OT: Little League Pitching

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I thought this would be a good group to pose this question to. I have an 11 year old son, and at the first little league meeting the kids were told to be ready to start seeing curve balls this year. If my son pitches, I will not allow him to throw curves, as I feel this is way too young of an age. Also, changing speeds and perfecting location of a "fast"ball is more important at 11, imo.

I would love to hear others' thoughts.

almost 3 years ago davidalanu 3 comments 0 recs |

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I would recommend not learning to throw it yet.

Learning how to locate pitches is more important than the potentially damaging effects of throwing breaking balls at a young age. I would wait a few more years before working on breaking balls.

As someone who has worked baseball camps, we taught the younger campers how to throw changeup if their hands were big enough to grip a ball properly.

Some kids in the league will throw breaking balls, and if you want your son to get used to seeing them in the batters’ box, I would recommend throwing them yourself or setting up a pitching maching to throw some breaking balls.

I love to play baseball. I'm a baseball player. I've always been a baseball player. I'm still a baseball player. That's who I am. - Ryne Sandberg

by Bill Potter on Feb 25, 2009 11:41 AM CST reply actions 1 recs

David, in my opinion this is vastly subject to the quality of the league your son is in and his baseballl maturity for his age. I have a 9 y/o son that still has a hard time sticking to some fundamentals so for that reason I would not allow him to advance other aspects of his game until he gets those others down pat first. So I guess I agree with you. We want them to focus on more important things first. My son is not a pitcher but plays a killer SS and 3B but sometimes he starts to believe how good he is and is lax on fundamentals as I said previously.

Also keep in mind that as parents we all want to groom the next Tim Lincecum but we also have to pay attention to their weaknesses and their strengths.

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by tony412 on Feb 25, 2009 11:46 AM CST reply actions

if thrown properly

it won’t do him any harm. It’s when kids try to get the side-spin on the ball to make it “curve” more side-to-side is when injuries take place. Curveball rotation when done properly is more of an end-over-end rotation or “12 to 6” if using the clock face as an analogy.

Throwing a football is somewhat similar in that the hand position is to the side instead of behing the ball. Kids typicall don’t get injuries just throwing a football.

Easiest way to teach a proper curveball. Stand a tennis ball can on an end. Grab the can at the bottom. Go through throwing motion making the can spin vertically end-over-end. After a few tries use a baseball and simulate the same release. Go back and forth between the two. I would do this for maybe 5 minutes per throwing session—no more as the feel for the proper motion is more important the the repetitive nature.

by socalbob on Feb 25, 2009 1:11 PM CST reply actions