Baseball season brings opportunity for family entertainment and physical fitness. In fact, statistics reflect nearly 4.8 million children pursue the dream of playing in baseball Little League programs across the country. Unfortunately, for many Little League Baseball players and coaches, the prevention and treatment of elbow pain remains at the forefront of every practice and game.
Christina Cadena, Yahoo! Contributor Network. 
Why didn’t we hear about Little Leaguer’s Elbow 50 years ago? Little Leaguer’s of yesteryear spent their leisure time running, climbing and jumping. They played outside all day long in a variety of sports and activities. The youth of today spend the majority of their time either sitting in class or in front of a monitor, keyboard and video games. As a result their bodies are far different. The human body, especially the bodies of children, require motion to develop the strength and range of motion necessary to maintain health. Our modern society is slowly taking away the activities that keep us strong and our children are on the front lines. Next time you’re walking around in public and see a group of kids, take a look at their body posture. I’ll bet you that their feet turn out and their knees turn in, and their head and shoulders have rounded forward. All of these are symptoms of a body that is starving from some good old fashioned play! Fast forward to the baseball diamond and all of the sudden little Tommy is asking his arm to go thru what some consider an extreme range of motion (I think it is well within normal limits for a functional body). The only problem is that now his shoulders have rounded forward from sitting in front of his ipad, laptop and video game console. A shoulder that is locked in a forward position forces the elbow to take on the work that the shoulder should be doing. With the shoulder unable to “open up” during the throwing motion in order to create velocity the elbow is torqued beyond what would otherwise be necessary.
Watch this short video to get a idea of what we are talking about…
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