re: Little kids throwing curve balls.

Calm down psycho.

No one is calling it “dangerous”. What a dumb strawman. People are saying that throwing a pitch that causes different stresses without propper stamina buildup is more likely to lead to injury. That’s the same for anything. The “mechanics” is what’s BS about this argument.

Mechanics aren’t so that pitching is more safe. Mechanics are about throwing it harder with more consistency and control. That has very little to do with arm stress. In fact, some believe that “good” mechanics which leads to throwing harder alone is to blame for more arm injuries. We weren’t meant to throw this hard. Period. Look at it this way. If a kid grows up throwing side arm, all of his muscles and soft tissue has been growing and reacting and adapting to handle that stress. So if you suddenly, at age 14, show him “good” mechanics and force him to throw a different way, he’s actually more likely to get injured. That’s my argument about CBs. It’s not the mechanics (which studies show). It’s that it’s a new pitch that stresses different areas.

And the reason we wait until a certain age is because you can argue that by age X, the tissue has developed enough to better handle the changes involved with a new pitch. ANY new pitch.

Curveball are meant to be learned the same way as sex...On the playground from someone else who doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.

Which Sonic are you closest to?

All new research is pointing to curveballs not being as bad as initially thought. Andrews and other top baseball docs admit that. Now they are still cautious because as previously mentioned, not all kids can throw it with good mechanics

The facts are that some of the biggest factors leading shoulder/elbow injuries are velocity, volume of pitches, and recovery (or lack thereof)

Love a good anecdote.

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My kid ain’t going to be pitching in a professional organization..

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Correct.

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overuse is the culprit and learning a slider over a 1-2 year period from competent coaches is fine.

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You sir, are an idiot.

I would say 14 but......

First people should teach kids to throw a fastball and changeup and be able to LOCATE them.

I see so many kids that can't throw enough strikes to pitch effectively - but they get lessons 2 nights a week.. and have 3 pitches......



you have to be able to locate everything else is irrelevant

just take it easy on the screaming at your kid/umpires/coaches

When I was in college I would coach a Dixie youth team to help the playground director out. He had gotten sick of the parents and didn’t want any of them to coach.


Anyway, I coached one kid who was 9 years old and was throwing 4 pitches including cureballs and sliders. The parents couldn’t understand why I laughed when they told me that. Said kid went on to play junior high baseball and nothing past that. Parents really ruined his passion for the game and ability.

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overuse is the culprit and learning a slider over a 1-2 year period from competent coaches is fine.


You sir, are an idiot.

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A slider is closely related to a fastball which he has built up mechanics.. adding a completely different mechanic is more likely to cause injury. Quit listening to sound bites from the mlb network and actually learn about the mechanics of the pitch before sounding off on something you don’t understand