quote:Originally posted by SultanofSwat:quote:Originally posted by YoungGunDad:
The radar guns are the culprit while the young arms are the victims.
Can you list one youth player that was injured by a radar gun? There must be thousands, or millions, of them. I gunned hundreds of them over several years, and nobody went to the hospital. Should PG stop using them?
I can understand that you may choose not to gun your child. I don't have any problems with that.
Sultan, the orginal post was about 10 year olds. Once you reach HS, if you want to go to the next level, radar guns are inevitible. Radar guns do not physically hurt people. The problem is that often times, when the gun comes out, kids will overthrow to try to impress the gun. When they do this, mechanics suffer and they are more likely to either hurt themselves right then, or possibly cause some damage that they are not aware of that will come back to haunt them down the road.
You seem like a pretty knowledgeable person. I can't imagine that you are advocating for the use of radar guns for 10 year olds. Like I said earlier, at those younger ages, focus should be on solid, repeatable mechanics and control/command. Once they get older, worry about velocity. But, even then, kids need to be taught to not overthrow and let mechanics suffer at the expense of trying to throw hard. Once the kids are in HS, they should be mature enough to throw within themselves whether the guns are there or not.
I think I, and everyone here, realizes that if you want to go to MLB - and to a lesser extent, college - you have to have good velocity. It does matter. However, at 10 - 13 or 14 years old, velocity should not be the main focus.
Until my son was 13, and I bought a gun for coaching reasons, I had no idea how hard he threw. He may have thrown at one of those fair throwing booths or at Turner Field at a Braves game, but if he did, I don't remember. Don't ever remember seeing a radar gun at a ballfield until he was 14. Even after I got the gun, I only brought it out 3 times per year, just to measure progress over the course of the year.
Believe me when I say I am not against radar guns. However, there is a time and place for everything. 10 years old is not the time to be worring about it.