Rec Sports

Is it safe for Lin Chin-Tse to throw 82 mph?

Published

4 months ago

August 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PA — Chinese Taipei manager Lai Min-Nan has been planning for this moment.

Yes, he’s playing for a Little League World Series championship, but he has also managed to save his ace in the hole to throw it.

Lin Chin-Tse has overpowered opposing hitters all tournament, striking out 16 in six innings and dotting the strike zone with a fastball that has reached 82 mph.

Thanks to the efficient work of Liu Wei-Heng, a lefty who pitched a near-complete game to set down Aruba 1-0 in the international title game, Lin will start against (Las Vegas) Nevada in the Aug. 24 LLWS championship game.

It’s a strategy, and a sigh of relief, for which youth baseball coaches across the globe can relate.

“It’s not necessary to have him pitch but it’s nice to have a strong pitcher to stand by,” the manager said of Lin this week through a translator.

According to ESPN, Lin’s fastball seen from 46 feet away is the equivalent of a Little Leaguer facing 107 mph.

But how safe is it for a 12-year-old to throw that hard?

“Just throwing a baseball in general, when you really look at the velocity of the shoulder joint, it’s the most kind of violent action of a joint in any sport,” says John Kunkel, an orthopedic surgeon and the medical director for the Little League World Series. “And just inherently throwing a baseball for a shoulder just puts a lot of stress on it.

“That’s why the period before the season, getting your body ready to throw is really important. And then building up, warming, all that kind of stuff. Your body really does adapt.”

As velocities are rising from youth sports to the majors, let’s consider how young pitchers can protect themselves.

Coach Steve: Why do kids play Little League? They live for the moment

Can throwing 82 mph hurt a kid? Monitor your max pitch count

Kunkel trained to be a sports medicine specialist with college and professional teams, including the Houston Astros and Texans.

Today, he sees athletes of all ages, including 45-50 year old men and women who are playing pickleball or pickup basketball. He has worked three Little League World Series.

“With different athletes, max effort is gonna produce different velocities,” he tells USA TODAY Sports. “And so that’s where you get some limitations of just your own biology, your own structure. Some people are born with the ability to be able to throw that hard, especially at a young age.

“There’s not necessarily inherently more risk for somebody like (Lin) who’s throwing 82. It’s more on what his max effort throws are over the course of a game, season, career.”

A trend across baseball is to throw as hard as you can in a game for as long as you can. The end result, says Nick Kenney, director of medical administration for the Kansas City Royals, is seen when those pitchers reach the major leagues.

Many of them, he says, are chasing velocity instead of trying to capture it.

Kenney points to a line from Vincent Key, the Royals’ team physician: You only have so much tread on your tires: if you’re gonna burn it off every time you come to a stop sign, and if you pop it, will you surprised?

Of the trend, Kenney says: “where the game is taking us, especially with the emphasis on extreme velo and extreme spin … it’s mind-boggling. It’s extremely frustrating, but we are trying to increase our ability to find risk factors.”

What’s an effective way for a 12-year-old to pitch?

Chinese Taipei has won 17 Little League World Series titles. Lai Min-Nan, its current manager, builds his winning strategy around his pitchers controlling their fastball. Only when they demonstrate that ability will he add a slider or curve to their repertoire.

Liu Wei-Heng, his starter in the international championship, drew confidence and energy from throwing 70% strikes (50 out of 71 pitches) against Aruba.

During the 1-0 win, he and closer Chen Qi-Sheng combined for one walk over six innings. Liu pitched with runners on base in four, but calmly kept pounding strikes and trusting his fielders to make plays.

The two pitchers touched the low 70s with fastballs a few times when ESPN flashed their velocity but only dialed it up when they needed it for a punchout.

By limiting his max effort pitch count this way, Kunkel says, a pitcher is protecting himself.

“Especially as you get into the older levels with bullpen specialization and guys are coming in saying, ‘Hey, if I can just throw max effort for five innings, somebody else is going to come in and throw max effort for an inning,” Kunkel says. “’Somebody else is going to do the same thing after that.’

“Whereas 3-4 years ago, he might be thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to throw 85% effort to see if I can complete the game. And so then your max effort pitches are actually less than maybe they are today.”

There are precautions young players can take before it gets to that point.

When should we start throwing a curveball?

Talk to your orthopedist about when might be the right time for a curve or slider. Kunkel says there’s mixed data on when is the right time, as the technique for those pitches can differ from pitcher to pitcher.

Biology also comes into play.

“Especially at this age group, the difference in growth between a 10 and a 12 year old and then different 10 and 12 year olds is vastly different,” he says. “So it’s tough to standardize those things for a league. The data really shows us it’s just those pitch counts, kind of max effort pitches, if we can manage those, that’s probably our best bet as an organization trying to standardize things to keep pitchers safe.”

Why are pitch counts so important?

Little League World Series pitchers are limited to 85 pitches per day and require calendar days of rest after numbers of pitches thrown: Four days for 66 or more pitches, three for 51-65, two for 36-50 and one for 21-35.

The LLWS went to pitch counts over inning restrictions in 2007. Before that, Mike Ludwikowski, the event’s head athletic trainer, said kids were lined up at their office at 8 a.m., getting treated for their shoulders and elbows.

The push for pitch counts has come from American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, led by orthopedist James Andrews. We can track them across Little League and travel ball, where sometimes there aren’t restrictions despite pitchers throwing a number of high-stress innings.

Our risk of an arm injury greatly increases with fatigue. For example, Kunkel says the main stabilizer to the elbow when we’re throwing is not the ligament, but the muscles around it call the flexor pronator mass.

As it gets tired over the course of a game, you start to rely more and more on your ulnar collateral ligament. We know today that a torn UCL leads to Tommy John surgery.

Kunkel doesn’t think a young pitcher should be throwing all his pitches max effort a game. Rest, both in between games and in the offseason, is crucial.

“Are we playing baseball all year round? Do we play other sports? Are we picking up a basketball in the winter? Are we playing something else also in the summer?” he says. “If you’re throwing from mound max effort all year round, that’s going to set you up for arm issues.”

What can young pitchers do to avoid an injury?

Over the past two weeks here, we’ve seen kids lay out out all over Lamade Stadium for grounders in the hole and fly balls in the gap. Nevada manager TJ Fechser says he expects it of his players.

When you’re 12, Kunkel says, you quickly bounce back from the nicks and bruises and your body adapts. You can overcome physical things faster than even major leaguers might.

But everyone needs to take a step back from competitive play at some point during the year.

“That’s not inherent just to baseball, but specialization in any sport,” Kunkel says. “We know that leads to more chronic injuries. You’re using one movement pattern, one group of muscles over time, and that’s just going to set you up for those chronic overuse injuries, whereas if you vary it and you’re playing different sports in different seasons, you’re working on different movement patterns, different muscles.

“Not only does that decrease your risk of chronic overuse injuries, but it makes you a better athlete, because you’re learning to use your body in different ways.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends kids take at least one day off a week and two months off from a sport per year. The later you can specialize, the better. You can put if off by playing one sport competitively, and others recreationally.

“Having some time throughout the year where you’re taking a break, playing different sports, those are different ways to kind of lower the volume of those max effort pitches over the course of a year and career,” Kunkel says.

If you have any pain while you’re playing, stop throwing and rest. And once you rest the amount of time a sports medicine physician recommends, understand it might take just as long to ramp yourself up to full speed.

Think about when big leaguers return from an injury, they go on rehabilitation assignments to the minor leagues, where they slowly increase their innings over a number of games.

“I always say that there’s really no way to prevent injury,” Kunkel says. “When you’re an athlete, you’re pushing your body to compete and win. And there’s no way to take the risk out of that. Athletes are always going to push their bodies and there’s going to be injury. So injury risk reduction is what we’re trying to do.

“And the best way to reduce risk is making sure that your body is ready to compete and then managing that overuse portion of it: not specializing, playing a variety of sports and then whether after injury or before the season, start slowly ramping up and making sure you’re ready to go.”

Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.

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Park Point 5-Miler and 2-Mile Walk 2026

Published

14 minutes ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

The 55th annual Park Point 5-Miler starts near the Park Point Pavilion. Participants run down Minnesota Avenue before finishing back near the pavilion. They have the choice of a 5-mile run or a 2-mile walk.

This is the last of three races in the annual KP Challenge, in which participants commit to three races throughout the spring and summer. The others are the Saint Fennessy 4K and Fitger’s 5K. The aim of the challenge is to help participants keep on a regular training schedule and consistently complete longer distance races. Net proceeds benefit the Young Athletes Foundation, a Grandma’s Marathon program focused on the promotion and development of youth athletics.

In celebration of its 50th year, Grandma’s Marathon is offering free entries for those ages 18 and under to each of the five Young Athletes Foundation races in 2026.

Adult Entry Fee Scale
Jan. 1 to May 15 – $20
May 16 to June 30 – $30
July 1 to race day – $40

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Girard welcomes new faces to council, board of education | News, Sports, Jobs

Published

22 minutes ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

GIRARD — New faces will be working for the community as new members of city council and the board of education were sworn into office this week.

Girard Municipal Court Judge Jeff Adler swore in new and reelected council members and new members to the board of education.

Starting terms on council this month are Tod Latell and Wes Steiner as councilmen-at-Large and James Clark as 3rd Ward councilman.

On the board of education, new members are Zak Steiner and Scott Strain and elected to a new term after being appointed previously to fill an opening on the board is Tammy King.

TOD LATELL

Latell, who was elected to two terms as Trumbull County recorder from January 2017 to December 2024, said he will work with city officials and council to promote growth.

“I have been attending council meetings since the beginning of last year, and I believe we have some great opportunities to improve our downtown area and other locations across the city,” he said.

He said council members need to have a clear understanding of the budget.

“Our auditor and city officials have done well as the city appears to be in good financial standing. Transparency on the budget is paramount, as taxpayer money and available funds in general should be handled with care,” Latell said.

He said as county recorder, he ran a tight budget and left the recorder’s office in great shape.

“I believe when we have a strong school system, provide great police / fire and safety services in general, and residents feel city leadership is engaged and working for the benefit of all, success will happen,” Latell said.

WES STEINER

Wes Steiner was a first-time candidate for public office. He said as a surveyor with knowledge in zoning, he plans to bring a valuable skill set to city council to help improve the community.

He said zoning is essential to make sure that growth is well planned and remains sustainable for the future.

Steiner said there is a need for better signage in the downtown, with residents and visitors becoming more aware of the available parking space behind Chase Bank, as well as behind and across the street from the U.S. Post Office.

“Better signage will help improve accessibility and convenience for everyone,” he said.

He said he will work with Lake to River Economic Development to help bring businesses to the area, which will help generate additional tax revenue for the city.

Steiner said as Girard continues to evolve into a more transient community, he believes it is important to focus on mentoring and youth engagement. He has served in many positions working with youth sports and activities.

Steiner said he is committed to advocating for programs and policies that empower young people in the community.

JAMES CLARK

Clark said he comes from a family of civil servants, with his mother serving as city treasurer in East Liverpool and his grandmother serving as a councilwoman in East Palestine.

Clark said accountability in leadership will be a top priority. He said recent events in Girard, especially the problems with the school district’s finances, have shown how costly a lack of oversight can be.

“My top priority is to make sure those in leadership positions are accountable for their decisions and for how public money is handled,” Clark said.

He said as a casino executive, he often had to stand his ground, protect the best interests of the business and still convince high-level clients to choose them over the competition.

“I will bring that same approach to city council to protect residents and ensure their voices and tax dollars are safeguarded,” Clark said.

He said he will bring improvements into Girard by securing outside funding.

Clark said he will look at completing community improvement projects, and will seek grant programs and connect the right people to get projects done. He said he will see that Girard competes for funding dollars and for resources that can make a real difference in the community.

BOARD OF EDUCATION

King said after she was named to fill the board vacancy when longtime board member Diane Alejars stepped down she decided to run in the November election for a new four-year term.

King was selected from seven applicants who sought to fill the seat. King is a retired professor from Youngstown State University and holds a doctoral degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

She said previously she will use her experience in education and higher education to focus on the future of the Girard Local School District and ensure that the staff has the resources they need to educate the students.

Zak Steiner and Strain are both new to public office.

Steiner said he wants to start a “Listen and Learn” tour across the district, meeting directly with administrators, teachers, staff and students, and listening to what they need to be more successful.

He said he would also like to expand recognition and engagement at board meetings, and in addition to recognizing students each month, also recognize staff, alumni and school groups.

Steiner said he will stay in contact with and work with the Ohio House on any upcoming or proposed changes to property tax and school funding to ensure the district’s needs are represented.

Strain said he will focus on the safety and success of the students, and develop positive relationships with the teachers, administration and staff to foster growth and trust while maintaining transparency.

He said as a former Girard school resource officer and juvenile investigator for six years allowed for developing trusting relationships with students and staff.

Also sworn in for new terms were Reynald Paolone as Girard council president, Henry Sforza as treasurer, Lily Martuccio for council-at-large, and Keith Schubert, John Moliterno and Thomas Grumley as council ward members.

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Fuel the Drive Expands Youth Sports Access, Sets 2026 Growth Target

Published

30 minutes ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

“Participation in golf and tennis programs contributes to the development of transferable life skills, including self-discipline, teamwork and problem-solving.”

DENVER, CO, January 02, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ — Fuel the Drive—the non-profit organization that expands access to golf and tennis for children from low-income families—seeks to substantially increase the number of kids it assists in the year ahead.

“We’ve made some ambitious New Year’s resolutions for our foundation,” states founder and president Terry Aikin. “Fuel the Drive has been able to help a lot of kids accelerate their personal growth and expand their opportunities, but we’re far from satisfied.

“This year,” Aikin continues, “we want to impact at least five times as many young people as we did in 2025.”

Giving kids access to more promising futures

Founded to remove financial barriers to youth sports participation, Fuel the Drive sponsors children’s introduction to golf and tennis by covering essential program costs.

Eligible participants receive funding for registration in local PGA Junior League and U.S. Tennis Association programs, along with training guidance and equipment.

“The kids’ involvement in these sports fuels their personal growth and helps them develop confidence, self-discipline and leadership,” says Aikin. “It’s so rewarding to watch these kids build their own personal strength and find out what it takes to succeed.

“As the kids develop their golf or tennis games and compete with other kids their age,” he adds, “they learn to lead, to believe in themselves and to create pathways to more successful futures.”

Equipping kids with the tools to succeed on and off the course and court

“Time and again,” notes Aikin, “we see that participation in golf and tennis programs contributes to the development of transferable life skills, including self-discipline, teamwork and problem-solving.

“Let me share just one of our many success stories,” he continues. “With Fuel the Drive’s assistance, Mavarro has played in the PGA Junior League program for the past three years. His father tells us that playing golf has helped Mavarro develop patience and confidence, and he’s earned an award for perseverance.

“What’s more,” adds Aikin, “Mavarro’s love for golf has translated into increased analytical skills that are helping him tackle challenges he faces in school and in life.”

Ambitious growth target aims to serve many more children

Fuel the Drive has introduced golf to more than 100 children during each of the past three years and has provided access to tennis programs for more than 500 children.

Building on this impact, the organization has set a goal to expand its golf programming to serve more than 500 young athletes in 2026.

“Cost remains one of the most significant barriers to participation in organized youth sports,” states Aikin. “By removing that obstacle, we enable children to engage in structured environments that promote self-confidence, perseverance and personal growth.”

Increasing outreach to enlist more donors

“Our donor base has been very generous, and their contributions have made our impact possible,” reports Aikin. “But we’re seeking to significantly grow that base in order to achieve our objectives for 2026. So we’ve just launched a new website and we’re expanding our digital outreach to engage partners and community stakeholders and bring more new donors into the fold.

“With the generous support of new and existing donors,” Aikin adds, “we can fuel the drive in a lot more kids so they can achieve a lot more.”

About Fuel the Drive

Fuel the Drive, headquartered in Denver, CO, was founded by Terry and Michelle Aikin as a way of paying forward the tremendous support and inspiration they received as they were growing up. The organization provides access to golf and tennis programs to children from underserved communities, using sport as a platform to build self-confidence, leadership and skills that support lifelong success. To learn more, visit Fuel the Drive.

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Rec Sports

The internet is killing sports

Published

38 minutes ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Happy New Year! 2026 is finally here!

I have to say that on many levels, the year in politics felt like a nightmarish fever dream. Donald Trump deciding to illegally rename the Kennedy Center after himself is not the worst thing that any president has ever done — it’s not even close — but on a level of sheer batshit insanity, it’s off the charts.

In a halfway functioning political system, I don’t even know what would happen if a president did that — because it just wouldn’t happen! Members of the president’s party would not put up with pure Mad King behavior. It’s not consequential, of course, in the way that cutting tons of people off from Medicaid is consequential. But then he also started a little war with Venezuela and launched some kind of Christmas bombing campaign in Nigeria, while also being so committed to world peace that he’s decided to just take Vladimir Putin’s word for it on Russian war aims. Also, FIFA believes that the president is seven years old, so they made up a fake peace prize to bestow on him, and he proudly accepted it.

Something I worry about a lot is that as Trump wears his ridiculousness and egomania on his sleeve, he invites people to believe that he is shallow and easily manipulated when he’s actually been ruthlessly successful across multiple fields of endeavor.

JD Vance seems a lot more put-together in a lot of ways, but he was also placed on the ticket specifically because Trump was disappointed that Mike Pence wouldn’t violate the constitution to help him steal an election, and Trump apparently feels that Vance is more reliable in this regard.

I try to maintain an action-oriented posture rather than indulging in dooming and stress and anxiety. But we succeeded in getting non-politics questions this week, so I just wanted to open by assuring everyone that I actually feel pretty stressed about the political situation and will continue to feel stressed as long as Republicans remain odds-on favorites to hold the Senate.

Now, your questions.

John E: If you could take any older show and update it with AI to make it look better (graphics/CGI/etc.), but keep everything else the same, what would it be?

My initial thought was Babylon 5 or something like that, but curious if you have any ideas that jump out at you?

The original Star Trek. It’s not even so much that the visual effects look bad (I believe they actually made a version with upgraded CGI that was released on Blu-ray), it’s that the makeup and costume stuff for the aliens is so crude and absurd. The Klingons as guys with Trump’s spray tan and weird beards is hard to watch. The Gorn as depicted in “The Arena” is absurd.

Andy: I’ll repeat my question about what changes you’d make to the NFL in terms of structure, rules, etc.

If football isn’t your thing, then as an alternative, expand the question to your thoughts about the general state of pro sports, whether you think pro sports are in a good or bad place, and what changes you might make if you were Ultimate Overlord of pro sports.

The NFL seems like they’re doing great, objectively, and don’t really need my advice. The main question facing the league is how aggressively to expand and whether to try really ambitious strategies like setting up a four-team division in Europe. From my personal standpoint, it was really exciting to watch the Commanders on their run last year and really disheartening to see things turn to shit this year — and it’s especially disheartening because the trajectory matches the RGIII boom and bust so closely.

Beyond football, though, my main observation about sports is that they are all being buffeted by the internet and the ubiquity of content in interesting ways.

When I first moved to DC, I made a clear choice to adopt the Wizards as my favorite basketball team. The Knicks were bad at the time and the Wizards, while not great, were decent and fun in the Gilbert Arenas Era. But beyond that, I just really liked basketball. A very large share of the games that were available to watch on television were Wizards games, so I watched a lot of Wizards games, and it’s more fun to watch a game if you have a rooting interest in it, so it’s fun to adopt your hometown team. Now, if we’d somehow had a Wizards-Knicks Eastern Conference Finals, would my loyalties have reverted? Maybe, but it didn’t come up.

Flash forward to 2025 and the Wizards are awful, the Knicks are good, and it’s also incredibly easy to watch Knicks games on streaming. So I’m following the Knicks very closely, which is great. And my son is also watching some Knicks games with me these past two seasons, which is delightful and a ton of fun. But this is a pattern that I see repeating in a lot of local families — dads maintaining their hometown sports allegiances and passing them on to their sons because it’s so easy to watch out of town games.

And this delocalization seems like a bit of a threat to the long-term model of sports.

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Wheeling Elks Announce 2025-26 Scholarship Winners | News, Sports, Jobs

Published

2 hours ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

WHEELING — Grace Tamburin and Owen Dobrzynski Hines, both seniors at Wheeling Park High School, have won the Wheeling Elks Scholarships for 2025-26.

Each will receive $1,000 from Wheeling Lodge No. 28, according to Elks Youth Activities Chairman Joe Marchlenski. Both are eligible for further state and national Elks’ scholarships.

“We believe it is important to recognize outstanding leadership and scholarship qualities in the youth of our area,” said Elks Exalted Ruler Ruby Haynes. “We are proud that more than $4 million in scholarships is awarded nationally by the Elks each year.”

Tamburin currently carries a GPA of 4.32. She is the captain and four-year member of both the girls’ volleyball and softball teams, and was recently named to the OVAC All-Star Volleyball team for West Virginia.

She is a member of both the National Honor Society and the National Spanish Honor Society. In her spare time, she volunteers with A Night to Shine, assisting adults with special needs. She plans to attend Shepherd University in Shepherdstown.

Dobrzynski Hines currently carries a GPA of 4.1. He is a captain and four-year member of both the football and track and field teams.

He volunteers dozens of hours each year with multiple Ohio Valley agencies, and describes his most influential community service project as volunteering with the flood relief efforts following the devastating flooding that occurred in this area in June.

He is a member of the Drug Free Club of America, the Freshmen Mentor Program, and the National Honor Society. He plans to attend Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and major in social work and social services.

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Third annual Dignity Drive | News, Sports, Jobs

Published

2 hours ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

News file photo Representatives from area schools and the Foster Closet are seen picking up hygiene items for youth that were collected during the 2nd Annual Dignity Drive in 2025.

Laurel Nowak invites the community to participate in the third annual Dignity Drive from Monday to March 6.

Donations can be dropped off at Star Staffing located in Alpena from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Dignity Drive asks community members to donate personal hygiene products for the youth in Northeast Michigan. Nowak said last year, the drive collected $10,000 worth of hygiene products which were provided to the School Success Program at Thunder Bay Jr. High School and Alpena High School. Products were also donated to the Foster Care Closet of Northern Michigan.

Nowak said that all partners were “grateful for the commitment of our community to children in need.”

“We were also able to provide a box to all of the area elementary schools,” she added.

“Personal hygiene is a basic human need,” Nowak said. “Many homeless and low-income children do not have the hygiene products they need for self-care. This causes many problems such as social rejection, illnesses and missed days of school.”

Items for both boys and girls are accepted, though Nowak asks community members to avoid donations of razors.

Below are a list of accepted donations:

— Feminine hygiene products

— Deodorant

— Body spray

— String bags or ditty bags

— Body or hand lotion

— Lip balm

— Soap

— Shampoo and conditioner

— Toothpaste

— Toothbrushes