@JucoDad posted:Hello Adbono, I’m not a coach or trainer, I’m a relatively informed parent who loves the game and is continuing to learn with a kid that is blessed to still be navigating the process.
In looking at your profile, I’m a Texas parent as well and given the length of your involvement in coaching kids we’ve likely met, or at least seen each other across the diamond (me being in the bleachers or behind my camera).
My son had a plus arm from the beginning, but as he got near 12U I felt that he was falling back toward the middle of his peer group in arm strength. I wasn’t worried, kids mature differently – young hard throwers don’t always end up as hard throwers post adolescence. At the end of his HS freshman season he started complaining about some minor discomfort in his forearm after throwing, he said more an annoyance than a big concern. However, like every other parent in this group I did the research and ultimately found someone to look at his mechanics. The coach was a former MLB pitcher and who also turned out to be a proponent of the Tom House methodologies – NPA (Had no clue about any of that at the time).
This coach found some issues with Trev’s mechanics and kinetic chain, they adjusted and his velo picked up and any hint of discomfort was gone. That's all it took for my kid to buy in. He went to several House seminars (whenever he was in Houston), he never had another soft drink, cut most refined sugars out of his diet and started eating stuff I couldn’t bribe him to eat in the past. As a parent, I didn’t care where the motivation was coming from, I just loved the ownership.
He continued to work with this pitching coach through juco (never working on pitches, just kinetics and arm health) and the result of genetics, work and coaching culminated in a fb touching 97 and a scholarship at Arkansas. So, nothing but love for Tom House and his concepts coming from my experience.
This year Trev touched triple digits a few times and he now uses advanced kinetic baseline modeling to capture what’s right, so he can systemically adjust in the future, if required (not related to House or NPA). The processes and technologies move forward…
I think it’s unlikely that we have crossed paths before - based on the age of your sons & mine and based on me being in DFW and you in Houston. More than likely we have bern to many of the same places but at different times. But you never know. Baseball is a small world. Very cool story about your son and I appreciate your posts about that - and also your positive statements about Juco baseball.