monitoring arms on your team

[Megunticook]

As an assistant coach who's likely to be head coach of a LL team next season, I'm taking notes on stuff I want to address when I'm the boss. One thing that concerns me is protecting kids' arms--the kids are not speaking up immediately when their arms get sore or feeling uncomfortable, and the coach is not necessarily monitoring the situation carefully. I speak up often to remind the kids to take care of their arms with proper warmup, etc., and definitely to let the coaches know immediately if your arm doesn't feel right.

For example, today a kid who pitched a couple days ago was playing catch before the game and I asked him how his arm felt. He said it was a little sore, I told him to take it real easy and I'd let the coach know. The coach put him at shortstop, and then let him catch--I didn't think that was a great idea and mentioned that I thought the kid's arm might be sore after the coach scolded the boy for not throwing the ball back to the pitcher properly. The kid stayed in.

I'm thinking when I'm coach I will have a talk with the kids about arm care, and make it clear that if anybody has a sore arm they will certainly not pitch or catch (maybe first base?). This seems to me to be a really key responsibility of the coach.

I've sensed that the kids will sometimes downplay their soreness and if the coach isn't vigilant, and doesn't get the kids to see the importance of caring for their arm, bad things can happen.

Any advice/tips in terms of policy or how to handle this?

[tg643]

As an assistant coach who's likely to be head coach of a LL team next season, I'm taking notes on stuff I want to address when I'm the boss. One thing that concerns me is protecting kids' arms--the kids are not speaking up immediately when their arms get sore or feeling uncomfortable, and the coach is not necessarily monitoring the situation carefully. I speak up often to remind the kids to take care of their arms with proper warmup, etc., and definitely to let the coaches know immediately if your arm doesn't feel right.

For example, today a kid who pitched a couple days ago was playing catch before the game and I asked him how his arm felt. He said it was a little sore, I told him to take it real easy and I'd let the coach know. The coach put him at shortstop, and then let him catch--I didn't think that was a great idea and mentioned that I thought the kid's arm might be sore after the coach scolded the boy for not throwing the ball back to the pitcher properly. The kid stayed in.

I'm thinking when I'm coach I will have a talk with the kids about arm care, and make it clear that if anybody has a sore arm they will certainly not pitch or catch (maybe first base?). This seems to me to be a really key responsibility of the coach.

I've sensed that the kids will sometimes downplay their soreness and if the coach isn't vigilant, and doesn't get the kids to see the importance of caring for their arm, bad things can happen.

Any advice/tips in terms of policy or how to handle this?

It will be more effective if the talk is part of the preseason mandatory meeting with the parents where you set expectations for the season. Expectations aren't about wins and losses. It's about how the team will go about things and expected behavior from players and parents. How many of the coaches in your league have these?