YES…BUT ONLY IF…
Let’s get this out of the way right now.
Since the days Genghis Khan played shortstop in the Mongol Empire League, dudes have been telling us curveballs will rip your elbow up faster than a lightning bolt.
“Don’t throw breaking balls until you start shaving.”
“No, make that when you’re pitching in college.”
“Wrong again, wait until you’re a senior citizen.”
There are many age old controversies in baseball. Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame? How many hot dogs could Babe Ruth eat in one sitting? Was Ted Williams really a better hitter than Joe Pepitone? And, of course, the classic enigma.
Should a 12-year-old throw curveballs?
Curveballs ARE hard on the arm. But then so are fastballs.
If you really want to protect your son’s arm don’t let him throw curves. But also don’t let him throw fastballs. In fact, don’t let him throw at all. Just keep him in a bubble like John Travolta.
I don’t mean to be cavalier about this. I intend to protect a pitcher’s arm no matter what his age. But curveballs are not the culprit. Still, if you’re not sure, then concentrate on change-ups. Of course, they’re a lot harder to master than a curveball.
Five sure ways to hurt your arm
Anyone of these can do more damage to your arm than throwing curveballs.
They’re like lighting a match in a hydrogen factory. Eventually, you’re going down in flames. We’ll dissect them when we talk about protecting the pitcher’s arm.
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Sloppy mechanics.
Not warming-up thoroughly.
Weight-training without knowing how to do it
Throwing too many pitches.
Pitching two days in a row
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The Negative
“It makes me sick to my stomach to watch the Little League World Series and see 12-year-olds throwing curve after curve,” says Dr. Timothy Kremchek, the Cincinnati Reds’ physician.
“Those of us who treat those kids a few years later are pretty sure there’s cause and effect.”
Kremchek says he performs 150 elbow reconstructions a year. “Seventy percent are pitchers who haven’t hit college yet. I ask them when they started throwing curveballs and they say 10 or 11, sometimes even nine.”
The Positive
“For years, we told people curveballs were bad,” says Glenn Fleisig from the American Sports Medicine Institute, “Then we tried to prove it. We didn’t prove they were safe. But we could not prove they were dangerous.”
A five year Little League study of 1,300 pitchers agreed. “There was no association between throwing curveballs and injuries or even arm pain,” says Johna Mihalik, who wrote the study.
“It was surprising because of the conventional thinking about curveballs.”
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And the real problem
“For pitchers with proper mechanics, the force of throwing a curveball is no greater than for a fastball,” Says Dr. James Andrews, the famed Tommy John surgeon.
“But that’s not what happens on the field. Many kids don’t have proper mechanics or enough neuromuscular control or they’re fatigued. Things break down. Those are the kids I see every day in my operating room.”
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Dr. Andrews absolutely nailed it.
“For pitchers with proper mechanics, the force of throwing a curveball is no greater than for a fastball.”
So let’s learn how to throw a curveball.
With Proper Mechanics.
I have no problem with young pitchers throwing breaking pitches. But only if they’ve been taught to throw them PROPERLY.
I‘ve shown kids 11 and 12 how to throw curves and none of them got sore. No reason to. They threw them without elbow stress.
Bad mechanics for a curveball is twisting the elbow. That’s General George Custer riding full bore to Little Big Horn–a disaster waiting to happen.
Yes, there are risks in throwing curveballs. But good mechanics eliminate much of that danger. So let`s take a good look at the stress on the elbow and the ways we can make it disappear.
Bert Blyleven’s curveball warm-up
When I saw Blyleven pitch in Seattle he started with fastballs, then shortened up and just spun the ball, getting his elbow loose. Then a set of curveballs from the mound. This was cool because that was the same routinewe used with the Twins for years.
Blyleven’s deuce was as wicked as a witch, as dirty as a mudhole, and as snaky as an enraged cobra. The epitome of 12 to 6.
STRESS ON THE ELBOW
Kids get injured throwing curves because they twist their elbow. They learned this on their own or from another pitcher.
You can stop them from throwing curves in games but, if they’re going to fool around on their own, it’s much better to teach them how to protect their arm.
I’ve seen 12-year-olds with great curveballs. Just make sure they’re throwing them with proper technique.
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AND A STRESS TEST
Try something for me.
STEP ONE—Take a baseball and hold your throwing arm up at your side with your elbow about shoulder height and your hand facing forward. Pretend you’re throwing. Fine.
STEP TWO–Now turn your palm toward your head and do the same thing. No problem. Your elbow feels the same. No strain. No pain.
STEP THREE—Turn your palm in again. But this time as you come forward, TWIST your hand as if you’re spinning the ball.
That sudden tightness in your forearm and elbow is stress on the ligament. And that’s the ignition switch to Tommy John surgery.
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Sandy Koufax poses just for us to show where to start this stress test.
TWISTING is the way a lot of kids learn to throw a curveball. That straining action has led to more torn ligaments and TJ surgeries than Mars has chocolate bars.
Once you eliminate TWISTING almost all of the curveball injuries disappear like an apparition.
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“You could hear it break”
“Hitters would talk about Sandy Koufax’s curveball. They’d say you could hear it break. That’s how much spin it had.”
–Buck Martinez
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