Slider

Question
Hi
im not real sure how to throw a slider at my age of 14 and not hurting and blowing my arm out because of throwing certain pitches at a young age. Is the best thing for me to not throw a slider or is there a certain way to throw one without hurting mmy arm?

Answer
While its true that the Slider puts more strain on your elbow than a fastball, that shouldn't keep you from learning it. Be very careful to limit the amount of sliders you do throw in a day.
You're first thought will be to throw a hundred of them, so you can learn it quicker. This is not the case. Since a slider is simply a Fastball with an offset grip, throwing fastballs will help you learn the pitch quicker.
Start by warming up with fastballs "Away from armside". For a righthander this would be away to a righthanded hitter. For leftys, vice versa.
slowly move from a fourseam grip to your curveball grip, throwing a pitch with each slight adjustment, all the while throwing the ball like you would a fourseam fastball away.  Roughly half way between the grips you see that ball will start to break sharply when it reaches the plate. That's the Slider! Its fourseam fastball with an offcenter grip.
Avoid turning your wrist to make the ball break, it won't work and puts undo stress on the elbow. Let the grip do the work and continually mess with it for a pitch with late and sharp break.
Try ProPitchingonline.com/grips for some pics to help get you started.
good luck