When is the earliest a kid should be throwing a breaking ball?

i have coached and have a few friends who have pitched in minors and mlb. they say 14 or 15.

nothing worse than a kid trying to be to fancy and hurting themselves

I would say no earlier than around 15 - if taught the correct way to throw one.

I was always told by a friend of mine's dad who is a doctor dealing with sports injuries, that 13 or 14 should be OK.

This is, as stated already, provided it is being taught and performed in the proper manner.

i threw one at 10 as an out pitch

and worked it in more as i got older

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BraveTiger225

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my buddy who pitched in the big show told me he learned to throw a curve by using an aerosal can. held it and threw to get the curve motion mechanics down.

i hate seeing kids trying to get fancy and "trying" to throw a curve or slider. horrible mechanics= fricked up arms

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I was having a conversation with someone about this. I say Junior/Senior year of HS at the earliest. You don't need a breaking pitch to get 12 year olds out and they should be working on location and changing speeds first. Thoughts?

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Here is my opinion, 99% of these little bastards will have no shot in hell to play in the majors or college, so let the kids have fun throwing a curve ball at 10/11/12 and striking out their friends. Stop thinking that your kid will be playing one day in the bigs. A kid's hands are generally not big enough to throw a true change w/o slowing down their arm motion so a curve really is the only way to change speeds.I guarantee the majority of the pitchers in the majors threw curves as a kid or threw soooo hard it didn't really matter.

I threw curves a lot as a 10, 11, 12 yr old and my arm is just fine and I had a blast striking out my friends. The over hand throwing motion in general is not good for your arm/elbow so all you crazy parents need to chill the frick out...

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Anything before high school is absolute insanity and can make your arm all but useless as you reach older age.

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yea if you throw it every pitch, and you don't know the proper way to throw it

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I would say no earlier than around 15 - if taught the correct way to throw one.

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I agree with this but could be different depending on how early a kid develops physically.

The biggest part is how they throw it. I was taught letting ball roll off the middle finger with no the index finger not on the ball. May be a much more effective way but it had a lot of action and my arm was never sore. Had some kids who would hold it like a fastball and try to snap twist their wrist to put the spin on it. These were the kids who had the sore elbow.

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if so, teach mechanics and location. then throw in a change up with same motion as a fastball. will make a kid look stupid

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Not too many 12 yrs that have big enough hands to throw a change w/o slowing their arm. Just saying. The key to not hurting your arm is a good throwing regime and mechanics (using your legs to generate the majority of your power) more so then whether or not you throw a curve. Hell a lot of people naturally have a break to the ball just bc of their arm angle and release point.