Tom House - Arm Action, Arm Path, and the Perfect Pitch: Building a Million-Dollar Arm

This book is written for those pitchers, parents, and coaches who are looking for information and instruction that can have a positive impact on their baseball lives.

We would like to thank everyone who helped with this project, directly and indirectly, including: Jim Peterson, Matthew Richards, Karl Meinhardt, Ryan Sienko, Eric Andrews, Marie House, Adam Meinhardt, Cole Hamels, Dan Giese, Chad Wolff, Jackson Crowther, Billy Beane, Gary Arthur, Alan Ledford, Mike Gazda, John Bava, Kevin Hilton, Perry Husband, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Lee Flippin, Dudley Tabakin, Alan Blitzblau, Doug Bird, Joe Donohue, Garrett Boetzer, Mike Swor, Eric Young, Tim Denevi, and Victoria Thorburn.

The pages in this remarkable resource, Arm Action, Arm Path, and the Perfect Pitch offer a perfect blend of medical science, exercise science, and coaching science. Its a book that clarifies conventional wisdom about pitching and quantifies three-dimensional motion-analysis research on the mechanics of a pitchers delivery.

Currently, I am a Major League pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies. I am also a walking, talking, pitching example of how sports medicine and sports science can successfully work together.

On July 10, 2000, I broke my arm pitching a baseball and had corrective surgery one week later. At any other time before 2000, it probably would have been the end of my baseball career and my dreams of pitching in the Major Leagues. As bad as my injury was and as frustrated and scared as I was, all factors considered, it was the right time to get hurt. As luck would have it, the medical and surgical expertise of Dr. Jan Froenick repaired my arm. Subsequently, the hard work and the rehabilitation expertise of the Scripps Clinic and the National Pitching Association helped me recover and rebuild my arm and body with functional strength, flexibility, endurance, and stamina. The final piece involved helping me to understand the three-dimensional motion analysis of my delivery. This step helped me master the mechanics of an efficient delivery so I could continue to compete and perform with a healthy arm. It also gave me the confidence that I would not reinjure myself.

Obviously, a lot of things came together for me at the right time and place. Thats what this book is designed to do for you as a coach, a parent, or a player. Tom House and Doug Thorburn have put together a great manuscript. Its a must read for anyone involved in the game of baseball, especially pitchers and pitching coaches. Good luck and good reading!

Cole Hamels

It has been over two years since the publication of our last book on pitching. During this period, a lot has happened, and a lot has changed.

Looking at the baseball landscape, we can be certain of at least one thingthe integration of medical science, exercise science, and coaching science has affected the paradigm on how pitchers should prepare, compete, and repair. Obviously, we feel these changes are significant enough to warrant writing a new book.

The National Pitching Association (NPA) has combined forces with the Rod Dedeaux Research and Baseball Institute (RDRBI) at Dedeaux Field on the campus at the University of Southern California. It has also added another ML pitcher, two orthopedic surgeons, an exercise physiologist from Australia, and an NFL quarterback to its Board of Advisors. We firmly believe that these changes have enhanced our ability to develop a science-based approach to efficient, effective pitching, one that is complemented by sports-science protocols that are designed to help prevent injury.

The NPA also moved its human performance motion-analysis lab to USC. Our research efforts, along with outside advancements in sports science, have helped facilitate the evolution of information, insights, and instructional techniques concerning pitching health and performance. In that regard, the ongoing interaction with our Board of Advisors, combined with our increased R&D capacity (especially with Greg Rose at the Titleist Performance Institute) is providing us a better understanding of what constitutes efficient pitching signatures. Being able to identify timing and kinematic-sequencing flaws in a delivery has significantly improved the quality and focus of our instruction with regard to both mechanics drills and functional strength training.

Another significant benefit of relocating our performance lab to Dedeux Field was its impact on opening lines of communication with a number of non-baseball related professionals within the USC community, including physicians, kinesiologists, and exercise physiologists. To our knowledge, its the first time on-the-field coaching science and in-the-lab medical science have ever co-researched and published.

Finally, we had the unique challenge of working with two young athletes from the country of India, neither of whom had ever played baseball, let alone pitched. Over a period of approximately six months, their hard work and dedication, in concert with the efforts of our staff, transformed them into legitimate professional prospects. Fittingly, they were highly scouted and showed enough skill and projectibility to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This international first gives us even more confidence that we are on the right path with our biomechanical, physical, nutritional, and mental/emotional coaching content, curriculum, progressions, and protocols.

In Arm Path, Arm Action, and the Perfect Pitch, we openly share with you everything new weve learned in the last two years. Hopefully, you will enjoy

Yours in baseball,

Tom House

Doug Thorburn

NPA/RDRBT
NationalPitching.com/RDRBI.com
Advisory Board