MOULTRIE — When asked point-blank whether he believed curve balls should be banned from youth baseball, Dennis Powell answered quickly.

“I say yes,” said the former major league left-hander who hails from Norman Park. “Teach them a fast ball and a change up. That will help the kid in the long run.

“We really need to think about the kid. Someone has to be there to discourage them.”

After a long career as a professional pitcher, Powell retired to Upland, Calif., where he coaches high school baseball, sponsors camps and provides individual instruction. He is passionate about teaching pitching and just as passionate about ensuring youngsters don’t damage their arms, either in the short or long run.

Statistics show that more youngsters are suffering arm pain and injury. Youth programs have long had inning limits for young pitchers and this year, Little League instituted pitch counts.

This year, Little Leaguers ages 9 and 10 are limited to 75 pitches per game. Those who are 11 and 12 may throw up to 85 pitches. Pitchers 13 through 16 can through 95.

Little League also has limits about how soon pitchers can return to the mound.

The Moultrie-Colquitt County Parks and Recreation Department has an innings limit on its pitchers.

Powell pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers at the major league level and worked in the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox organizations. He also pitched professionally in Japan and Mexico.

Since retiring, he has operated The Right Approach, which allows him to teach baseball and life skills. A number of the young players he has offered individual instruction to have gone on to perform at the college level.

Powell agrees with the decision to limit the number of pitches youngsters can throw in league competition and hopes other organizations will follow Little League’s lead.

And he has a direct approach when the subject of curve balls, which can have such a harmful effect on the elbow, comes up.

“Unless you have facial hair, I would not attempt to throw a curve ball,” Powell said.

His belief is developing a pitcher, not a thrower.

“If you have a fast ball and a change up and can locate them, then you can be successful,” he said. “Up and down, in and out. Baseball is 75 percent mental. Games can be won and lost in your head.

“What I try to share is, learn to be a pitcher.”

In fact, he says the four components of a successful pitcher are velocity, changing speed, location and movement, and not necessarily in that order.

Learning the correct way to throw fast balls can create movement, which can be as effective as the movement on a curve ball, he said.

And, Powell says, “Tommy Lasorda’s not going come and sign you just because you’ve got a great curve ball.”

Powell calls the damage done to young arms by over-pitching and curve balls “an epidemic.”

“We need to open our eyes,” he said

Contributing to the problem caused by throwing curve balls is mechanics, Powell said.

Few coaches, and fewer fathers, know how to teach it correctly.

“It’s a lost art,” he said.

Powell can attest first hand to the damage to his strong left arm by the long snapping off of curve ball. He points to small scars on his elbow, where arthroscopic surgery was required to remove bone chips.

He had to come out of a game against the San Francisco Giants with a sore elbow and before he left the park the elbow had swollen considerably.

“I threw a lot of curve balls coming up,” he said. “I put so much stress on my arm.

“I’d like to prevent others from making the mistakes I made.”

And Powell has a vested interest in making sure young pitchers don’t stress their arms.

He has a 15-year-old son who is A pitcher and he wants to ensure his health and knows a serious injury can happen quickly.

“It only takes one pitch,” he said.