If your player is doing this and his arm is not yet fully developed, his arm will
become disfigured and you'll be lucky if he pitches long enough to play high
school ball. Throw hard, throw strikes, hit the corners and change speeds -
all with natural arm movements.
Here is a good example of proper arm positioning for a throw.
If your child routinely throws with an awkward-looking motion, you need to
get him coaching to fix it. Once he turns 10, it's incredibly difficult to fix poor
throwing mechanics.
Pitching Guidelines and Safety Video
Today there are over 9 million kids between the ages of 7 and 17 participating
in baseball. Recently, we have seen an alarming increase in the number of
elbow injuries in youth baseball pitchers. Here are some facts you should
know and some tips you can follow to help lower the risk of injuring the
pitching elbow. Special thanks to TV station KBTX for allowing us to link to
their video.
Click here for video
Pitch Count Limits to Protect Young Pitchers
(Good Article on the Importance of Pitch Counts for Young Pitchers)
Several thousand 12-year-olds are getting "Tommy John" surgery each year.
12-18-year olds are getting the surgery by multiples of that. By throwing with
unnatural arm movements, they are damaging tendons and bones at a very
young age, sometimes damaging growth plates to the point of disfiguring
their arms.
At BVPB, we are against this practice and have put more stringent rules in place
to protect the arms of our young players. In 2007, we instituted two major
improvements to our system:
- Pitch Count limits. In the past, pitch count limits were highly-suggested
and a vast majority of coaches kept well within these guidelines. However,
a very small number exceeded pitch counts way beyond what is reasonable,
so the board voted in strong pitch count limits. You can see the new rule
in the BV Rules document. - The board funded an organization to come and and work with each
and every player and every coach to teach arm strengthening and
conditioning.
BVPB Safety Director