Posted by: Mike's mom (Westchesternymom@aol.com) on Sun Apr 3 20:49:31 2005

I have a 12 year old pitcher, too, and I would be extremely concerned if my son's elbow was hurting after 20 pitches. A 12 year old should not be throwing a curve or a slider. Many do and most of these boys have a rare career h.s. & beyond. Boys should not be throwing curves or sliders until after they reach puberty (14 & older) because the bones and ligaments in the elbow are developing and throwing a curve/slider before puberty is a continual stretch on those ligaments (like stretching a rubber band)....eventually like a rubber band they will snap. I know two 12 year old boys this has happened too.

My son can throw 65-70 pitches per game with no pain at all. It is rare that he says his arm hurts. His speed is a little faster than most 12 year olds I've seen, but certainly not the fastest. One 12 year old I know throws in the 70's - no comparison to most other 12 year olds. My son does, however, have incredible accuracy and he never throws a curve or slider. At 12, he doesn't need those pitches -- he has a 2 seam & 4 seam fast ball & a change-up. His coach told him he could teach him how to hit a curve, but not to throw one (loved this advice), because the boys who are throwing them at 12 most likely will have a short pitching career & will end up playing first.

I would be very concerned that your son is having elbow pain after 20 pitches. It sounds like he may have Little League elbow, which is caused by throwing too hard too often, increasing the number of pitches he throws per week too quickly, throwing too many curves or sliders before H.S. or changing to a league where the pitcher's mound is farther away from home plate.

If it was my boy, I would not let him pitch until he saw an orthopedist.....and no more curves/sliders. I would rather lose him as a pitcher for a season at age 12 than to lose him as a pitcher for the rest of his baseball career.

I hope you have been icing his elbow after his practices.

If you need an extra jump to clear the fence, read through the site, buy the dvd so he can learn a good rotational swing & buy him an Anderson Techzilla XP -- the ball flys off this bat & can help a typical outfield ball turn into a homerun -- a lot of people don't like that the equipment can give a batter the extra edge, but the bats are there to be bought & you know the other guy will be getting them.