In today's video,
is there a safe version of a curve ball that use pitchers can throw?
You might have heard of the slip pitch, quote unquote, and lots of other safe
curveballs, quote unquote.
Is this actually a real thing?
Let's get to the bottom of it.
All right.
So when you hear Coach Dan Blewett.
I'm a former pro baseball pitcher.
I've worked with a lot of young pitchers
and I've heard from a lot of different parents and coaches.
And this topic comes up on a somewhat persistent basis that, oh, my son
just throws a slip pitch, he throws a safe curveball, don't worry about it.
You know, he throws 40 of them a game, but they're all the safe version, right?
So, look, there is no safe version of the curveball that does not exist.
Some people say this.
It's really just a misunderstanding of what curveballs due to the arm
and what the arm, what the position that's relevant is when you release a pitch.
So here's the thing.
Research has shown that the most stressful pitch on a pitcher's arm is guess what?
The fastball.
And that's because velocity, which a fastball comes up
faster than any other pitch, is most highly correlated to arm stress.
So the fastball is actually the most dangerous pitch that a pitcher throws.
Now, that being said, there's other research that shows pitchers
who throw more breaking balls, curveballs and sliders report more arm
pain than pitchers who don't throw fewer, throw none of the use.
So there's definitely a correlation between breaking ball usage and arm pain.
But yet the most stressful pitch a pitcher throws is the fastball.
Here's the thing that's different about a curveball that is the same on
a safe curveball, quote unquote, or a sl Whether it's a safe
curveball, quote unquote, or slip pitch or a real normal curveball,
our elbow is supinated This is pronated.
So a fastball that we release here, we're immediately
going to be thrown it over, but it's mostly pronated when we release it.
A curveball is all the way over here.
So the wrist is turned an additional 90 degrees.
And so the wrist and the elbow
is in a much different position on a curveball or a slider.
Why is this important? Why is this relevant?
Well, when we pro Nate, all these muscles in the forearm,
they fire because they have to fire to actually turn the risk that way.
When we super nate, all these muscles in the forearm are relaxed.
Not all of them, but most of them.
They're relaxing because they can't do both
pronating and supinating at the same time.
That's how it's called reciprocal inhibition.
When your muscle contracts, others have to relax.
When these muscles contract, others have to relax.
So when we pro Nate, these muscles are contracting
and they help protect the elbow ligament when they are contracting,
when they are putting force through that joint,
they're protecting the ligament below it.
When they're supinated they are relaxed.
And so now there are fewer muscles contracting to protect your elbow ligament
in your elbow.
So when you throw a slip pitch or a safe curveball, quote unquote,
you still have to be supinated to throw that pitch.
And because you still have to be supinated,
there are less active forearm muscles protecting your elbow ligament,
which is going to put more stress through that ligament.
That's not to say that the slip pitch or the safe curveball
is going to ruin your arm, because it probably isn't.
But the thing here
is to understand that at the youth level, we're talking about ten, 11, 12, 13, 14.
It just isn't necessary for kids to throw that many curveballs.
And if they do want to throw
some curveballs, okay, have them throw the regular normal way
where they're learning something
that's actually going to benefit them later on in life.
I don't believe in teaching kids a junk version of a curveball
that they're going to have to scrap and relearn something better later on anyway.
So look, there's been a million kids at age 12
who's thrown curveballs in games and gotten kids kids out.
They don't all ruin their arms.
I'm not advocating for 12 year olds throwing curveballs.
I don't think any kid should do that. I think they should wait till they're 14.
But I'm also realistic in the sense that they're not all ruining their arms,
throwing a couple of curveballs there.
But what you don't want to do is as a parent or a coach,
to fall into the trap of like, Oh, this is safe and healthy.
Therefore we can throw 50 of these a game and it's no big deal.
It's kind of like eating a health food that's not actually a health food
that you then binge on thinking that it's good for you
and it turns out to be toxic or very bad for you.
That's not what you want to do here.
So in summary, let's talk about curveball usage for young pitchers.
Young pitchers below age 14 should just throw a fastball
and changeup and work on commanding both of those pitches.
That's my idea of the best possible
developmental and health wise track that a pitcher should be on.
Don't introduce a curveball until they're 14 and then 14 and 15.
They should be learning it and practicing it
much more than they're actually throwing it in games.
Then at 15-16, when they really do need to show a good breaking ball
to get recruited to play in college and to get varsity hitters out,
that's when the pitch needs to be ready.
So you learn it at 14.
You start to really hone it at 15 and then it's really good at 16.
If you throw 50% curveballs, are you going to hurt your kid's arm?
Probably. You throw ten or 20%.
Are they going to end up injured?
Probably not.
Right, Because the fastball is still the most stressful pitch they throw.
But still,
I think you should wait until 14 off before throw any throwing any curveball.
But if you do decide to throw a curveball below 14 years old,
you should just have your eyes open for it.
There is no safe version.
They're all the same.
They're all stressful.
They're all going to do the same thing to the elbow.
Just pick something that's smart and healthy for your kid
and hopefully they can develop into the pitcher
that they want to become without having arm problems and complications later on.
All right. Thanks for watching.
If you're here, please subscribe to the channel.
Share this video with a family that needs it and we'll see here in the next video.