Im 13 and i pitch for my baseball team. i pitch about 65 mph. i dont throw very weird just about between 3/4 and overhand no sidearm or crap like that. whenever im done pitching my elbow always hurts. not my shoulder. its not severe like i cant move my arm its just sore. i do throw other pitches (curve slider) dont tell me thats bad or whatever cuz i dont wanna hear it. anyway i just want to know if this pain is normal and/or if i should change what im doing at all to not ruin my arm . thanks for the help

Matt,

It is not your arm slot or it is not that you have to ice after you throw or necessarily because you don't take Advil before and after your starts. The reason your arm hurts is improper mechanics. I can bet that with a minor adjustment to your mechanics I could could get you pain-free. Don't get me wrong, you will get muscle soreness after throwing but at your age it is definitely mechanics.

Why do I say that? Because it is your elbow and not your shoulder. Your shoulder should be sore not your elbow. That means that somewhere in your mechanics, you are putting pressure on your elbow. If I would have to guess w/o looking at your delivery, it is that your arm is dragging. When you release the ball make sure that it is in front of your front foot and and your fingers are on top of the ball and not on the side or underneath.

I pitched 3 years in the minors and two of them were injury plagued. No one knows mechanics--after studying my own mechanics and finding out what lead to my injuries, I want to help you. Email me and I will send you what to look for.

God bless.

YO STOP PITCHING I am 14 now and I play AAU and american legion, and high school and i used to pitch alot when i was 13. But now i cant because i did some serious damage to my arm. If you keep pitching, no matter how you throw its going to make your arm alot worse, and you might not be able to play in high school or further. I would suggest switching to and other position, exept maybe catcher. I still play alot, but if i have a 3 game series over the summer for AAU, my arm hurts soo bad. So i wish i could have stopped pitching just a little bit earlier, and hopefully you will too because you really dont want to have your arm in the condition mine is.

Hate to say but might be the sliders. Curves arent bad but sliders are more snapping at a quicker speed. other then that you might just need to warm up/ cool down longer. I know from experience with the arm tightness

im 13 too just went through the same thing. all you have to do it ice it regularly. and rest it until it stops. if it always stops the next day. its just regular pain and shouldnt throw as hard but about 3 mph slower. i should know i throw 76 at the most.

i'm 16 and have had this pain for since i was 12-13. most likely its tedonitis, it can go away but it will come back in the future. to reduce pain, rest it, strengthen it, ICE it, take anti-inflammatory medicine (advil is the best). do all of those steps and i 99.9% guaratee you that your arm will feel much better in a couple of weeks
i did all of this and my arm regained strength quickly. also you should wear an elbow band, not like the ones that batters wear at-bat. like the ones that you see bobby abreu has a white one(they have them in black) you can pick them up at a sporting goods store...

one more thing: you should cut down the breaking pitches a little until your 15-16 when your arm is almost fully grown

good luck