Thanks for the study Roger! Dr. Fleisig didn’t seem overly concerned when looking at my son’s photos, but that’s definitely something to keep an eye on.
BTW, we do have an outside pitching coach, who has been out on a 2 week vacation, so I posted these here. I know he generally likes my son’s mechanics, although he, like others here, would, ideally, like his head to be straighter. I would guess that he tilts his head because he’s trying to throw very hard, and is putting everything he has into it.
Thinking aloud, I wonder how much of a player’s mechanics comes naturally and whether changing certain things to be like the ‘majority’ of pitchers would actually hurt things (especially in a young player). For example, the idea of increasing late arm action worries me…it seems like it could potentially put a lot more strain/torque on a young player’s elbow–though it might be acceptable or desirable for an older pitcher.
There are also things like ball-size/weight relative to player size. A 6’10" adult throws the same size baseball that at 4’10" kid throws, though they have different hand sizes and strength capability. I wonder, like other posters have said, whether a 10 year old can mimic any MLB pitcher and be successful and injury free.
Since there’s a great degree of variation among professional pitchers, it makes sense to me that there’s more than one way to do things. Maybe, if you fall in the range of what can be successful, and you come about your mechanics fairly naturally, it doesn’t make sense to change until you don’t have success with that motion (lack of control/velocity) or it has an adverse physical affect.
The positive thing is my son is having success with his current mechanics (doesn’t walk many batters, hits his spots better than others his age, and has velocity to blow it by good hitters–he throws 60 MPH, which is pretty decent for a 10 year old…we’ve only seen much bigger 10U kids throw harder). That being said, I do understand that he’s only 10, and what works for a 10 year old may not work for a HS or college or MLB player. So, I really appreciate the well thought-out comments—it’s a work in progress and probably will always be (which makes it fun).