LLWS and pitching

Testing those kids arms up.

Who cares about the kids futures we’re trying to win a LLWS.

If you don’t have Tommy John before draft you aren’t doing it right

A curveball thrown correctly has no more stress on the arm than a fastball. Now slider is a different story.

On another note, the Cuban Little League coach apparently is missing and likely defecting.
First time Cuba plays in the LLWS

Though not an intentional 777 thread, this will be a 777 thread with the quickness.

It will turn into a pitching mechanics and age appropriate pitching argument.

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James Andrews said a kid shouldn't throw a curve until he can shave

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When did he say this? 30 years ago? There’s no denying that he was a pioneer in his field and should likely be in at least a few Halls of Fame. But he’s over 80 years old, and I doubt very seriously he’s kept up with all the latest data/studies/research on the subject.

I’m sure there are surgeons at his institute that are up to date and on the cutting edge of orthopedic treatment, but Dr. Andrews himself is likely no longer an expert. And even if he is, with so much more data on pitching arms and injuries, what he may have said 20-30 years ago is no longer valid.

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TigernMS12

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I’m not going to quote your whole post—and I’m not up to date on the latest research myself—but what you said seems spot on. Throwing fastballs and sliders as hard as you can with bad mechanics would seem to be much more dangerous post puberty when there’s a lot more torque/stress on your elbow/shoulder than simply throwing a curveball at 12.

This is anecdotal, but I learned a 12-6 curveball at 11 that I threw all the time (think Gavin Guidry’s shape/bend if you watched LSU this year). I threw it completely over the top. And I picked it up so well that I could command it and locate it just about anywhere I wanted. I could probably throw it for a strike raiser than I could my fastball, so I’d throw it in any count, which meant I threw it a lot. All through high school. And I never had any arm problems or experienced any real soreness after pitching.

It wasn’t until I got to varsity in high school and the little I played in college that I started experiencing real arm soreness after taking 100+ ground balls a day and throwing to 1st from short or 3rd. And I certainly wasn’t throwing anything but a 4-seam grip over there, but it was the throwing as hard as I could from a more 3/4 slot at 16-20 years old that really started to stress my elbow. Rolling a 12-6 breaking ball at 11-12 years old was nothing.

That said, I was an outlier. I was taught a different kind of breaking ball than most kids and was lucky enough to pick it up early and be able to command it. If my son had kept pitching, I would have made him master a change up before letting him throw a breaking pitch. Because you throw that with the same motion from the same slot as a fastball and building that muscle memory with good mechanics pays off much greater in the long run. And you’re not giving up much in the short run, if any at all. Most young hitters get fooled simply by the change of velocity rather than not being able to pick up spin. Maybe not at the highest levels of youth baseball, but in most leagues, if you have a good fastball, you could slow down your delivery and almost throw an eephus pitch and get them spinning in their spikes.

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When did they change the rules?

Used to be fastballs only and you got ejected for a curve.

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This isn't 1996