by The PAWI Team

Keith Naugle, Ph.D., AT., NSCA-CPT, kicked off the 2024-25 PAWI Seminar Series on October 18 by presenting his research on pitch counts in youth baseball at the NIFS Auditorium.

From a presentation entitled Pitch Counts: Interpretation, Correct Usage, and Recovery, which he gave at the Baseball Academics Midwest 2024 Coaches Clinic in August, Dr. Naugle talks about the impact of pitch counts on children in youth baseball and how to keep kids healthy.

He mentioned that he has two sons that play travel baseball and he wanted to be an agent of change in this area after seeing things that he dubbed as “not so nice” during travel baseball.

He focused on the USA Baseball and Major League Baseball partnership called Pitch Smart, which is a series of guidelines on how to keep baseball a safe game to play at all ages while reducing a pitcher’s risk of injury.

Check out his discussion on risk factors, current behaviors in youth baseball, and his assessment of how coaches can keep their pitchers healthy by following the guidelines.