Teaching pitchers under 21 YOA breaking pitches

[FastpitchFan]

Interesting topic.

Reality = Kids do learn movement pitches at a young age. It's the reality of our sport.

Fact #1 = The repetitive nature of learning to throw breaking balls with aggressive wrist work for pitches like riseball, curveball, screwball and roll-over drop DOES put a lot of stress on the tendons, ligaments, and growing bones of the forearm, arm, and shoulder.

Fact #2 = There are PLENTY of cases of pitchers who have develop serious overuse injuries from excessive pitching (too many games, too much practices, etc.) at an early age and were never able to get back at 100%. Many left softball and were never the same again. I have seen a lot of these cases over the years. There are cases like this all over.

Fact #3 = There has been a lot of research conducted on softball injuries and most of the conclusion are clear - softball pitching does put a lot of stress on the joints and muscles due to its repetitive nature. So, it is scientifically proven that being a softball pitcher puts you at a greater risk of developing overuse injuries, sometimes career-ending overuse injuries.

What should we do?

- We cannot prevent the training of young pitchers. Our sports needs them.
- The key is in moderation (avoid too many games, too much training, monitoring fatigue, allow for recovery periods and breaks, etc.) and extreme care of the joints and muscles of the pitching arm (icing, strengthening, injury prevention exercises, good warm-ups, etc.)

Should you NOT learn breaking balls until the end of puberty?

On paper, perhaps. The reality is that you need to be able to throw breaking balls at earlier age to be successful.

Doctors tend to err on the side of safety.

My opinion: ensuring proper mechanics at an early age, solidifying and shielding the body against injuries through proper strengthening of the joints and muscles involved, monitoring excessive use of the pitching arm (practices, games, etc.), and allowing for recovery periods and breaks.

Coach Marc

 

[halskinner]

*sigh* ok, I'll try this again...

This isn't a "how do I teach my 10 and 12 yo dd's to throw breaking pitches?" thread. It is a "how (technique) do you teach young (anything under 21) pitchers to throw breaking pitches?"

As far as the family doctor's advice, I'd give a lot more credibility to the advice of a specialist than I would my family practice pediatrician who I trust with the overall health of my dd's.

We CANNOT lump all the different age groups into one group. Just like the associations break it down into different age groups, you have to do the same thing when it comes to pitching instruction. You dont teach a 21 year old like you do an 8 year old and vice versa.

I have worked with pitchers as old as 22 and as young as 6. The basic mechanics are the same but they graduate up in size, strength, ability and what they can learn safely as they get older.

There are books and DVDs out there that teach what I believe you are asking.

 

[HittingGuru]

Mr Skinner is it true a whole lot of the movement is in how the pitcher uses the fingers during the pich. Is that the reason tall girls with long fingers have an advantage being they have more finger length to roll the ball off of to generate spin.

 

[halskinner]

Mr Skinner is it true a whole lot of the movement is in how the pitcher uses the fingers during the pich. Is that the reason tall girls with long fingers have an advantage being they have more finger length to roll the ball off of to generate spin.

Fingers, wrist, elbow, release point, angle of the pitchers body at release, they all have something to do with the pitch and what spin might be applied.

As far as tall pitchers, sure, they do have a little advantage over pitchers not as tall because of ball speed. A 6 foot and 5 foot pitcher having different length arms but the same exact RPM of the arms, the taller one makes a little bigger circle and develops a little more MPH at release.

Where the length of the fingers play a big role is being able to keep a strong grip on the ball during the arm circle. Lot of force trying to pull the ball out of the hand, we've all seen that happen. Many grips require one or more fingers to something othen than only help grip the ball. Can only do that pitch if you can still keep the ball in your grip and use finger placement too.

I have had VERY young ones (6 through 8) where the hands were SO small they couldnt even keep a grip on the 10" balls and they would fly out. So we went to the next smallest, a tennis ball, and worked with that for awhile until they were ready for the 10" one.

Being able to keep the ball 'gripped' (NOT FLYING OUT OF YOUR HAND IN THE CIRCLE) with the thumb and middle finger, or the thumb, ring and pinkie is a determining factor on which pitches you might be able to teach a young pitcher.

Hal

PS: You can call my dad Mr. Skinner. I feel old enough as it is. I'm Hal.