Throwing a Ball

Question
My son is 9 and expressing an interest in baseball.  He throws well but i do not have any insight into the mechanics of throwing or holding a ball correctly.  If possible can you e-mail me some instructions or even a photo download that i can view as well as some websights that might offer some additional information.  thank you for your time and help, Ken

Answer
First off I'd like to thank you for coming to me and allowing me to try and help your son out. It is a pleasure to help make kids grow into young ballplayers. Now onto the problem.

The grips will be very important for him to be able to throw the ball hard to his target. If he can fit is fingers into a 4-seam fastball grip then he will be throwing fine. What he might have to do is use an extra 3rd finger to be able to hold it tightly enough. To grip the ball first take it and place your pointer  and middle finger across the seams at the "horseshoe" of the ball. Make sure the fingers go all the way across. That way to you know if you're holding the ball wrong. Then put your thumb on the bottom of the ball. If he does need three fingers just place the ring finger next to the other two fingers on the ball. For a picture check here http://www.thecompletepitcher.com/pitching_grips.htm Disregard the pitching part of it as you can throw a 4 seamer anywhere on the field.

Now I didn't quite understand if when you meant throwing that he was a pitcher or if he was just playing the field. I'll give you the basic mechanics on playing the field because once you get those you can pretty much design your own motion for pitching with a few tweaks. Start off by having your son stride towards his target extending far and really pushing off his back foot so he can throw harder. As he strides the arms fly up opposite of eachother. It should look like this if you're facing towards his chest and he's a righty. http://www.78youthsports.org/images/Baseball/Instruction/ThrCatch/Throw%204.jpg
That's a pretty good example of a kid who's on one knee. Of course you want your son standing up when he throws and about the time his front foot hits the ground from striding, both hands should be up in a cocked postion with the ball and his wrist facing away from the target and his other arm leading towards the target. Then just have him throw the arm over head with bend and have him release it at about his ear. When I say that I don't mean that exactly. I mean have his arm stay over the top of his head but release it near where his ear would be if his head was big enough to reach that high of his arm motion. That might be a little complicated. Just don't have him short arm himself by releasing it right at his ear. Keep his arm up and keep the ball on the line.

Sorry I've had such a lengthy answer but baseball is a complicated sport. I hope this can help your son and if you have any questions at all feel free to email me or ask again. I'm glad to help you with anything you need. If he is in fact a pitcher then tell me and I can really help with his pitching mechanics because that's what I am and I can probably tell you what works.