Great to read this!
Football throwing seems to be the hot new training tool. Last spring the guys at Cressey were always outside throwing one.
Thanks for the update. Enjoy the holidays!
Tom House has encouraged throwing a football for decades. I was at the Padres spring training facility in the 80’s. House was the franchise, roving pitching instructor at the time. With all the footballs flying around I thought I was at a QB camp.
Tom House is a polarizing name in baseball, but I've got nothing but good things to say about him and his TPA organization. His stance and lectures on nutrition, arm care and rotational kinetics resinated with my son as a HS junior (probably because I wasn't involved) and I believe created a solid foundation for his current training methodologies.
@JucoDad posted:Tom House is a polarizing name in baseball, but I've got nothing but good things to say about him and his TPA organization. His stance and lectures on nutrition, arm care and rotational kinetics resinated with my son as a HS junior (probably because I wasn't involved) and I believe created a solid foundation for his current training methodologies.
Im glad that House was able to help your son. However, Im not a fan of his and he isnt held in high esteem in pitching circles in Texas. Personally, i think some of the things he promotes make sense and some don’t. But he is infamous for taking other peoples ideas and claiming them as his own and im never okay with that.
@adbono posted:Im glad that House was able to help your son. However, Im not a fan of his and he isnt held in high esteem in pitching circles in Texas. Personally, i think some of the things he promotes make sense and some don’t. But he is infamous for taking other peoples ideas and claiming them as his own and im never okay with that.
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…
@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.
New updates. He actually picked up a tab at a restaurant which was both sweet and unexpected. Then he ruined it by dunking on me. Literally. We all went to Chicago to support his sisters team playing Oregon WBB. Game cancelled because of COVID (10 cases, two symptomatic. Luckily Syd is clean) so we went to the practice gym to shoot around. I was under the basket rebounding and the SOB dunked on me. 😂
The indoor baseball facilities are adjacent to the basketball practice courts. I thought you guys would appreciate this video:
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No dunk! Very disappointing.
@JCG the family knows better than that. Video would have meant the end of Christmas for all of them! Hahahaha
@PTWood they have a pretty nice facilities for baseball at NW. Son did a camp there pre-covid and its still his dream to play for them...Merry Christmas to you and your family!
@used2lurk good luck with NU! It has been a great experience for Syd although this year she’s been out with a back injury. Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas too.
1/18 James update. He was out in San Diego for a week hitting and lifting with 11 other prospects. Included one-on-one meeting with the GM where he was told the sample size was small but good start—keep getting stronger and faster. Left CA for AZ over the weekend for another 2 weeks of conditioning and then he comes home until spring training. They got to move into their new team-provided apartments and now he’s trying to figure out how to ship his bean bag. 🙄 The apartments are nice.
".....now he’s trying to figure out how to ship his bean bag. 🙄"
So much info in such a short phrase. A thoughtful analysis could take days.
Smoke...we figured it out. They are on sale. He will be the lucky owner of an east coast bean bag and a west coast bean bag (this thing is huge and heavy...but super comfortable to sit in to play video games). If all goes well, maybe he'll pay on more than one team this year and we will have the saga of bean bag moves (from spring training to low A and beyond)...
Looks comfy, but I would need a hoist to get back out of it.
@smokeminside posted:".....now he’s trying to figure out how to ship his bean bag. 🙄"
So much info in such a short phrase. A thoughtful analysis could take days.
Smoke with a nasty double entendre on the inside corner for a called third strike!
@PTWood posted:.....They got to move into their new team-provided apartments and now he’s trying to figure out how to ship his bean bag. 🙄 The apartments are nice.
I did not miss this point about the team provided apartments! How cool and convenient! Trying to find housing is tough, especially in Snow Bird, college spring break filled, Florida spring training. Kid is paying $4800 a month for a 2BR sharing with another couple. The Blue Jays are (supposedly) building their own hotel soon.
@PTWood posted:Smoke...we figured it out. They are on sale. He will be the lucky owner of an east coast bean bag and a west coast bean bag (this thing is huge and heavy...but super comfortable to sit in to play video games). If all goes well, maybe he'll pay on more than one team this year and we will have the saga of bean bag moves (from spring training to low A and beyond)...
All sorts of baseball terms could apply here. At this point, I recommend:
Bean Bag: The Double Play.
@keewart a game changer really. I’m so happy for the change.
And smoke and adbono I am trying very hard to ignore the two of you. 🙄😂