@anotherparent posted:To bring this to SBD's point, is it science or art that can tell us whether pitching curveballs at a young age is bad or not? House (at 6:50 on the video) says a curveball thrown properly is ok. The way he talks, he seems to be basing that on science.
House is correct that a curve ball thrown properly is okay to teach. Taught properly, the breaking ball is a fastball thrown with a different grip and a different hand position at release of the ball. That’s all there is to it. The arm action is exactly the same. Problems arise for young pitchers when they aren’t taught good throwing mechanics at the very beginning. Those problems compound if they are also not taught the proper way to throw breaking balls. The inevitable arm injury that follows is always blamed on throwing breaking balls too soon. But there is often more to it than that.