Little kids throwing curve balls.

Nice post Ed.

If you throw a curve ball the right way it doesn’t hurt the arm anymore than a fastball. The reason kids who throw curveballs have more arm trouble is because they pitch more than the other kids.

quote:

---

If you throw a curve ball the right way it doesn’t hurt the arm anymore than a fastball

---

Im not saying you are wrong or calling you a liar, but I strongly disagree with this. You take a kid that throws 50 fastballs and another kid that throws 50 curveballs repeatedly in games at a young age and see which one has arm trouble. Ive seen it several times.

and my answer to the question is high school if they are throwing consistantly.

My son threw a 12-6 curve very effectively at age 12.
He went on to play D1 baseball as a pitcher.
So if thrown correctly I think 13 is ok.
But it probably varies from kid to kid.

quote:

---

Im not saying you are wrong or calling you a liar, but I strongly disagree with this.

---

Disagree all you want. I won’t be rude or anything but I’ve almost written a book about this subject. The biomechanics of the curveball are almost completely identical to the fastball. My opinion is shared by Dr. James Andrews

Better off learning to throw a nasty changeup that he can command and trying to develop the basics and finger strength to start getting more spin on the fastball for movement. Command those two well enough , work ethic, and blessed with enough strength and athletic ability and you can go far.

In our LL in the 80's, they banned it until you got to Pony League.

So, yeah the rules were 13 years old.

quote:

---

Disagree all you want. I won’t be rude or anything but I’ve almost written a book about this subject. The biomechanics of the curveball are almost completely identical to the fastball. My opinion is shared by Dr. James Andrews

---

I agree. There may be minor effects of throwing curveballs, but for most kids it's sheer volume. Kids 13 or 14 years old should.t be throwing 100 pitches in a game or 2 or 3 days in a row.

The only way a curve could cause more issues than any other pitch is if some Jack Leg teaches the kid to throw it wrong. Its pretty much impossible to actually see the ball and make a determination of speed, location and spin. Hitters are able to tell these things based off the actual arm and body action of the pitcher. If the arm did anything different than the fastball for a curve or any other pitch...it would be be pretty ineffective against decent hitters.

Kids develop arm problems from amount of total stress to the arm. You cant have a kid pitch long games, then immediately go play catcher or shortstop for long before he’ll start developing problems.

Some kids have more lax joints and are more resistant to arm trouble than other kids. Often times your more athletic kids who are more tightly wound and more springy/explosive have more arm problems.