There is no doubt that someone who tries to throw a curve or pitch at any early age before he's developed, before his hand is big enough to grip the ball correctly, will damage his arm.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Sooner or later the arm goes bad. It has to... Sooner or later you have to start pitching in pain.
My brother never got an opportunity to throw a pitch, and I didn't want the same thing to happen to another young kid.
I was 11 years old and have the same curveball I have now. So I was literally striking everybody out. I always threw hard, and I was bigger than all the kids, so I would throw hard and throw that curveball, and no one could hit me.
When your arm gets hit, the ball is not going to go where you want it to.
The only way you preserve pitching arms is throwing; that makes the arm stronger.
There is no way to have a strong arm if you don't throw enough.
There are only so many pitches in this old arm, and I don't believe in wasting them throwing to first base.
Touch is more important than arm strength. You want to really allow the receiver to run underneath the throw. It'll give you a little margin for error if you undershoot it a bit.
At an early age, if you develop a delivery or a throwing motion that is direct to the plate, then that's fine. If you have one that's slightly open, that's fine, too.
My dad taught me really early so I could take a lot of pressure off my elbow. Because the way I throw it, it doesn't crank up my elbow like everyone else's curveballs.