I have a 13 year old son, who started pitching over the last year and a half. He’ll be in eighth grade this fall. He just plays spring and summer baseball with his friends on a low B level team. He’s a big strong kid, about 6’ around 170 pounds. He’s played baseball for fun and has never really expressed any interest in select ball or extremely competitive leagues, but this year he has said that he’s interested in playing High School baseball.
He’s had a bit of a breakthrough this year. I’ve been his coach over the last couple of years, and we’ve worked slowly and systematically on his throwing. We play catch a lot, short toss to long toss, and then he pitches in the back yard where we work on mechanics, letting his hand go low after breaking the set position, keeping his elbow up, using his legs and torso with the stride foot pointing to his target, finishing his throw. He’s limited to 10 pitches per year of age per week, including practice and warm up pitches.
He could always throw hard, but I never really knew how hard. He pitched in about six games. He was a bit wild in the first few games, but in the last three games things started to click. He gave up maybe three hits over the three games. In the last game, fans and coaches on both sides were commenting on his pitching. He was throwing so hard, and on every pitch he looked like he all of his momentum was coming off the mound at the batter. A coach on the other team had a radar gun; and said that on the last batter he faced, he threw three pitches 81, 82, and 84 mph.
Well, now his normal baseball season is over, and I don’t really know what to do with him. He’s gone beyond my expertise. He’s starting eighth grade this fall and wants to play in High School next year. I want him to have the best opportunity to do what he wants while trying to keep him from being over used or injured.
What should he do next?
:baseballpitcher: