Developing a Youth Pitcher: A Balanced Approach

Imagine: The hardest throwing pitcher in your local youth recreation league dominates by striking out most batters, even though he does walk about 1 batter per inning. All he has to do is throw hard strikes. Clearly a shoo-in for the all-star team.

Then comes the first game against a tough team in summer play. Everyone is surprised when the other team scores 7 runs in 2 innings through a combination of walks, hits, and errors. How could that happen against the team ace?

What’s even more surprising is when the guy who relieves him does better, despite having only average velocity. This pitcher varies the location of his pitches, throws some changeups, and throws a “little league curveball” that wasn’t permitted during regular rec season. The other team’s hitters are baffled, managing only 2 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run in 3 innings. What’s going on here?

What’s going on is that there’s much more to pitching than throwing hard strikes. This may not be apparent at the local rec league level where high velocity strikes overwhelm most batters, but in more competitive all-star and travel ball games, it matters a lot. The more competitive the opposition, the more tools are required by pitchers.

The Four Tools of Pitching

The four areas of pitching mastery at all levels of baseball are:

In this article I call them tools. The way these tools are brought to bear at the youth level depends on the quality of the hitter, pitcher capabilities, and whether the pitcher is trying to learn or trying to win.

In this article I describe these four tools and discuss which are appropriate for youth pitchers in different situations, both from the standpoint of development and winning games.

Locating Pitches (Command)

Command, or locating pitches, is where it all starts. If you can’t throw a pitch for a strike, nothing else matters.

For 9- and 10-year olds pitching for the first time, I’ve found statistically in our PONY league that any pitcher throwing above 60% strikes under game pressure will be one of the top pitchers on their team and one of the better pitchers in the league. Above 55% is good, above 50% is okay, 45% is barely acceptable, and below 45% it is generally not a good idea to have the player pitch very much.

Those who throw fewer than 45% strikes will issue many walks, give up many runs, and bore players and spectators as a procession of hitters walk to first base and steal their way around to home on wild pitches (WHIP is typically well above 3.00). Such players will need to practice more and develop better pitching mechanics before they get much action in games.

Pitchers who throw 45% to 50% strikes may also struggle, especially with average velocity. Pitchers with much higher than average velocity may be able to achieve adequate results, as they are hard to get hits off of thanks to both the high velocity and wildness. Pitchers with far below average velocity may be able to achieve adequate results because some hitters who normally hope for walks will be tempted into swinging by the slow speed, hitting weak grounders or popups for an easy out instead of earning a walk. Rather than hope for hitters to help out, it’s better for pitchers to improve mechanics and accuracy in order to achieve a higher strike percentage, hopefully reaching 60% eventually.

Walks lose games. During my son’s first 2 years of kid pitch in rec league, in only 4 of 39 games did the winning team issue the most walks. Walks impact winning or losing more than any other aspect of the game, at the 9- and 10-year-old level when kids are just learning to pitch.

However, throwing strikes and avoiding walks is just the beginning of location as a tool. Once a pitcher is able to consistently throw strikes (not easy for most 9-year-olds!), it is time to work on the other aspects of location.

Aiming for the low/outside corner is the next step. In many youth leagues, umpires expand the strike zone by an inch or two on the outer part of the plate, while most players have short arms and short bats and some hitters stand too far away from the plate. Consistently pitching to the low and outside corner will result in many strikeouts and weak grounders that are easy to field for outs.

Reliably being able to pitch to the four corners of the strike zone is the ultimate goal but is difficult for 9- and 10-year-olds. Pitching inside is particularly challenging as beginning pitchers are afraid to hit batters. The three locations I like to see kids master at these young ages is straight down the middle, low and outside, and high (shoulder level). As kids get older, they should be striving to hit all four corners at will.

There are many advantages to starting with one strike on the batter. At the rec level, it’s usually best to throw a fastball right down the middle on the first pitch to maximize the chances of a strike. Many hitters automatically take the first pitch but even if they swing and put the ball into play on the first pitch, that is a great pitching result—it keeps the pitch count low and may result in a poorly hit ball because the hitter hasn’t seen enough pitches to get the timing down. Another time to throw pitches down the middle is when the count is unfavorable to the pitcher (more balls than strikes). A walk is a 100% chance of the batter getting to first base safely, whereas a ball hit into play may result in an out.

When the count is even or favorable to the pitcher, throwing low/outside and high pitches will make it difficult for most rec league batters to get a quality hit. Low and outside pitches result in weak grounders if the batter is able to hit them at all. High pitches are difficult for many batters to resist swinging at, even ones which are above the strike zone. If the ball is pitched there, it usually results in whiffs or weak popups that can be caught for an out. By high, I mean just above the shoulders, which will be called for a ball. Many players will swing at such a pitch, especially if it follows a changeup.

After mastering the above 3 locations, the next step is to master high and inside, which is more difficult for hitters than any other fastball location.

There is much more that can be said on the subject of location, but given that many youth pitchers struggle just to get the pitch over the plate for a strike, there’s not much point in going into further detail.

Note: Two years after writing this post, I went to my first 12u travel ball tournament. Command was by far the most important of the four tools at that tournament. Hitters struggled against the few pitchers who could hit the corners of the strike zone at will. Batter standing far from the plate? Then throw low/outside. Batter then scoots in? Throw inside. Few pitchers have such good command by age 12. Those with great command typically also have pretty good development among the other areas of pitching, which makes them even more effective.

Throwing Hard (Velocity)

Velocity is another tool of pitching. It is an important tool, but I have often seen this tool overemphasized at the youngest levels. Some coaches only allow the hardest throwing players to pitch, and too many players tie up their egos with how hard they throw. As discussed in my post on youth baseball stats, at the 9- and 10-year-old level I have statistically observed a strong correlation with strike percentage and pitching success (as measured by WHIP), but only a weak correlation with high velocity and pitching success. This is because many high velocity pitchers struggle to throw accurately, issuing many walks and wild pitches.

Players with substantially above average velocity who throw over 50% strikes will do well. Many such players rely completely on high velocity to overwhelm batters. That works at the rec league level and can work against weaker all-star and travel teams. However, when first facing a team with good hitting, the velocity-only pitcher doesn’t know what to do when the other team gets many hits. They are unable to compete at the higher levels because they have not developed any of the other tools of pitching.

Nevertheless, velocity is an important tool, and it becomes more important as kids get older. Among players with identical strike percentages who can throw at average velocity or higher, it is clear that the harder throwing the pitcher, the larger the percentage of hitters who struggle to make quality contact. Furthermore, other pitching tools become more effective as velocity increases. For example, a changeup is often more effective when paired with a high velocity fastball, because hitters must commit their swing earlier, leaving less time to adjust to a changeup. Throwing that changeup occasionally also makes the fastball more effective as batters are kept off balance.

To a large extent, velocity will be related to physical development. The bigger and more coordinated the player, the harder they will be capable of throwing. Velocity goes up with size, for the most part, and this is most dramatically seen at the 12-year-old level with players ranging from 4 to 6 feet tall. It is therefore tempting to not actively do anything to increase velocity while waiting to grow.

However, players can work on several things to develop more velocity that do not depend on waiting to grow:

  • Good throwing mechanics
  • Physical conditioning
  • Long toss
  • Weighted balls
  • Pitching hard

Developing good throwing mechanics is important not just for velocity, but also for accuracy, endurance, and injury prevention. I’m not going to discuss pitching mechanics in this article, as I believe mechanics are best learned from video, or better yet live instruction from someone who knows how to teach it.

Physical conditioning is important at every level, though in the U.S. it’s generally not emphasized until high school. For those players who play a lot of baseball each year, it will not only help them become better athletes and ball players, it will also reduce chances for injury. Velocity will increase from additional strength in legs and in the core. I discuss physical conditioning in more detail and link to some good exercise plans in: Strength and Conditioning Guide for Pre-High School Athletes (Especially Baseball).

Long toss help players better understand release points (so that throws do not go too high or too low). Long toss also strengthens the arm in a way that reduces the chances for injury. Many people also believe it helps increase velocity, especially when the “pull down” part of the long toss is taken seriously (see video below for how throwers for go to maximum distance, then maintain velocity as they shorten the distance). The following video is one that I like to show kids to inspire them to do long toss the right way:

Throwing weighted balls is another way to get stronger and therefore increase velocity. However, it is generally not recommended for kids below high school age.

The most important way to increase velocity is to pitch. When pitching, most coaches, including me, will tell you not to throw 100% because that will lead to inaccurate throws and getting tired too quickly. But it’s also important not to throw too softly. You’ll only get better at throwing hard if you try to throw hard. I tend to tell pitchers to throw at 80% to 90%. You can tell when they try to overthrow at 100% when their mechanics get distorted. The distorted mechanics may not result in the ball going faster despite the greater effort.

So how much velocity should be expected for each age level? It will obviously depend somewhat on the size of the player. A reasonable rule of thumb for velocity is Age X 4.3 MPH for experienced recreation league baseball players of average size, average mechanics, and average velocity. In chart form:

Age Height Weight Velocity
8 4′ 2″ 56 pounds 34 MPH
9 4′ 5″ 63 pounds 39 MPH
10 4′ 7″ 70 pounds 43 MPH
11 4′ 9″ 79 pounds 47 MPH
12 4′ 11″ 90 pounds 52 MPH
13 5′ 1″ 101 pounds 56 MPH
14 5′ 4″ 112 pounds 60 MPH
15 5′ 7″ 124 pounds 65 MPH
16 5′ 8″ 135 pounds 69 MPH
17 5′ 9″ 143 pounds 73 MPH
18 5′ 10″ 148 pounds 77 MPH

By average, I’m referring to the median heights and weights from U.S. CDC charts., for a boy who has just turned that age. From what I’ve observed, height/weight of most baseball players is well above the CDC median (partly because most boys playing baseball are within a few months of next age), so observed average velocity on a baseball field will be a little higher than these numbers, and typically 4-6 MPH higher at the AA travel ball level.

For example, a boy who is 10 years and 11 months old who looks like he is biologically 13, is 5′ 8″ tall, and weighs 150 lbs would be expected to throw much harder than a boy who just turned 10, is 4’7″, and weights 80 pounds.

The averages above are for pitchers who have received little formal training at the early ages, but some training by high school age. With pitching lessons that improve mechanics, velocity can increase. Following a strength and conditioning program will also increase body weight and velocity above these numbers.

UPDATE: 3 years after writing this article I learned that a scientist gathered a statistically significant data set and came up with a speed chart. If you follow that link, you’ll see that the rule of thumb above is pretty good for ages 11 and above, but actual velocity of players below age 11 is a little higher in reality than the above chart indicates.

In our local PONY league, the velocity of pitchers in our 9- to 10-year-old Mustang division range about 35 MPH to 55 MPH, but only 2 to 4 pitchers each year throw over 50 MPH out of 100 players. The players throwing that hard are usually above average in size. However, at the all-star or travel ball level, velocity is 50 MPH – 55 MPH for many 10u pitchers and all throw above 45 MPH. 10u means “10 and under” age.

Do not bring out radar guns and get kids comparing to each other at the younger ages (My preference is to start giving radar gun feedback at the age of 13). That is not going to help kids throw faster and may lead to injury as kids attempt to throw harder than they’re able to. If you want to help a kid increase velocity, have someone who knows what they’re doing work on improving mechanics, or better yet do long toss at least once/week, followed by pull downs.

Making the Ball Move (Movement)

Movement is when a pitch veers to the side or down. It can be achieved through tailing action or breaking pitches. Why bother with movement at all? Because many players who can hit fastballs have great difficulty hitting pitches that move on them. This is especially true at the youngest ages when hitters don’t yet have the experience to detect a breaking ball coming out of a pitcher’s hand.

The following graphic illustrates how 12 common pitches move. Only a few of them are appropriate to learn before high school age:

baseball_pitches

12 common pitches

Curveballs and sliders are the two most well-known types of breaking pitches that move a lot, but require caution at early ages, especially sliders. There is unanimous agreement that sliders are dangerous and should not be thrown by any kids below high school age. There are studies that demonstrate that curveballs are not a significant risk factor for injury when thrown correctly. However, young arms are more susceptible to injury than adults from poorly thrown curveballs. So most doctors and coaches recommend that kids stay away from sliders before the age of 16, and curveballs before the ages of 12-14. Opinions vary between 12 and 14 as the age cutoff for the curveball. Another reason to stay away from curveballs is that they won’t help a young pitcher develop velocity. Throwing 100% fastballs will naturally cause pitching velocity to increase.

There is a form of curveball that is believed by some to be both safer and easier to learn for a beginner. It is variously called a safety curve, a little league curve, a beginner’s curve, or a football curve. The basic idea is to throw it like a football. It is important not to turn the wrist or snap it down hard while throwing this pitch, as that may lead to injury. There is an on-line explanation for this pitch but I prefer the explanation in The Act of Pitching.

For safety considerations, it’s a good idea to avoid throwing breaking balls or any pitch that requires wrist turning. However, more subtle forms of movement known as tailing action can be achieved with various forms of fastballs or changeups. Mostly this is achieved through differential finger pressure, and is more effective with two seam grips than four seam grips. The movement is not as dramatic as that achieved with breaking pitches, but is often enough to turn what would have been a well-hit ball into a weak hit that is easily fieldable for an out. If you want to learn more about such pitches, search youtube for videos on two seam fastballs, tailing action on fastballs, and the changeup pitch with movement. Or, you can buy a book on pitching.

The pitching book I own is The Act of Pitching. It covers all the common pitches, including the beginner’s curveball.

Changing Speed (Deception)

A popular slogan in baseball sums up the battle between pitcher and hitter:

Hitting is timing. Pitching is disrupting timing.

The most straightforward way to disrupt a hitter’s timing is with the changeup. Many kids don’t get very excited about changeups because they’re in love with velocity or breaking balls. However, those who do develop a good changeup are difficult to hit. Analysis of pitching at the major league level often shows that the most difficult pitch to hit is the changeup. The changeup is the most important pitch for several top pitchers in the MLB, including Cole Hamels, Max Scherzer, and Felix Hernandez.

With breaking pitches such as curveballs or sliders, experienced hitters always know they are coming because they are thrown differently and have obviously different spin on the ball. A well thrown changeup is indistinguishable from the fastball. The batter does not know the changeup is coming until it is too late to stop the swing. Cole Hamels’ changeup is so good that even experts can’t tell the difference between his fastball and changeup on slow motion video.

So—changeups are all about deception. The batter doesn’t know it’s coming, so is deceived into swinging at a pitch that is coming slower and lower than the fastball they expected. A common result is to see the batter lunge forward and try to force the bat down to make contact.

Most pitchers when first learning to throw a changeup will automatically move their arm much slower. Experienced batters will notice this, so there will be no deception. To throw the changeup effectively, it’s necessary to keep all pitching mechanics as close as possible to fastball mechanics. The only thing that changes is the grip on the ball.

There are many different changeup grips which move or slow down the ball in different ways. You can read about them in any pitching book or see videos on youtube. The two most common changeup grips in recent years are the circle change and the straight change.

The changeup is only effective when paired with a fastball. A nice sequence for pitchers just learning to throw the changeup is to throw the first pitch right down the middle for a strike, the second a changeup over the outside half of the plate that drops below the strike zone (which the batter swings at, hopefully), and then with an 0-2 count, throw a high fast ball at the shoulders. I’ve seen this sequence used very effectively against very good 9- and 10-year old batters.

If you use this sequence or any sequence too much, it gets predictable, and therefore less effective. For better deception, keep mixing it up. That may mean occasionally doing the unexpected such as throwing 3 changeups in a row, a first pitch changeup, a fastball with an 0-2 count, etc.

There are a few other ways to disrupt timing besides throwing changeups:

  • Vary time between pitches
  • Different windup styles that take different amounts of time
  • A hitch in a windup
  • Drag back foot (slows up the fastball)

One pitcher on my son’s all-star team is particularly effective at disrupting batter timing and rhythm. He varies time between pitches and uses several different windups. Sometimes his windup looks normal. Sometimes he goes really slow and balances a long time on one foot, followed by a very hard fastball swiftly delivered. Other times he rushes his delivery but then throws a changeup and/or slows up his arm. He also happens to have good velocity so the combination of all these things tends to baffle most batters.

An incidental side benefit of varying time between pitches is that it also makes stealing a little more difficult.

Pitching for Development

Every pitcher will have their own unique development path, depending on which tools are easier or more difficult to learn. Obviously, someone who throws hard will naturally gravitate to throwing hard as a main tool, while someone with uncommonly good accuracy will enjoy early success by hitting the corners of the strike zone. However, no matter what path a pitcher takes, it’s a good idea to work towards some degree of mastery of all four tools.

I should point out that not everyone agrees with this. There is a school of thought that a player should work on nothing but throwing hard strikes (and perhaps locating those strikes) until they enter high school. The idea is that throwing nothing but hard fastballs strengthens the arm more than mixing in other pitches. Some people think that the other tools of pitching can be picked up at any time, whereas if you can’t throw hard by high school, chances are you’ll never be able to throw hard.

I personally prefer a balanced approach so that a player learns to think like a pitcher. Balanced does not mean throwing many curveballs and changeups. It means throwing mostly fastballs, learning to locate them, and occasionally mixing in other pitches against the better hitters.

A balanced development progression for a pitcher may go as follows:

  • Learn to throw strikes
  • Increase velocity (see velocity section above for how to do this)
  • Vary location, focusing first on 3 spots: middle, low and away, and high
  • Develop changeup
  • Combine the above into pitch sequences and combinations appropriate for young players (i.e. fastball down the middle, followed by low/away changeup, followed by high fastball)
  • Develop two-seam fastball for some movement
  • Experiment with a beginner’s curveball, if it can be done safely
  • Become adept at hitting all four corners of the strike zone

The above progression is plenty to work with for 9-14 year olds and touches on all four pitching tools. The order in which they’re learned will differ from player to player depending on their aptitudes and interest. Though I disagree with the velocity-only approach to pitching, it is important to keep the four-seam fastball as the main pitch, to keep velocity increasing. Throwing an off-speed pitch just once every 10 pitches is usually plenty to keep batters off balance. In rec league, such pitches can be reserved for the better batters.

Pitching to Win

How to pitch to win will be different depending on the quality of hitting at a team level and individual level. It is also not going to be the same as the optimal progression for development.

At the recreation league level, when pitching is first introduced, throwing strikes is all that matters. The first season my son experienced with kid pitch went through a progression that started with most pitchers struggling to throw strikes, progressing to fewer walks and more hits, then increasing velocity, and finally the first changeups coming into play (see Pitcher vs Hitter).

Throughout this progression and beyond, there are certain principles that always apply. It’s important to recognize who the better hitters are so you can tailor your pitching to the hitter. Opposing coaches usually make this very easy by slotting the best performing 4-6 hitters in the top part of the lineup, while slotting those who struggle in the remaining part of the lineup. That makes the pitching plan very simple:

Throw nothing but fastballs down the middle to the weaker part of the lineup. If you have other tools at your disposal, use them only against the better hitters at the top of the lineup.

Over and over you see kids get excited about a new pitch they’re mastering and throw it to everyone. That does not help win games. Take the changeup, for example. It’s a great pitch, but there’s no point to throwing it to the bottom half of the order if they have less than a 10% chance of reaching first against fastballs thrown for strikes. You’re more likely to issue a walk, and they have a better chance of hitting the slower pitch than your fastball.

The time to throw that new changeup you’re working on is to the best couple hitters. They’re likely to put the ball in play anyway, and they are good hitters partly because they can time a fastball. Mess with timing and these great hitters may end up hitting a weak grounder or even striking out. You may end up walking the good hitter with your new pitch, which of course is not good. But with the good hitter, a walk may mean you converted their 60% chance of getting to first base safely to 100%, which isn’t so terrible (as opposed to walking a weak hitter who may have had less than a 10% chance of getting to first if you just throw strikes down the middle).

If the coach or the pitcher is good enough to spot tendencies in certain players or entire teams, that can be taken advantage of. A very common issue is players swinging at high pitches that are just above the shoulders. If more than one player is swinging at high pitches, then throwing lots of pitches high will likely result in many strikeouts and weak popups.

It’s also worth trying to spot tendencies in umpires. In our league, the umpires are kids above the age of 12. Some of them are very good, and some of them aren’t, but most are reasonably consistent where they’re calling balls and strikes. If an umpire calls pitches that are 3 inches outside and 2 inches too low as strikes, then all the pitcher has to do is aim for the low, outside corner of the strike zone, and if he misses outside or low by a couple inches it will still be called a strike. One pitcher on my son’s team this year often shut down opposing teams by always going for the low, outside corner, usually receiving help from the umpires. Umpires in our league were instructed to have a liberal outside corner call, to help keep the game moving along.

Keeping the above principles in mind, pitching at the travel ball and all-star level is different. Not every travel ball or all-star team has great hitting. It’s very helpful to scout out other teams at tournaments to see how well the team hits against straight fastball pitchers. It will range anywhere from just 1 or 2 hitters all the way up to entire teams.

Pitching is finite when you play 3-6 games in a single weekend. Astute team managers will take advantage of scouting information to match up pitchers appropriately. Against very weak teams that don’t have much good hitting, that is the time to put in the guys who just throw strikes at slightly higher than average velocity. Against pretty good teams with maybe half the order being good fastball hitters, putting in a hard thrower (who doesn’t have much else) is usually going to work. The bottom half of the order won’t get hits and the top half will just score 0-2 runs each time around, which is usually acceptable.

Against the very toughest teams is where I see managers make mistakes. They put in the hardest throwing pitcher on the team, regardless of whether this pitcher has mastered any of the other tools of pitching. The best matchup is to put in the guy who has the best balance of all four tools. A curveball thrower is ideal, but if that is not available, then a pitcher who has a very good changeup, can locate pitches, and who can get a little bit of movement off either the changeup or a two-seam fastball.

Sometimes you will notice a travel or all-star team with great fastball hitting that struggles with curveballs. That’s when you want to put your best curveball pitcher against them to throw 30% or more curveballs. While this will increase the chance of winning, it’s not good for pitcher development to throw so many curveballs.

The biggest mistake I’ve seen, over and over, is when the manager puts the guy who has been top pitcher in rec league against a really tough travel ball team. That guy is often the hardest thrower in the league, or among the top 3 at least. It often doesn’t work. What works in rec league doesn’t work against really good teams, where every hitter in the lineup has no problem hitting a speedy fastball down the middle.

One reason this happens is because teams which track stats will often see that the hardest throwing guys have great WHIPs, ERAs, etc. But many of these great performances were against weak hitting teams.

A simple way to figure out who your best pitchers are is to separate pitching performance between “strong” teams and “weak” teams. It’s usually pretty obvious which teams are the strong teams. They’re the ones who win most of their games. The weak teams often get behind by so many runs that they lose to the mercy rule.

My son played on a strong all-star team this year. The season ended with a 10-13 record against the strong (AAA) teams, and 21-0 versus weaker (AA) teams. All of our pitchers did well against weak teams. But against strong teams, the picture was quite different. The top performing pitchers were different than the guys you might expect from what happened in the recreation league or against the weaker teams. The top performers all did more than just throw hard strikes. In fact, 2 out of 3 of them were not among the 5 hardest throwing guys in our league.

Concluding Remarks

I don’t know how many people will read this or if it will have much of an impact. My expectation is that there will be no change in what I see: most coaches focus on velocity and turn to their hardest throwing guys in the big games. That may work if the guy throws much harder than usual for his age level or if the opposing team has some weak hitters. But more often than not, it doesn’t work against teams with good hitting.

As you get to the higher levels, all four pitching tools are needed in youth baseball. From what I’ve read, it’s the same story in the minor leagues. Anyone with a 90MPH fastball makes it to the minor leagues. But for those who are unable to develop anything beyond that fastball, they will never make it to the major leagues. Fast as 90 MPH is, the best hitters can time it and hit it.

At the youth level, developing ever increasing velocity as you get older is important. But exposing pitchers to the other tools of pitching is important too, both for developing into a complete pitcher, and for winning against the tougher teams.

Author: Joe Golton

I’m a dad with a son who loves baseball. Professionally, I’ve been a software developer, investor, controller, and logistics manager. I now make my living from this blog, supplemented with occasional consulting gigs.

19 thoughts on “Developing a Youth Pitcher: A Balanced Approach”

  1. Joe – thank you for this. It has been super helpful as I try to understand why the slower pitchers on my team are having more success in our 11-12 yo rec league than our best pitchers who throw hard and throw strikes. We’ll start working on the locations you mentioned, because throwing hard down the middle just isn’t working anymore against the best hitters.

  2. Oscar – you are fortunate to have very good hitting in your rec league. In my area you don’t see what you’re describing until the all-star or travel ball level. By having such good hitting, it gives your pitchers additional incentive to further develop, that’s for sure!

  3. Your observations are spot on. Coaches make too big a deal about velocity and the hard throwers at young ages are almost always wild and throw away games. But, there is a coach addiction to the hard thrower. One coach we had liked it because it might scare the other team. That’s not baseball. I can share a quote from Tom Seaver who notes that there is a fine line between brush back pitch and playing dirty (his words) by just throwing at players to intimidate. A lot of coaches have no class and encourage a player to throw hard to be wild and scare the other team. Again – that’s not baseball. It’s a disgrace, but it’s very common. On the other end of the spectrum, I too have coached and seen the slow thrower have a lot of success that you mention – getting a lot of hitter help.

    Biggest tip I can give any coach/pitcher at about age 11 and up – throw at least one slow one in there with each at-bat. Even if you don’t “sell” it, even if it’s sloppy, just throw a s l o w one. Even for a ball. It really throws the timing off and often a kid will chase a slow pitch no matter where it is thrown. It’s a must.

    About velocity and charts: This seems to be all over the map depending on the gun and how it is used. I got a Bushnell. It reads the same out the car window as my car speedometer. Does it pick up a ball the same?? Who knows. I gunned some 12u AA level travel teams (pretty good – NOT average rec) and they typically throw mid 50s. An 11u kid that can throw 47 is doing well – a little above average even for “A” level travel. 50 would be exceptional. Rec at 12 u will see 45 and perhaps 55 at the high end. Indeed, it is about size. The hardest throwing 12 u kids (11 u too) are also typically 130 to 150 lbs – or more. They are huge. Again about pitching speed – you can find video on the net where 9 year old kids are throwing the ball with an “arc” in the trajectory and the gun says 44. That is ridiculous. Anything with a little bit of arc from 40 or more feet is under 40. Mid 40s is going to be fairly straight. Do some digging on the net and there are some voices of reason among the BS. One minor league player that teaches kept a large data base on youth velocity. He noted that kids in the 11 or 12 year range coming to him threw low to mid 50s when they came to him. These were not likely average rec kids with little experience – probably serious travel kids looking to get better. Kids that can hit 60 at this age are extremely rare and will most likely be shaving soon too. Overall – the velocity thing is very confusing because radar guns are not all the same, or accurate, or may not really catch the release speed well (which would only slow 2 mph anyway on slower pitches)………..lots of factors. There is no universal measuring stick.

    At the young ages, the “elite” teams are largely made up of kids that are off the size charts and are at least average or above in coordination. That’s just the way it is. Some kids at the AAA and “majors” level will look like high school kids or men at these ages. But at 18, I think a lot of these superstars may end up small – peaked too early and stopped growing early (like girls do). So – just keep playing and wait and see how it all unfolds. You don’t know what you can be until you are done growing – assuming you keep playing.

    Don’t get caught up in all the hype. Parents make a big deal about the kids that are big early, or are coordinated early and project straight lines off this. They know nothing of child development.

  4. Thanks for your comments, Greg. It’s possible that my velocity chart is a little on the high side, though it’s interesting to hear so many kids (and occasionally parents or coaches) brag about speeds far higher than what I listed.

    If you look at slow motion of major league pitching, you’ll see that every pitch has at least a little arc to it. So I don’t really think there’s such a thing as a little league pitcher throwing with no arc whatsoever. However, the eye may perceive 55MPH pitches as having no arc because the arc is so much less than typical 40 MPH pitches.

  5. Great read Joe, thank you. It’s exactly what I needed for my son who’s aspiring to pitch in 9u this fall.

  6. I quit reading after you talked about a youngster throwing change ups and curves. A youngster should be throwing nothing but fast balls and learn command for several years and not learn to throw change ups and junk until midway through highschool.

    I didn’t have a great arm at a young age and I threw fast balls, all 4 seem fastballs for that matter and I struck lots of kids out because I painted the corner.

    Little league is no place for junk, that arm is still growing, and so are the tendons and ligaments. That’s why it’s a no no.

    You sir are wrong wrong wrong. I pitched all the way through highschool and varsity and now have a 9 year old that got moved up with the 10-12 year Olds because he has form and command and has an arm. I won’t ever teach him junk until he is at least 15-16.

  7. Rick – I recognize that their are (at least) two schools of thought on how youth pitchers should develop. Our lead pitcher trainer for our league played in the major leagues and teaches the changeup to any kid who is ready for it, including 10-year olds. Obviously you have to learn good mechanics and a fastball first, but opinions vary on what to do after that.

    I don’t teach any of my players traditional curveballs and sliders and I thought I steered away from them in the article (perhaps you quit reading before I said no sliders before age 16, and no traditional curveballs before the age of 12 or 14 depending on your opinion). The only reason I even mentioned the “little league” curveball is because my son developed it on his own (we thought he invented it but turned out he reinvented something that already exists). I asked his pitching instructor at the time (former minor league pitcher) if it was safe and he said it was so long as he didn’t turn his wrist. He doesn’t throw it often and is not permitted to throw it in rec league.

    But does he throw changeups? Locate his pitches? Experiment with 2 seam fastballs? You bet. We also experiment on ways to increase his velocity. Also, I have never heard anyone claim that a changeup is unsafe. As I’m sure you know, it’s just fastball mechanics with a different grip.

    I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong. Just because there is more than one school of thought on the subject though does not mean that one school has to be right, and the other wrong. Just different approaches.

  8. Good piece, Joe.

    I’m having a ball watch my 12U kid pitch accurately, with speed, now try to hit spots and throw some off speed stuff.

    Reading your piece instead of working, BTW.

  9. Great read. It’s like you were speaking to me directly. My 9yr old is small but a pretty good pitcher. He has performed very well against his rec league throwing nothing but fastballs. When he was 8 in a league w 8, 9 and 10s, he gave up one hit all season. This year, he was asked to play on a 10u travel team. He prepared all winter and got his velocity up to 53 tested on both a Stalker and Pocket Radar at a local baseball training center. We both felt like he would be ready for the 10u season even though he is still 9. (And 4 7, 70 lbs)
    He was the starting pitcher the first game, and the other team immediately jumped on him. They actually moved up in the batters box and were able to put the ball in play right away. They didnt crush the ball, a couple of singles, couple of grounders, a flyball, but it’s the first time that anyone regularly put the ball in play. He couldn’t blow it by anyone as he had done in rec league. Getting visibly frustrated, he began throwing a two seam “cut” fastball that hit the low outside target. He had never had to use this pitch in a game, but he found that it was the only pitch that was working. After the game he remarked that he would need to move the ball around more because it didnt seem like a low 50s fastball would work against these 10u teams. I think it’s the first time I heard him talk about pitching and thinking about sequence and location. I am anxious to see how the next time out will be. In the meantime, we have two rec games in between and he wanted to use those to experiment. Anyway, thanks so much your entry. So much of what you write is right on target!

  10. Joe

    “Above 55% is good, above 50% is okay, 45% is barely acceptable, and below 45% it is generally not a good idea to have the player pitch very much.”

    Any idea as to what this would translate to pitching to a net with strike zone i.e. no pressure but also no vagaries due to 9-10 year old batters.

    Thanks

  11. Hi Paul – Not really sure how that would translate to a net with a strike zone. However, there are several competitive drills or games that I’ve done over the years with my son or teams his been on, that help with accuracy in a fun way. The main one we’ve used is a game called “21” that I got be reading Jamie Moyer’s book. A simpler one for beginners is just seeing how many in a row you and your partner can catch. For a description of both, see:

    https://www.filterjoe.com/2015/11/03/more-fun-is-more-effective-in-youth-baseball/

  12. My ten year old son is a pitcher who plays on a travel baseball team. He’s a 4’8” 74 pounder; smaller kid. He can throw mid-upper 50’s with an occasional 60+. For him, he struggles at times pounding the zone; if he dials it back a bit, he becomes much more accurate. For the travel teams, I would say you face most of the pitchers throwing high 40’s – mid 50’s on average. I always hear coaches talk about how fast this or that player throws; my goal for my son is to still throw hard, not to the point of becoming wild, but also locating pitches is key.

  13. Good read and basically just common sense. One thing I am not sure he mentioned is the importance of first pitch strikes(especially at this age) Getting a head of a hitter, mentally learning alittle at this age about setting up the hitter . More importantly, keeping those 7 fielders behind the pitcher on their toes making plays early in counts.

  14. Michael – I agree with everything you say. I did mention throwing strikes right down the middle on the first pitch towards the end of the command section. Perhaps it’s too buried – as you say, it’s super helpful to get that first strike. Not just for the reasons you mentioned, but also because it allows the pitcher to use some of his less reliable pitches without much risk of a walk.

  15. Thanks for the article. My son is a young 9 in AA rec ball (9/10 y.o.). He’s 4’7 and roughly 75lbs. I put him in lessons and starting throwing with him more starting in january. It seems like his baseball light turned on this year so to speak and he’s dragging me to the fields. His first start he went 2 ip on 36 pitches with 6 strike outs and 1 walk. One two kids managed to foul a ball off. I was shocked really. He throws pretty hard for his age and at about a 55% clip on strikes. I think you’re spot on regarding strike %s at that age and success. It’s all about throwing strikes. He’ll play AAA next year and we’ll get a little more granular on location. He’s gravitated to a three finger 2 seam fastball for what it’s worth. One thing not mentioned about changing speeds is I tell him if he’s up 0-2 or 1-2 in the count he can let it fly. I found that out when one of his best friends came up to bat. My son had a big smile and found another gear. He adds a few mph on his “change up” only if ahead in the count. Less to think about and practically at this age, a hell of a lot more effective. I don’t think confusing him with different grips at this age is correct. Just throw firm strikes. I’m a big fan of breathing techniques when coming set and positive thinking. Self talk. I really appreciate the article; it put a lot of hard work and improvement in motion. Thanks.

  16. Jay – the best age to start throwing a changeup will vary depending on circumstances. The easy way to tell is when the better batters start hitting most fastballs to the outfield. You’ll certainly notice when that happens, and then it’s time to use changeups.

    It takes a while to develop a good changeup, both for adequate control and being able to get enough of a speed difference to matter. So it can’t hurt to start working on the grip in bullpens, so that by age 11 or whenever it is he finally needs it, he’ll be ready.

  17. Outstanding insights! I jotted notes and am going to hang on my son’s wall in an easy to read bullet format. A lot is common sense really but common sense sometimes goes out the window when the first pitch is thrown. If he reads this often though it may become instinctual.

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