Submarine Pitching

i few days ago i saw an AWESOME display of submarine pitching by watanabe-san against the buffaloes (a game the marines won in extra inning). i would think that the career of such a performer would be somewhat shorter. as for when it might be ok for a young person to think of adopting this style i would think you would seriously be asking for trouble if you decided to do that much younger than 17 or so.

I started pitching submarine when I was 11.

I'm actually a submarine pitcher, but not by choice. When I started playing baseball around 11-12 years old, this was a natural arm motion for me and I could not throw overhand. Because I wasn't forcing my arm to do this, it had no negative effect on my arm.

But unlike me, most submarine pitchers these days convert to throwing submarine and have to actually put effort into throwing a submarine style. So all I can say is that if you're going to convert to submarine, I would say do it around 16 or 17. If you have a kid that's trying to throw like this, please tell him not to do so unless it's the only way he can throw. Many coaches when I started playing baseball told me not to throw like this, but it was the only way I could throw. So unless your kid is like me, please don't let him throw submarine. Otherwise, he will hurt his arm.