My question would be does the coach genuinely understand pitching to know whether or not his mechanics is placing too much stress on his arm. Sometimes when high school coaches don't know pitching they mistake success with good mechanics.quote:Originally posted by BlueRidgeBandit:
I'm sure this is a topic for another thread but since it came up, I guess I'll explain my definition of his slurve, His coach calls it a Clemson curve, because it breaks so hard and because he throws it so fast, not your typical 12-6 break, more of a 2-7 break due to his low 3/4 arm slot, it really is a nasty pitch that he throws harder than what I see alot of traditional cruves thrown. The coach has told him to keep throwing it hard like a slider because he gets such good rotation throwing it that way compared to trying to get that 12-6 break, thus my term a slurve. Coach says his curve is best on team and when he gets command of it the skys the limit. This past summer was his first season throwing a cruve and maybe threw it 25-30 times in game situations, still learning the pitch. I would not let him throw a cruve before 16yrs old, but coach encouraged learning a breaking / offspeed pitch to go with fastball. Last season in JV he was closer only, so he was able to get away with one pitch, now needs two to start. His mechanics look alot like AJ Burnett's with a simular arm slot and even the inward hip rotation, don't know if that will be a concern with this type of pitch, but if there is a red flag here please advise.
Back in 14U we had a kid with a nasty 3/4 delivery curve. But we could see it was going to destroy his arm. Our pitching coach wouldn't call it. He worked on changing the kid's mechanics. The kid left the team at the end of the season, did it his way and blew out his arm by sixteen. He did have a great freshman year on the mound. Now he's done pitching.