Does throwing curveball hurt your arm?

No studies found increased force or torque about the elbow or shoulder. Three epidemiologic studies showed no significant association between pitching a curveball and upper extremity pain or injury.

Should 13 year olds throw curve balls?

While the research has not conclusively shown a connection between curveballs and injuries; it is safest for young pitchers to avoid throwing curveballs until they are more mature and can use proper mechanics.

What does a curveball do to your arm?

Throwing too many curveballs or throwing curveballs improperly could lead to ligament damage, coaches and doctors said, specifically tears to the ulnar collateral ligament, the tissue in the elbow that connects the upper arm to the inside part of the lower arm.

Is a slider or curveball worse for your arm?

Though the relationship between pitch type and arm pain is confounded by this, the difference between the odds ratio between curveballs and sliders is clear — youth pitchers that throw sliders seem to experience more arm pain than those that throw curveballs.

Should a 14 year old throw a curveball?

Each young pitcher is built differently. The short answer is that many experts agree that pitchers can begin throwing curveballs between the ages of 13-16.

How To Throw A Curveball Without Hurting Your Arm

What pitch is hardest on the arm?

What pitch is hardest on the arm? Sliders had the highest arm stress (54.6 ± 12.9 N·m) while curveballs had the lowest (46.8 ± 16.3 N·m). Fastball arm stress was 50.1 ± 16.8 N·m and changeup arm stress was 51.3 ± 15.5 N·m.

Is curveball the hardest pitch to hit?

A . 300 hitter, that rarest of breeds these days, goes through life with the certainty that he will fail at his job seven out of ten times.” And the consensus of the pros is that the curveball is the toughest pitch to hit.

Does pitching ruin your arm?

Your pitching motion can put a repeated strain on your biceps tendon, which leads up to your shoulder, and it can irritate the tendon enough to form tendinitis. This creates pain and weakness in the front of the shoulder.

How hard is it to hit a curve ball?

In baseball, the curveball is a monumentally difficult pitch to hit. It turns out there's a very good scientific reason why. Right when a curveball crosses the plate, the spinning of the seams tricks a hitter's brain into thinking the ball is diving at a steeper angle than it really is.

What age is safe to throw a curveball?

So, what is the appropriate age? In regard to curveballs and sliders, I recommend a player wait until he is 13- or 14- years- old. It all depends on his physical maturation and muscular development. You want to avoid overloading the shoulder and elbow.

How many inches does a curveball break?

A major league curveball can veer as much as 17 1/2 inches from a straight line by the time it crosses the plate. Over the course of a pitch, the deflection from a straight line increases with distance from the pitcher.

Why kids shouldn't throw curveballs?

The study of 149 pitchers under the age of 12 showed that players who did not follow pitch count limits had higher odds, ranging from 2.04–2.47, of developing elbow pain during a single season. Pitch type, specifically curveballs, remains one of the most controversial potential risk factors for arm pain/injury.

Is it harder to hit a fastball or a curveball?

A hitter is more likely to contact a fastball, but curveballs have more power potential. Basically, a hitter is more likely to get on base by hitting a fastball, but a curveball has more capacity for extra bases. Hunting one pitch over the other may be situational.

Who has the best curveball ever?

1. Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers.

How do you throw a curveball safely?

Grip a baseball and place your index finger on the ball. Place your middle finger along the bottom seam of the baseball. Place your thumb on the back seam. When this pitch is thrown, your thumb should rotate upward and your middle finger should snap downward.

What age should you start pitching?

There is no professional consensus as to when exactly kids should start pitching in league games. A handful of online forums mention 9 or 10 as being the right age, but not as any sort of hard, fast rule; the official Little League site has kids pitching starting at age 9.

Is pitching easier than hitting?

Pitching mechanics are harder than hitting mechanics. In order to throw hard, you need to have elite pitching mechanics. In order to become an elite level baseball player, you need to throw hard.

How do pitchers keep their arms healthy?

Do arm care exercises for the shoulder, biceps, triceps, elbow, forearm, wrist and hand three times a week. Use light weight dumbbells, or flexible tubing. Also do push-ups 2-3 times a week. Dumbbells, flexible tubing and medicine balls are much more functional than using machines in the weight room.

What is the rarest pitch?

Definition. A screwball is a breaking ball designed to move in the opposite direction of just about every other breaking pitch. It is one of the rarest pitches thrown in baseball, mostly because of the tax it can put on a pitcher's arm.

What is the most nasty pitch?

1) Jhoan Duran -- 99.7 mph splitter, Aug.

Duran is the only pitcher in pitch-tracking history to throw a 100 mph "offspeed" pitch. His "splinker" -- a unique splitter/sinker hybrid that gets classified by Statcast as a splitter -- reached as high as 100.8 mph in this same game, but that one was a ball.

Which is the toughest pitch in cricket?

Sabina Park is one of the most grinding pitches in the world, located in Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. This pitch has an extra bounce. Moreover, in Test matches, this ground becomes deadlier. Many international batters find this pitch very tough to play.

Which pitch is easy to bat?

The ball lands on the bat and a dry pitch doesn't sway the ball unless it bounces from one of the cracks. Hence, a hard pitch is good for batting and bowling.

What pitch is the easiest to throw?

Four-Seam Fastball

This is usually the easiest pitch to throw for a strike. If released properly, four laces of the ball rotate through the air, helping to keep the throw in line with the target. Pitchers should hold the baseball with their pointer and middle finger on the top laces or seams of the baseball.

What is the weirdest pitch in baseball?

An eephus pitch (also spelled ephus) in baseball is a very high-arcing off-speed pitch. The delivery from the pitcher has very low velocity and often catches the hitter off-guard. The eephus pitch is thrown overhand like most pitches, but is characterized by an unusual, high-arcing trajectory.