I am somewhat out of the norm of the previous posts. I would dissuade anyone younger than 12 from the cb or even offspeed pitches. I find it somewhat humorous that so many are willing to have kids throw change-ups at an early age. I have watch so many kids destroy their form, motion and place tremendous amount of stress on the shoulder by throwing change-ups. But I also know that alot of the people on this thread are not in the real world if they truly believe kids are not TRYING to throw cb, knuckleball, sliders or whatever at an earlier age some even younger than 6.
The key here is to teach proper technique. You can control a little kid from throwing junk by intimidation but at the immediate pre-teen years they are chunking those pitches from the outfield to 1st base, they could careless whose watching. I have seen it in every place I have observed practices, even my own. True these are not game situations but it is just as damaging. If you teach kids the proper technique and they can throw it properly then you offset the damage IMO. But throwing the "Check out this slider" and watching them put a ton of pressure on the wrong points, the ball doesn't rotate properly so there is no movement and what happens? Throw it back and let me try it again. They will do this all practice long, in the backyard, during warmups between innings. Teaching proper technique is the key in my mind because you aren't stopping them from throwing it outside of games. The post before this one is a classic example. This young man states he did not throw a cb until he was 16. A more accurate statement would have been "I did not throw a cb in a game until I was 16 yo". I know for a fact he threw or attempted to throw junk pitches on numerous occasions maybe just not in games because that is the nature of all children. Coaches by definition: One who TRAINS athletes or athletic teams. One who gives private instruction. - v. To teach or train;tutor. Just because you tell them not to doesn't mean it is not rampant. At your next visit to a ballfield or out the back window, see if you observe what I'm talking about.