Another week goes by and Evan still hasn’t thrown a ball and is still in pain. Doc orders an MRI, which reveals “traction apophositis” which is a fancy term for stressed tendons at the growth plate. We are told to make sure he’s pain free before he begins throwing again so as not to fracture his growth plates. If we don’t play it cautious, it could result in surgery if those tendons detach or worse, fracture Evan’s growth plate.
Evan was already 3 weeks into being “shut down” and Doctor’s orders of rest weren’t helping him recover as he was still in pain.
It was about this time I was recommended your product How to Eliminate Elbow Tendonitis.
Admittedly, I was quite hesitant to get it at first as I knew my son didn’t have what many consider “tennis elbow” or “elbow tendonitis”.
Good thing I didn’t listen to my head and went with my gut.
We got the DVD and watched it together and began doing the exercises. I figured it was important to do something to help Evan strengthen his tendons without stressing them.
I was shocked when he was feeling much better a few days into the regimen. One night, as I was throwing Batting Practice, and Evan was still sitting, our team doctor asked how he was doing and if we wanted to start PT. I told him we’d been doing some exercises on our own. Doc said, “Show me what you’ve been doing.”
So I proceeded to show him the routine you teach on your DVD.
With a look of amazement he said, “ Evan has been doing THIS on a daily basis?”
I said, “Yup, what would they have us do at PT?”
Doc said “ You don’t need PT…keep doing what you’ve been doing.”
I could tell by the look on the doctor’s face that he knew what we were doing was so much better than what they’d have us do in Physical Therapy. At that moment, I knew what you taught us was far superior to anything the Doctor or the Physical Therapist would’ve given us.
Evan continued doing the regimen daily for a month. 3 weeks ago we began throwing the baseball again…pain free. And he seems to have a little more “pop” to his throws that wasn’t there before. He’s been working off the batting tee the last week to get back into “game shape”.
And then, during the 2nd week of July, Evan played his first scrimmage to prepare our team for an upcoming wood bat tournament. He went 1 for 2 at the plate and had 3 put outs at 2nd and RF. And he’s back into the starting lineup.
You should see the looks we get from the other parents when he starts his warm-ups as he’s incorporated the tendon workout into his warm ups. Little do they know.
Now I know I could’ve had him playing ball earlier, as he was nearly pain free just a few days into your exercises…but I didn’t. I’ve seen too many boys continue to have issues with their arms because they come back too soon.
I can’t thank you enough for what you and your course have done for my son. It gives me great pleasure to see Evan on the field as a starter, especially when I’m seeing how much stronger he is from before the injury even happened.
Most importantly, I treasure the respect my son has for me, knowing I won’t jeopardize his long-term future for the sake of a game today.
Thanks again,
Steve Grzymkowski
MJF: Steve, thanks for sending this to me. The relationship you have with your son is one that I wish most fathers could have. It’s truly awesome to see how these exercises work, straight across the board, for injuries to the elbow. Great work.
Click here to order How to Eliminate Elbow Tendonitis.
Best,
Matt Furey