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

355 Pages·2009·11.02 MB·English

by  Tom House

Arm Action, Arm Path, and
the Perfect Pitch: Building a
Million-Dollar Arm
Tom House
Doug Thorburn
©2009 Coaches Choice. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of
Coaches Choice. Throughout this book, the masculine shall be deemed
to include the feminine and vice versa.
ISBN: 978-1-60679-042-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008943774
Cover design: Roger W. Rybkowski
Book layout: Roger W. Rybkowski
Front cover photo: G Fiume/Getty Images
Coaches Choice
P.O. Box 1828
Monterey, CA 93942
www.coacheschoice.com
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. It’s a
book that clarifies conventional wisdom about pitching and
quantifies three-dimensional motion-analysis research on
the mechanics of a pitcher’s 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. That’s 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.
It’s 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 thing—the 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, it’s 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 we’ve learned in the
last two years. Hopefully, you will enjoy
Yours in baseball,
Tom House
Doug Thorburn