Rebuilding a Pitcher's Arm: A 15-Year-Old's Journey Back from Elbow Injury

Ever wondered why so many young pitchers are suffering devastating elbow injuries? Dr. Kevin McGovern pulls back the curtain on the rehabilitation process with a fascinating real-time coaching session featuring 15-year-old Aiden, who's battling back from multiple elbow injuries.

The episode reveals a revolutionary approach to arm care that challenges conventional wisdom. Rather than extended rest periods, we witness the power of daily throwing practice—with either baseballs or towels—combined with unconventional methods like basketball shooting to maintain elbow extension. Dr. McGovern methodically breaks down what he calls the "Tommy John formula"—three critical mechanical flaws destroying young pitchers' arms: drifting forward too early, dragging the back leg, and improper glove-hand technique.

Through Aiden's transformation, viewers gain practical insights into proper mechanics that not only prevent injury but enhance performance. By maintaining weight back longer and releasing closer to home plate, pitchers create what baseball insiders call a "heavy ball" effect—making an 80mph fastball feel like 95mph to hitters. This case study provides a sobering reality check for parents and coaches: mechanical flaws aren't just performance issues; they're ticking time bombs for young arms. The rehabilitation timeline presented offers a realistic perspective on recovery, debunking quick-fix solutions and emphasizing patient, consistent work on mechanics.

What's happening in youth baseball today? Overcoaching and poor mechanics are creating an epidemic of arm injuries. Watch this episode to understand the warning signs, learn proper rehabilitation protocols, and discover how daily work on sound mechanics can save your young pitcher's arm—and perhaps their baseball future. Visit velocityrx.org to learn more about preventing Tommy John injuries and keeping young arms healthy through proper mechanics.

Transcript

Introducing Aiden's Recovery Journey

Speaker 1 0:02

hey everybody, this is dr kevin mcgovern, and today is another episode of velocity rx podcast, but it's uh, this is going to be a live lesson. This is completely a different format. So I have one of my students for the past eight ish months. His name is aiden. Aiden, how old are you? I'm 15. 15.

Speaker 1 0:23

So Aiden came to me back at the beginning with some minor elbow stuff that we began working with, working around, and we got him to a point where he was back in the mound and then, like a lot of what is happening in the industry now, he went out to pitch and we'll just say he was overcoached into having another elbow injury, which has left him on the shelf for a while. And I want to be very, very conservative and we we dialed it back way back um, where he took up another sport. A lot of what I do with elbows uh, keeping them fresh and the ability to extend is shooting baskets. There's no better elbow rehab work than free throws and three-pointers. So we have come full circle from there all the way up through tile drills to now throwing. So last week he threw 75 pitches off of flat ground and we have been doing 30 pitches every other day arm care exercises daily, and today we're going to do a little live lesson with him throwing off flat ground again. All right, so, aidan, whenever you're're ready, you can start throwing and I'll just kind of talk talk through this. So in his lefty, um, standard stuff that he had the drift, the drag, the shrug, um, his arm was was late, um, so we really worked on getting him to accelerate downhill.

Proper Mechanics and Hand Position

Speaker 1 2:06

Now, when there's an injury, you can't do the same stuff that got him injured in the first place. So you'll notice, the first thing about him is his hand in the glove right, his hand in the glove. The ball is actually facing him and that was done years ago. Any guys who went over their head like this, the ball was facing them. It wasn't here, right? So when he takes it out of his glove, his arm is in a much better position and free flowing to throw, and I think that's been a game changer for him to do that. Number one, it hides the ball longer and number two, uh, it certainly is, uh, much more free flowing. So you make sure you just kind of like, drop that that as it comes out of your glove. Think about just dropping it. I want that to be almost a wet noodle and then make sure at the end you really extend that arm.

Speaker 2 3:13

All right.

Speaker 1 3:19

Beautiful and you can see how much rotation he has off of that front foot. So you know, part of the Tommy John injury formula is kids have been taught to drag the back leg. Well, when you have two points of contact and go to rotate your trunk, that force goes up the kinetic chain into the arm. So you'll watch how much he rotates off of that front foot where his belly button is literally pointed to the truck. Tie the front truck tire over there or what would be the other team's dugout, and that's where he gets the power from. So how's the arm feel? Throwing good, okay. Well, let's, let's let a couple rip. Oh boy. Now, aiden, what has been the most difficult thing for you and the changes that we've made? What's?

Speaker 2 4:16

been the hardest thing to get. The hardest thing for me, I would say, is my bend in my back.

The Importance of Rotation and Leg Positioning

Speaker 1 4:24

Yeah, that seems to be a lot. Now, why do you so? What happened then when you realized, wow, if I bend my back I can really accelerate the baseball.

Speaker 2 4:35

Really.

Speaker 1 4:35

I'm not sure. All right, that's fine. That's fine. As you can see, he's also wearing my buddy. We'll give a shout out to the kinetic arm, my buddy, jason Collaren's apparatus. Since you've had that, how's your arm feeling with the kinetic sleeve? It was good, good, good. All right, let's rip off. Let's throw a four fastballs in a row.

Speaker 1 4:57

Um, the only thing I want you to do here is really concentrate on getting that leg up as high as you can and then keeping it there as you drop. You want to keep that crane. We call, so I call that leg, lift the crane, because it's essentially the uh beginning of every martial arts kick, and we want to keep that leg up there as he drops. And then everything else will flow into place if he keeps that there. See how that was when he kept that leg there everything went in place.

Speaker 1 5:27

A lot of people will bring the leg up and then let it drop. It will make this big loop, and then the arm still isn't on time, but you'll watch as he keeps all of his weight back until that front foot hits the ground and then comes forward and he is throwing, accelerating the ball completely downhill. Now, what this also does, obviously, is if his back foot is at 62 feet six inches, look just at the shadow the garage is making and where he's releasing that ball, he's getting at least 8, maybe even 10 feet of distance. He's shortening the distance to the catcher. So 80 miles an hour is going to feel like 95, and that's really the definition of a heavy ball. It's your eye can't pick up things that are right directly at it. So releasing the ball closer to home plate is the definition of a heavy ball. Now Barry Bonds will say just the opposite, that he was able to stay back and lengthen the time it took him to see the ball. So same principle Excellent, very good, it looks beautiful how does it feel?

Speaker 2 6:43

It feels good, no pain. Okay good, keep throwing them All right.

Speaker 1 6:49

So what did you do yesterday?

Speaker 2 6:51

I did the same exact thing. Okay, you threw again. Did you do your arm?

Speaker 1 6:53

I did the same exact thing. Okay, you threw again. Did you do your arm? So take, I didn't throw, I just did it with a towel. With a towel, so take me through what you do on an off day.

Speaker 2 7:03

On an off day Reps and exercises yeah. I warm up and then I usually do my towel drills and then I just work out.

Speaker 1 7:13

To be honest, so what do my towel drills? And then I just work out to be honest, so what about the skat? Are we still doing the squats? Scapular depression. How many reps, how many reps of those are you doing in a day?

Speaker 2 7:22

uh, I'm doing about for squats. I do the 50 and then everything else. I do like 20 to 30 for the like, the towel drills and stuff awesome awesome.

Speaker 1 7:32

All Keep going, let's see some more. Let's do, let's do 10 pitches while I just watch and talk about you. Now, what's your target? What are you aiming at? A net, okay, great, love it. I mean just look. I mean just look how free-flowing and how easy it is. There's no getting caught up. I mean, listen, this took a lot of work.

Daily Training Routine and Recovery Process

Speaker 1 8:03

This first move right there, that drop and drive and holding that leg up, that took months of work. That doesn't happen overnight. So the people that are promising you, you know we're going to fix you in three days, good luck. The human body doesn't do that and it's put in a ton of work to look like that and he's literally throwing every day. It's either with a baseball or with a towel. He's throwing every day coming off.

Speaker 1 8:37

Now we, you know, certainly did a lot of basketball throws and we let that elbow really heal up for a couple months. But we kept at it. We kept doing scapular depressions, we kept doing all kinds of arm care exercise, a lot of lower body exercises, to get to the point where we're at right now, and the next step from here will be to go to an incline. Right, we're going to go off a mound at some point. That'll change a little bit of the dynamics and that's why you need to have this first move that he does down pat the ability to keep that leg in leg lift and sink before your center of gravity moves forward. Because as he's coming down the mound with a, with a, this pitch of the mound, that's going to really try to pull his center of gravity forward and he wants to stay back as long as possible. Same principle as hitting golf tennis we don't want to get our center of mass out ahead of our arm. That is very dangerous and that is going to lead to where all these exercises or all these injuries are coming from. But I mean, he just looks like this is such a natural motion to him, aiden, how does it feel? It feels good. So he's just like he's just literally playing catch pitching. I mean he's nice and relaxed Shoulders, nice and relaxed Up sink finish. Very simple All rotation off of the front leg.

Speaker 1 10:10

Go look at Bob Feller, robin Roberts, kurt kurt schilling, david cone, roger clemens. You're going to see these athletes spinning off of their front foot. All right, buddy, any questions? Anything that, uh, it looks great to me. Thank you, you have put in a ton of work. Okay, thank you. So let's um, let's continue with. Let's increase the 30 throws to 40. There's pops. So let's increase the 30 throws to 40, and then the off days add 15 of, just, you know, 75, just throw into a target, okay, with the towel, let's just see what that does for the next four days, okay, and then let's see how that elbow I'm still, you know, I think, the I mean you're accelerating downhill, which is great. I'm still, you know, I think the I mean you're accelerating downhill, which is great. I'm still, you know, weary. That that something's going to come back? I don't think so, but I always like to err on the side of caution. Okay, dad, what do you think? I think he's better, he looks better. I mean, he looks amazing.

Speaker 2 11:24

Yeah, I'm gonna try to pay for him I think for him, like the towel drills help, but I think for him, like actually throwing you drills help, but I think for him like actually throwing you know what I mean and like doing it is like what his his thing.

Speaker 1 11:34

So yeah, a hundred percent. You know the towel drills and people knock them. I mean I use them obviously for biofeedback. You know when you're hitting a bench or a or a or a chair. It's giving you that sound back and you can hear as you move your body differently. The sound is louder, very simple, Um, but yeah, I mean he looks, he looks amazing, and so he's been working he's been working very hard he's been working.

Speaker 1 12:02

He has been working incredibly hard and it and it definitely shows All right. So I'll actually write that up in the notes, so you have it about what the next thing to do, and then we'll check back again. Any soreness, any discomfort, anything other than a tickle, stop what you're doing and contact me immediately. Okay, all right, gentlemen, thank you for joining. I appreciate it and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 2 12:27

Thank, you Talk to you soon. I'm going to go play golf.

Speaker 1 12:29

You got it. I am too this afternoon. How are you?

Speaker 2 12:32

Nice, it's like a second time plan.

Speaker 1 12:37

I really was more of a golfer. I'm still a 6.8 index at my old age, believe it or not. Oh really, yeah, good Lord, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 12:45

I'm going to go play with one arm, so that should be fun. Were you in the service, sir? Can I ask that? Zach, yeah, I was in 7th Special Forces Group.

The Tommy John Formula and Prevention

Speaker 1 12:53

That's awesome. Thank you very much for your service. Thank you very much for your service. We're going to go play some golf today.

Speaker 2 13:01

Oh no, that's no big deal.

Speaker 1 13:02

Thanks. My dad was Navy, my grandfather World War II, I um my grandfather um world war ii. I unfortunately failed the physical for west point. I'd already torn my acl, but I mean I guess now I probably could have got in as a woman. But anyway, that's a whole nother story. But thank you very much for your service, man. It's truly.

Speaker 2 13:23

Oh, you're welcome thank you for all your help. I really appreciate it so thank you, you're right, you're writing this, you're writing a soap note up for him. Yeah, I'll write that up and get that to you guys so you'll be able to see what's in there. All right, because I know they've got fall school baseball coming up at some point, so I'll already make sure his coach is not a retard.

Speaker 1 13:40

Yes, I don't want any overcoaching.

Speaker 2 13:44

Which is good, because we've got a couple new kids this year that came to the school, so there's like two or three more kids that can pitch. Okay good, which helps out. You know what I mean. And if they're starting to suck, I'm going to be like, hey man, I know a guy.

Speaker 1 13:58

Well, I appreciate that and you know you'll get a referral fee for doing that. I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 14:02

I know I saw that.

Speaker 1 14:06

Thank you, go have fun.

Speaker 2 14:07

Bye, now Thanks.

Speaker 1 14:19

So there you have it. Um, you know, here we have a kid elbow injury, overuse, fixed over, overcoached, and what I mean by that is the coach continued to throw him well beyond you know what he was supposed to do and he injured his elbow again and again, no accountability, I mean it was just like. I mean the coach was like why can't you pitch again? Why, because you blew out my elbow. So he's back in the right track. I'm looking for big things, as you can see very smooth delivery, no pain, the ability to throw every day, every day, we're doing something. Okay, that means and I want to hear that it's not a natural movement okay, tennis every day? Okay, so if you're doing it correctly, you can do it. Now, do you throw 150 pitches every day? No, but we're doing something to keep up that delivery, to keep up the movement, the neurological sequence. So click, like, subscribe, appreciate it. Look at my social media, Visit velocityrxorgorg.

Speaker 1 15:30

If you have any of that tommy john formula, it's only a matter of time. Not if, okay, if you drift, getting that center of gravity forward before your arm, if you drag your back leg, inhibiting your ability to turn your body, and if you pull it out of your glove and you're like this, you are going to get hurt. Okay, look at any major league pitcher. He has at least two. The only person that I have seen that has injured their elbow, that only has one, is New York Yankees Clark Schmidt. Okay, he is a dragger. He drags his back foot. Didn't shrug and kept his weight back, but he dragged his back foot. His arm is late. He's on the operating table. He's the only one. Everybody else has definitively three, sometimes two, but mostly three.

Final Advice and Episode Closing

Speaker 1 16:23

Shohei Otani all these guys have all parts of the tommy john formula making your arm late, making you throw uphill against gravity. The structures in this elbow are can't withstand that. Okay, otani's made no changes. He's going to get hurt again. The only reason he's probably not going to get hurt is that you know the elbow is probably 10 times as thick now because it's fake. So that's it. Please like and subscribe. I'll see you in the next podcast.