I have a question. My son's pitching coach wants to work with him this summer on his pitching he wants him to start throwing overhand and switching to his submarine style, I am a little weary about that could this hurt him? Pitching the way he does (submarine style) never bothered his arm but do you think he could more likely have problems in the future.
Thank you for your comments.......
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gk, how old is your son and what are the qualifications of his pitching coach? What is the connection? Travel team? H.S.? Years ago, I was told by a "pitching coach" who presented himself as an MLB scout that Bum, Jr. should throw from varying arm slots. My response was "no" (should have been HeLL no..). Bum, Jr. has a high 3/4 slot that has served him well through h.s., college, and the pros.
Throwing submarine can work for some but only rarely so. What is his natural arm slot? Focus on velocity and perhaps seek a second opinion here.
I agree, to change armslots against a batter or within an inning is very difficult. He'd have to have incredible command and velocity to switch and remain effective. Having a sidearmer pitcher that has to prove his spots to the umpire, I wonder how many of his close throws deep in the count would be called balls because the ump hasn't seen him throw that way or hit that spot before.
Leftyside tried this in high school. He'd throw a couple overhand and then switch to his more natural armslot (sidearm). The problem was that he didn't throw hard enough and so batters learned to swing on his first two pitches before the nasty stuff came. He eventually learned to stick with the nasty stuff and ended with a 1.33 ERA his Sr year and is now pitching strictly sidearm in college.
Why does he want him to do this? Has he been effective as a submariner? Nearly every team(D1) our son has faced this season has had either a submariner or sidearmer in relief. Leftyside was the go-to pitcher out of the bullpen this season with a batting against average of .178 He still does not throw hard but he is nasty!
Does your son want to play in college? This could make him hard to hit in high school but not much of an asset in college because he hasn't been able to fine tune one area. IMO, Better to be excellent with one armslot than very good with two.
to bum: Hello, Adam is 17 and a true submarine pitcher naturally. while he was growing up until 13 they let him pitch sidearm when he started travel at 13 the coach didn't let him pitch because they didn't like the sidearm they tried teaching him over the top but he started dropping his arm they were afraid of him hurting his elbow so they didn't let him pitch after that. It wasn't until freshman year when he was at tryouts and was pitching when the varsity pitching coach noticed him sidearm and walked over to him and showed him to throw sub and he tried it and my son realized this was more comfortable for him to throw. He can throw higher up to a 3/4 and throw faster he does that now and then, but when he comes out to pitch umpires don't really know how to call his pitches unless they are experienced veterans because there aren't many people pitching this way. His pitching coach is a college grad that pitched for a d1 school and told Adam they always had 1 submariner. He goes to Huntley High School and he also plays for the 18U McHenry County Hurricanes.
My son is currently a submariner, and I mean from below the knee. He was sidearm until 13U when we were convinced by a pitching coach to stop before he got hurt. He pitched from 3/4 slot into College Fall ball where the pitching coach asked him to try to lean at the waist and throw the same way. HE LOVES IT !! However, he does NOT go back to the old slot, ever. If he fields a bunt, it's sidearm to the first baseman.
