[greymule]

There was talk of banning curve balls when I played LL 50 years ago.

What used to be called Little League elbow dates back to those days. It was either a piece of bone separating or a strained and slightly dislocated tendon. (One of the big magazines like Time or Life showed x-rays and diagrams.) Naturally, the scare generated calls for bans or other extreme action.

The damage to the elbow resulted from the type of curve ball that many kids first learn to throw—the sidearm curve in which the snap of the elbow contributes most of the spin. From a righty, the ball appears to be coming at the (RH) batter and then curves over the plate, a pitch that can be extremely effective against kids, though it's a "gopher" ball at higher levels. (Obviously, the same break can be obtained purely with the wrist, but a pitcher who has mastered the difficulty of snapping the wrist with good control will try to get on top of the ball and make it drop at least somewhat.)

It was fairly apparent what was damaging the kids' elbows. What was not known, however, was whether throwing the overhand curve (wrist, not elbow) would also have been damaging. Undoubtedly some pitchers hurt their arms from fatigue, too, and as everyone knows, many good LL pitchers are "all arm" if they don't have knowledgeable coaches.

We have a kid right now in 9th grade having surgery. The way it was described is that the curve ball puts pressure on the growth plate and that causes separation and thus the pain.

Do you know—elbow, shoulder, wrist?