Flat ground or mound pitching

Flat ground will be just fine. Get out in the yard on a bucket and let him pitch to you. My son and I used to do this all the time. You should limit the mound work anyway because it puts more stress on the arm. Also get out and long toss.
Just my .02 cents.

Just be out throwing. Bucket time is always good. Work the form and mechanics, and have some fun.

An article in the NY Times highlights pitching injuries within the NY Yankee organization. It is about time EVERY serious pitcher gets their delivery scientifically tested for risk of injury. The biomechanical analysis gives you information you cannot get anywhere. It also shows how you can improve velocity and command. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09...ia%20brackman&st=cse

Steve, very happy to have you guys as a sponsor. I'm sure you have much wisdom in the area of pitching. Maybe rather than plugging getting an analysis as the answer to everything, you can add in some helpful advice to some of the posters. Not trying to be rude, just making a suggestion. Welcome.

LDMJR, flat ground should be fine for the mean time. Your son will just have to work on adjusting his release point when he gets back on the mound. I agree with other posters that just getting out and throwing will do more to help his arm strength in the long run than anything. Yu guys can do a bunch of long toss during the off season and then tweak his mechanics when your lessons start again and you get some mound time.

Glad to see that your son has a passion for the game and wants to get out and work on it. Good luck to you guys.

Considering he's only 11 I would say concentrate on throwing using proper form.. long-toss.. long toss will build arm fluidity, a consistent arm slot and arm speed. My son long-tossed year-round beginning at age 11 and it paid off. He started getting sound mechanical (pitching) instruction at age 13. Throwing off a mound too often at age 11 is a worry because, IMHO most 11 year olds don't have proper mechanics so all you're doing is reinforcing poor habits.

Interesting that Betances had surgery to reinforce the ligaments. I haven't heard of that before. Perhaps he had a partial tear and went ahead and had the TJ surgery where they don't excise the ligament? It would be interesting to know exactly what they did.

That article was interesting, what is also interesting is that most of these guys most likely came hurt, whatever the reason being very important to do the right things when the player is young.

However, this is the life of a pitcher, regardless of how careful you are, it is a violent act, and sometimes it hits some sooner and some later. Very rarely does any pitcher escape from any issue. I agree the biochemical and DNA connective tissue has a lot to do with injuries.

For the most part, I do beleive we did everything right, son has great mechanics (always did), watched pitch counts, rest, etc., yet he is experiencing issues he never had as a young pitcher or even in college.

CADad, from my understanding, the procedure is to avoid total ulner nerve replacement when it doesn't need to be replaced, but rehab has failed and recovery time and rehab time is less than TJS.
There are specific criteria to be met before they decide on this procedure. The ligament becomes like a rubber band that is stretched out, but not torn, yet gives the pitcher discomfort.

TPM,
I assume you meant UCL replacement. I've heard of moving the Ulnar Nerve but not replacing it. Some have said this is the same thing that Rivera had done back in the early 90's. The description of that procedure varies. Some say they just moved the Ulnar Nerve and some say they cleaned up some fraying of the ligament. Perhaps they did both.

My question is what do they do to reinforce the stretched but not torn or not fully torn ligament?

Maybe Steve-3P could check with Dr. Andrews and let us know.