At 13 to 15, windmill pitching becomes a craft with a budget. Hitters stop missing honest fastballs, so the currency becomes COMMAND (both sides of the plate, low rooms on demand), a change-up that lies and lands, and the beginning of SPIN, the drop and friends, learned with an instructor's guardrails since grips and axes are specialized and easy to learn wrong alone. Sequences start being thought in pairs: what this pitch makes the next one look like.
This is a 75-minute session wrapping 50 to 60 counted pitches in mechanics, feel work, and ledger discipline. The workload rules read adult now: counts tracked across school, travel, and lessons; recovery scheduled rather than hoped for; and any shoulder, back, or forearm complaint treated as a stop-and-assess, not a toughness test. The motion is friendly; the calendar is where teenage pitchers get hurt.
This plan was written for every 13 to 15 year old. ParentEdge writes one for yours.
Built around their game, their goals, and what they’re working on.
With a windmill instructor, typically starting mid-teens, one pitch at a time, drop first for most pitchers. The grips and spin axes are specialized enough that solo experimentation mostly builds bad habits. The honest priority order never changes: fastball command, a change-up that lies and lands, THEN spin.
More than an overhand pitcher but not what tournament weekends often ask: multiple full games in a day is real strain regardless of motion. The protective system is the ledger: counts tracked across everything, recovery scheduled after heavy outings, and back, shoulder, or forearm complaints treated as data, not drama.
In rough order: strikes at the knees on demand, a change-up hitters swing over, composure with runners on, fielding the position, and a body that is available because its workload was managed. Velocity opens conversations; the coach starts whoever lives low-away and never walks the nine hitter.