Too Many Curves?

I have a good buddy that coaches out at MARA and he says that next year, the curve ball will not be allowed to be thrown at all. MARA is a Little league sanctioned league. From what I was told...........if a player throws a curve ball he will be removed from the game. We'll see!!!!!!!

 

Challenge for an ump. Most LL umps are vol. how would they would know.

 

Braves, I agree completely. There is no SAFE curve ball to an under developed arm. The earliest that I believe someone could START to learn a curve is when they start growing real facial hair, not peach fuzz. Here is a concept that a lot of people seem to forget when they get the gleam in their eye over that fine plastic trophy. Why not teach the kid to pitch, hit his spots, gain command of his fastball and change up without relying on a curve ball as an out pitch just because the players that they are facing don't keep their eye on the ball yet. REMEMBER DAD'S AND COACHES, NO COLLEGE OR PRO SCOUTS ARE GOING TO TALK TO AND SIGN A 12 YEAR OLD.

 

Except the Gamecocks.

 

Hey it was an idea. You have to start somewhere with something. I'm open to ideas because having a limit on how many curve balls are thrown is a ridiculous idea.

 

It starts with the coaches and parents.

You should not need a rule to do what is best for these kids. What kind of coach goes out there and has a 9-14 year old kid throw hook after hook after hook? I coached 9u AAU one year. Believe me several teams we faced had kids throwing cb's. Thats right at 9 years old. I watched some of the LL series and it was ridiculous. Just about every other pitch was a cb. My first thought was "This coach is an idiot. All he wants to do is win and he doesnt care how he does it". Then my second thought was "What in the heck is this kids parents thinking". Then I thought "These announcers are ex ml players they know this is bs but they dont want to call it on national tv". I could name you several kids that were flat out studs at 12 , I mean they could flat out throw the rock. But because of a combination of throwing cb's and overuse they never developed into good HS pitchers. Several of them have arm problems today while still in HS and a couple are not even playing anymore. These coaches and these parents get so caught up in the moment of trying to have sucess at the LL level they are actually hurting their kids chances of reaching their full potential as players. My philosophy was always learn how to throw a fb and locate it. Learn how to change speeds on your fastball and locate it. And let your change up be a fastball that you have taken some off of. When they got a little older say 12-13 teach them a good circle change and focus on sound mechanics and locating the fb and change. When a kid comes into a HS program that is when I believe he should start developing his cb. And even then he should limit the amount that are thrown. Kids that live off the deuce at a young age never actually learn how to pitch. Then when they can no longer fool older more advanced hitters with the deuce and they can not locate the fastball they cease to be able to pitch. And many of them have worn out their arm way before they get to that point. Go ahead and throw the cb all you want if your goal for your kid is to be the best LL player he can be. How about ejecting the coach if a kid throws a deuce. Then eject the pitcher if he throws another one. There is no way you can not tell the difference in a cb and a change or fb. Better yet get some people that coach that care more about developing players than winning a 5 dollar plastic trophey at he expense of a kids health. In my opinion these coaches are clowns. And if you coach youth baseball at this age and you teach and allow kids to throw cb's - yes Im calling you a clown. By the way my team won the AAU state title at 9u that year and we never threw one curveball. Everyone knows the best pitch in baseball is a good located fb. And the next best pitch is a well timed located change up. The cb is way overated anyway. Unless your trying to fool a 12 year old kid.

 

Beautiful

A beautiful post Coach! Now the Dad's have gotten wise. It's bad to throw a curve ball so well just call that spinning pitch a change up and that should solve everything. I ask the kids to show me how they release their "change up" and when they show me (in slow motion) that their hand comes around the outside of the baseball and the ball tumbles I know it's really a curve ball!

Yes, I've seen the kids evaporate too. We had a boy at 9U whose Dad had him throwing 95 pitches on a Friday night AND another 95+ pitches on Sunday, every weekend they played. He had a nice spinning "change up" and was untouchable.

Then, at 12U and 13U he couldn't pitch and has had repeated bouts of tendonitis...............and for what?

 

3 supporters!

Good I guess they are in agreement! Nuff said!