Tom House Pitching Clinic Report...

Up was out running 3 miles at 4 am yesterday...wonder how many other players he met out there?

 

Hey there everyone.

Alright, here I go. I am going to attempt to describe to you guys what all went on in a segment-like fashion. This segment will be on the first night there. It was Tuesday night, August 6th. My dad and I arrived at the Hyatt Hotel in San Diego for an opening lecture from 7 to 10. The entire staff was introduced. The staff ranged from co-founders of Tom House and Gary Heil, to former collegiate and professional pitchers who were a part of the NPA or National Pitching Association. Along with the staff, we were introduced to a speaker named Jim Brogan. Mr. Brogan is a one of a kind human being. He is a full time leadership training consultant who played in the NBA. The thing about him though is he played in college at West Virginia Wesleyan College. He is also a white guy who was told that he could never sniff an NBA uniform for countless reasons. He talked to us about all of the things and thoughts that he had throughout his career that drove him to his success. It was truly an awesome opportunity to hear first hand what it really takes to make it to the top. I do not know how I could possibly describe to everyone how great this lecture was. It was definitely inspirational.

A side note to all of this, each family member and player stood up and introduced themselves. There were about 16 players, including myself in the clinic.

That is the gist of the first night, I will continue to update it later, but most of you guys know how I feel about sitting at a computer on a day like this. Ill be beack on tonight, or tomorrow morning. Have a good one.

 

Hurry back...looking forward to the next post

 

National Pitching Association??????

 

metro??????

 

National Pitching Association

Yep .... read on.

 

Hey there again.

Alright, where am I?.. Day 2. I arrived at the Hyatt Hotel at 8:45am for the beginning of the day. From 9-10:30 Dr. House gave a lecture on the basic points of a pitchers mechanics and what all of the best pitcher's today do in their delivery to make them successful. He called me up to the front and used me as an example in front of everybody. The point that he made with me was that most pitchers do not truly know what they do that makes them successful. He told me to go through my delivery slow motion and talk him through what I am doing. After I was done, he called my B.S. Not because I was trying to change my mechanics, but because I just dont exactly know what my body does from start to finish. I think I know, but the truth is that the human eye can only see 30 frames per second, so it is difficult to truly know what you do when you pitch. That is one of the reasons why I then went to a motion analysis lab at a nearby hospital, where they put reflective sensors all over my body and took me to a room with 8 cameras surrounding you from every direction. I

 

Sorry about that, I messed up on the computer.

Anyways, to continue what I was saying. In that room I pitched off of a mound. By doing this, each camera picked up each reflective sensor and relayed the images to a computer where my delivery came up as a stick figure. It was extremely interesting to see, because each camera can see 1000 frames per second, as opposed to the 30 frames of the human eye. They can now compare my delivery with pitchers such as Nolan Ryan (member of the NPA), Mark Prior (member of the NPA and has been working with Dr. House since he was 14). This enabled me to actually see what I was doing right and what I needed to work on during the week and now back home in Charlotte. I highly recommend going to a motion analysis lab if you are a pitcher. I believe that the nearest one is in Greenville, SC.

The second half of the day we spent three hours on the field at Mission Bay High School. We warmed up through isometric workouts and plyometrics. (No stretching) We then warmed up by throwing. Tom House instructed that we not throw at a distance that we could be perfect. Meaning that if we could not hit a target a certain distance, we shouldn't be that far away. For about the next 2 hours we had 2 sets of 3 stations, each station having different purpose and drill. I was able to have excellent individual attention from the staff and got a ton of high quality reps. It was a great day and I felt in that day alone that I had already gotten my money's worth.

That is the gist, if I was not specific enough on a certain area let me know and I will try to get back to you on it quickly. If not, Ill talk about day 3 tonight or tomorrow.

Have a great day.

 

Do you have the name of the lab in Greenville...and do they run the same comparisons like the one with Tom House

 

LOL. no wonder I have never heard of it. House founded it.

Stay away from the cool aid.