Len Story is a parent first and a Little League coach second. That’s why he places such an emphasis on safety and injury prevention with his team, which includes his 13-year-old son.

“As a parent, I contribute my time to make sure the kids have enough preseason training and conditioning so they don’t get injured,” said Story, who coaches the Alaska Quakes, a 13-and-younger travel team from Anchorage. “The key is making sure they’re prepared before the season starts.”

Organized baseball and softball offer many benefits to children and teens. The activity allows players to improve their fitness, build peer relationships, celebrate successes, confront failure and ultimately increase self-esteem.

But with the game comes risk. From catching or throwing a ball to swinging a bat or sliding into a base, the sport requires a variety of motions that can make young athletes susceptible to injury.

Overuse injuries

Dr. Aaron Provance is the former medical director of the Sports Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Provance and his colleagues frequently see young baseball and softball players who have sustained injuries – most often to the elbow or shoulder – because of improper technique and/or too much throwing.

Communication is key to preventing overuse injuries and receiving proper care as soon as possible, Provance said. Children should know it’s OK to tell their coaches or parents when something is hurting.

“Overuse injuries are definitely much more common than traumatic injuries in baseball and softball,” Provance said. “An open dialogue, especially with the athletes and the coach, is a big part of this.”

Little League Baseball has tried to limit overuse injuries by implementing maximum pitch counts:

• Ages 7-8: 50 pitches per day
• Ages 9-10: 75 pitches
• Ages 11-12: 85 pitches
• Ages 13-16: 95 pitches

Story rarely asks his players to approach the pitching limits. Typically, during a six-inning game, he uses three pitchers, each for about two innings. That equates to 40 or so pitches for the players on his team.

Despite the precautions, many young athletes still experience pain on the field but don’t tell anyone because they don’t want to leave the game.

“There are a lot of pressures out there on the young athletes – especially the athletes that excel,” Provance said. “They feel like they can’t let the team down. They feel like they need to be in there to win the championship games and the really big, important tournaments. So they’re more likely to push through the pain and fatigue, which puts them at risk for an overuse injury.

“But it helps if you have that open dialogue before the season starts and if you have a team meeting where the coach says, ‘Hey, if you have shoulder pain, if you have elbow pain, I want to know. Tell me. I want to know what’s going on so we can talk to your parents and get it treated early so that we don’t cause any long-term damage to your skeletal system.”

Taking precautions

Proper equipment can help prevent injuries among players. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends:

• Protective eyewear, such as glasses or goggles made of polycarbonate or similar material
• Properly fitting shoes with rubber – never metal – spikes
• Athletic supporters and cups for boys
• For catchers: Helmets with face guards, throat guards, knee pads and chest protectors
• For batters: Properly fitting batting helmets and face guards
• “Safety baseballs” made of a softer material

Baseball and softball players should have a physical evaluation from their doctor about four to six weeks before the start of the season, the AAP states. Teams also should establish an emergency plan that includes first aid and emergency contact information, as well as everyone’s role during an emergency situation. Parents should review the plan with their kids.

Provance recommends high-top cleats to help avoid sprained ankles. He reminds parents that helmets don’t prevent all concussions, but they do help prevent facial fractures and skull fractures. He also said “dynamic warmups” reduce the risk of pulled hamstrings, quadriceps and other muscles.

“The dynamic warmups would be a warmup where you’re incorporating stretching in a dynamic way,” Provance said. “If you look back 20 or 30 years ago, we used to do a lot of static stretches before practices: Bend and stretch, hold for 30 seconds, and then you go into the next stretch. The dynamic warmup is more like high knees, lateral shuffle. You’re actually doing whole body warmups with stretching where you’re increasing the heart rate and getting more blood flow to the structures.”

The point Provance wants to drive home? Pain doesn’t have to be part of the game.

“I think the big message here is that all overuse injuries are preventable if you take the right steps and you listen to the pain and you go see the right people at the right time,” he said. “Overuse injuries are 50 percent of the injuries we see in pediatric sports medicine. The thing is that with just a few changes here and there, we can prevent most of those.”