Since I am new to the forum I will make this long and sweet... LOL
Here is a golden rule to live by when it relates to your youth pitcher as a parent.
If you are like most parents , you work with your child so you should know about how many pitches it takes to wear your childs arm out.
Once you establish that pitch count, you need to enforce it.
Lets say that figure is 80 pitches. As a parent you need to let your sons coach know that once he reaches 80 pitches he has to come out of the game pitching. You must keep the count as a parent, the coach will most likely forget or fudge the figures if the game is on the line.
Also once he reaches his pitch count you also have to let the coach know your son is not allowed to play catcher, 3rd or SS after reaching that pitch count.
I am new to the youth baseball experience. I coached high school and college baseball but have never had any experience with young kids prior to my son starting to play a year ago.
I can tell you though, this experience has been eye opening. Playing for some of the most competitive travel teams this year, I have seen some of these travel team coaches abuse a lot of pitchers arms. This is the primary reason I dont allow my son to pitch.
I have seen kids pitch for 5 innings then go behind the plate to catch the whole next game. I have seen 10 and 11 yr olds being taught and told to throw TRUE curve balls.
What a lot of parents who dont know any better and are relying on these so called coaches for advice fail to see. At a young age these kids still have growth plates that are growing. Overuse of their arms will stunt their growth plate growth and damage their arms FOREVER.
What good does it do to win a few pieces of medal or plastic and risk your childs health.
A quick story. I had a dad that I was talking with about his son throwing a curve ball. This kid was a great pitcher and I proceeded to explain to his dad that his coach was going to hurt his arm by having him throw all those curve balls.
This dad kindly told me that his son could go out and be hit by a bus tomorrow so there was no more danger in him throwing curve balls at age 11 than getting hit by a bus.
Moral of the story. Never place your childs health/future above winning a game, getting a medal or pleasing a youth baseball coach.