It will be a couple of weeks before Peter Ianelli turns out for baseball practice. He also played quarterback on Roosevelt High School's football team. That's not all.
"I'm also thinking about doing either swimming or basketball next year," he said.
The activities bring huge health benefits. Still, he's nursing a shoulder injury from last summer. And he's working with Seattle Children's athletic trainer Andrew Little to prevent another one. Andrew works with athletes in every sport at the school.
"Last year we had five or six shoulder injuries. Three or four were season ending injuries," he said.
A new study in the journal Pediatrics identified which athletes are most at risk.
Baseball pitchers topped the list with 38 percent of shoulder injuries. But in softball, pitchers, catchers and first base players were injured at about the same rate.
Dr. Monique Burton, Chief Of Sports Medicine at Seattle Children's, says overuse of shoulder muscles can trigger the injury.
"The clinics, the workshops, the tournaments, all of those things add to the amount of time that body's experiencing that same type of stress," she said.
She says it's important to rest between sports. And speak up to parents, coaches and doctors about pain.
"Letting them know if they're starting to have any, any small feeling of pain anywhere because the earlier you recognize that, the better we can do to prevent an injury from occurring," she said.
Andrew little puts athletes through a 15-minute workout called the thrower's ten. They start with a warm up, then add specific types of strengthening.
"Promoting proper blood flow to the muscles, proper range of motion, and general elasticity to the tissues of the throwing shoulder," he said.
Best of all, he says, the throwers 10 exercise workout is simple to find online, and easy to do at home.
Parents should be aware of the pitch count limits in your teen's baseball league. And make sure coaches stick to the count.
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