Pitch Count

You caught me Metro. My fingers were flying until I finished reading. Ha-Ha. I have no clue about those numbers but at that age I'd give many kids an opportunity to try. Mine got his first last night (9 yo) and well, let's just say he has a lot of work to do I'd also caution about outings. My oldest (14) would throw 50+ pitches one day (at 12U)and then throw again the next day because he had "innings" left. Knowing what I know now, I'd certainly limit outings as well.

Take a look at asmi.org. ASMI was founded by Dr James Andrews, the world's leading sports ortho specialist. There's a section on suggested pitch counts for all age groups. By the way ASMI could not find a correlation between a properly thrown curve and arm injuries. They attribute arm injuries to overuse.

One thing to keep in mind when coaching young pitchers is their physical maturity age may not be the same as their chronological age. Until a boy matures his physical age may be plus or minus three years of his actual age.

This is why you often see big horses smoking hitters in 9U and 10U, then don't succeed in 13U when they hit the big field. They were just way ahead of the physical curve when they started playing.

When my son was nine he pitched one inning a week. He was above average in height and normal in weight. I didn't see the importance in him being a 9U/10U pitching stud.