Originally Posted by 2020dad:
Wow. This one got resurrected I see. I don't necessarily think at 11 and a half there is a magic mph number you 'must' be at. But I do think youth baseball makes the huge mistake of trying to teach control first. Control can be had at a young age with poor mechanics. To p velocity can not be had at any age with poor mechanics. Keep in mind before responding that there are of course a few freaks of nature, let's keep this the the vast majority. Also some of what we call poor mechanics in mlb is nit picking at that point. Pretty much all those guys have good mechanics. So I would say it is never too early to teach your kid to develop powerful mechanics and throw hard. You want to measure that via radar I am fine with that also. But never ever sacrifice velocity for control.
Exactly right. In addition, I believe correct mechanics, in addition to maximizing velocity, are part of a long-term arm health plan. My own son was practically unusable for almost two years as a pitcher due to control issues at a young age. People wondered why I didn't just have him slow up the velocity and find the strike zone. Many of them are finding out now. I see too many big guys in high school who should be throwing harder. I kow quite a few and also know that their velocity was harnessed at a young age and traded for "putting the ball over the plate."