quote:Originally posted by bballman:
GBM, I will not question whether or not what you are doing for and with your son is good or bad or whether it is best for him or not. I simply don't know your son or your situation. I will say that you speak with a lot of confidence that I don't think is well founded yet. Your son is only 14, so, quite frankly, you really don't know whether it will work in the long run or not. Yet you still talk like what you have done with him is what should be done.
Also, around here, mid 70's for a 14 year old is fairly common. Summer before my son's freshman year, he was throwing 82. Another kid at 13 and 14 was considered a hard thrower and threw about as hard as my son. At the same showcase between freshman and sophomore years, my son threw 86 and this kid threw 74. Everyone thought that kid had great mechanics. You really just don't ever know.
Another personal story. My son was like yours in that through 14 years old, he never got sore, seemingly never got tired. Once he turned 15 and started throwing in the mid 80's, he did start getting sore and had some minor elbow issues. I believe that part of that was a result of his velocity and quite frankly, part of it was from throwing too many curveballs. We cut WAY back on the CB's this summer and he has been fine - Arm wise and effectiveness wise. All this has nothing to do with size either. He has always been small for his age. Currently, he is 5'9" about 170 lbs. Has hit as high as 87 with his fastball and usually cruises between 84 and 86. He is going into his junior year.
I also think you need to take into account the competition your son faces. Sounds like he is playing rec league ball. If my son were playing there, he would have some no hitters and a ton of shut outs. He plays the highest level of competition available.
Anyway, bottom line is, I really don't think your son is old enough or experienced enough to know for sure whether what you are doing is going to work or not. Just don't think you should be so adamant about your theories until they can either be proven or disproven over time. There are a lot of people here who have seen much more than you. There are plenty of people here whose son's have made it to a much higher level than yours. You should really take into consideration what they say.
Like I said many times- What I have taught my son about pounding the strike zone with decent velocity works. Is that bad advice? Is that not what every professional ball cliub teaches? Hello? Sorry but I do not see where the advice I have given is backwoods redneck material! Like I also said before, My son sits in games in the mid seventies, which by most standards that I can tell from reading through the backlog here on the HSBBweb is above average for his age. No, he isn't one of the those phenom "heat" guys. I never said he was. I even said that others in his travel league can throw harder. That said, he has one of the best commands of the strike zone in his travel league.
So you think we play in a weak league against sub-par talent? How can you know? We play some of the most talented ball for our area. Two years ago the little league team (Cal-Ripken) that my son plays against in travel ball went to the Cal-Ripken world series. These are the type of caliber kids we are seeing in most games. Those kids from that team beat everyone out in the entire Northwest to represent the northwest in the Cal-Ripken world series back east. This year our kids that we play with and against played for the baseball team Idaho that went to Peoria AZ for the USA baseball west tournament. They were seeded 11th out of 35 teams after pool play, most of which were from California. The top thrower, from Team Idaho at that tournament was clocked throwing 84. We face this kid all the time along with others throwing well also.
My son stopped playing rec ball 2 years ago because he was not challenged enough.
I don't really want to get in a pis_sen contest, that is not my intent. I gave the advice and points I made and I am stickin by it.