PGStaff,
Just because my son is only 13 does not mean anything about me myself not knowing anything about baseball pitching. Just like any other concerned parent about the health of my kids arm, I have done research myself and have my own theories on what works and what doesn't. As far as getting advice from other people, I do get advice when the opportunity arises. Last year my son was on a traveling team who took advice from time to time from a former professional pitcher whose own kid was my sons fellow team-mate. I have also sought advice on the internet from time to time when I want to find out something. What I have personally found from my own research is that no one really knows what the true causes of why one pitchers arm blows out and his team-mates doesn't! It is all theories.
It is true that everyone on a team throws basic fastballs in practice, warming up, and in games on plays. But there is a big difference in that a pitcher on a team will throw 10 times as many fastballs as compared with the rest of players. On top of that, the pitchers "fastballs" are just that- "fast" whereas most other kids on the team will throw normally at lower velocities. and still on top of that, the other kids will not repeatedly throw hard fastballs over and over again without much rest inbetween pitches.
I am not saying that my sons arm is bullet proof or that he does "everything right" because he doesn't experience typical pain associated with other pitchers his age. I am just saying that the research of throwing too many fastballs at an early age obviously does lead to arm injury.
It has never been proven that throwing breaking pitches at an early age is the cause of arm injury (the main leading factor) and personally, an 11-12 year old pitchers general velocity on a breaking ball is not at a threshold velocity to cause arm injury- serious injury. Fastball pitches are in my opinion the most dangerous pitches to throw for pitchers because "max effort" is put into the pitch and as such, the muscles, ligaments and tendons are working at their max effort to accelerate and release that ball in a very tight sequencial space of time. The whole body must be conditioned to throw a fastball.
The whole reason I started video-taping my son was to refine his mechanics and track potential trouble spots in his delivery. So far, the video analysis shows to me that his troubles creep in when, in this order- 1.he throws in long inning games (high pitch counts), 2.throws too many fastballs, and- 3.improper rest between starts.
Turns out all along that my research closely resembles what major leaguers have been doing for the past decade or two in order to help curb injury issues. MLB teams have limited big pitch counts in games, kept the "fastballers" (97mph+ max effort pitchers)as primarily 1-2 inning guys, and given them better rests inbetween starts. It all points in my opinion to one basic thing- that thing being that it takes a lot of effort to throw hard and as such, the body needs to be strong and have "repairing" rest inbetween pitch outings to remain strong.
Who knows where my son will be when he is 20, hopefully he will still be pitching then and still look good with good velocity and control.
I believe I have instilled in my son the correct philosophy though, that being- the fastball is a violent event and that as he gets older each year he needs to learn how to warm up correctly and eat better and get the proper rest and recuperating periods inbetween outings so that when he throws "fastballs" his arm can support the violence of that event. I say violent in the sense that a cold tight arm or even a tired arm may still be able to throw at near max velocity, but it cannot withstand the pressures and shock of the event and as such he needs to emphasize warming up the engine before he races it and knowing when to shut the engine down before it blows!