Padecky: Throwing guru brings big-league expertise to workshop in Healdsburg

HEALDSBURG

“So, why is it,” Tom House asked Friday night, “that when an pro athlete gets on camera and is asked to say hello to his family, he always says ‘Hi, Mom’?”

Seated in the cafeteria at Healdsburg High School, the 15-year boy looked at House a bit befuddled. He didn’t see the question coming. He had signed up for a three-day clinic with House, the guy who works with 28 of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL, the guy who extended Nolan Ryan’s career by eight years, the guy who works with anyone who wants to learn how to properly throw a baseball or a football or probably even a Frisbee without pain.

House teaches throwing. He is the one sought out by athletes, pros and amateurs alike, any sport that requires moving hips and shoulders through space. The seminar had yet to begin Friday when House, 68, engaged in a soft give-and-take with kids and their parents.

It was clear he was warming up the crowd of about 200 with that question. House, a former major league pitcher with a doctorate in sports psychology, wanted the people to know he was more that a verbal data producer and explainer of all things linear and graphic.

“Here’s why,” House said. “A mother (of which they were a few in the audience) will love her son no matter what. Unconditionally. The father on the other hand, and I’ve been guilty of this, will take personally what his son does on the field. If his son makes a mistake, his shoulders will sag. He’ll have that look of disappointment. He might say something.

“That’s why when their son get his first paycheck as a pro, the first thing he buys is a Mercedes for his mother.”

The laughter was loud and solid but a bit nervous to be fair. House was here in Healdsburg over the weekend to show kids - as young as 7, as old as 20 - how to throw a baseball efficiently, how to look at the game as, well, a game. It is point House couldn’t emphasis often enough.

“Kids should have fun with the sport and not begin to take it seriously until they are a sophomore or junior in high school,” House said.

That opinion - to anyone who has spent some time sitting in the stands at youth baseball games in Sonoma County - will be met with a chuckle and a shrug. House knows that.

“I tell parents,” said House who played for Seattle, Atlanta and Boston in the 1970s, “that if they care more about the game than their kid, there’s a disconnect. There’s something wrong. They need to take a step back. They’re ready for their kids to play pro ball but they’re only 12.”

Of course there’s an environment that breeds such expectations.

“I was watching a Little League World Series game,” House said, “and the broadcaster was asking the winning pitcher, ‘So what did you do to set up the hitter?’?”

For cinematic effect House’s jaw dropped and he stared straight at me as if I just told him I had lunch with Big Foot earlier Friday. House even addressed the issue of Little League All-Star teams and how to eliminate the griping and whining that comes from parents who think their Johnny should have made the team.

“Trust the kids, trust the players,” House said. “It’s just as true for Little Leaguers as big leaguers. Kids don’t lie. The kids know (who belongs). They absolutely do. If you ask them, they will tell you who’s the hard workers, who’s the lazy ones. They will tell the ones who care and the ones who won’t. They are very seldom wrong.”

In the course of his three-hour introductory presentation Friday, House spiced the data and the charts and the graphs with humorous anecdotes. Funny, conversational, engaging, House very much displayed the flavor of the game while keeping it real.

“In any one given year there are 6.4 million Little League-aged kids in the world,” House said. “Three years later there are 2.8 million high school-eligible. At the end of high school there are 91,000 college-eligible. At the end of college that are 7,300 minor league-eligible jobs. Then there are only 1,000 jobs every year in the big leagues.

“In other words the odds say no one in this room will play baseball past high school.”

That may read like a buzz-buster. Who wants to be told there’s a ceiling to ambition? Limits? We don’t want no stinkin’ limits. That wasn’t his point. House was telling the crowd not to focus on the Giants or A’s or buying mom the Mercedes. Such obsessions obscure the moment, dilute if not eliminate altogether the very enjoyment of childhood and a sport. Let the kids be kids and, if along the way, an exceptional talent emerges, all the better.

In the meantime play it safe. Start, said House, with a most simple thing when learning how to throw properly.

“Keep your eyes level,” he said. That keeps the head upright, the body upright, no compensation needs to be made by a shoulder, elbow or forearm. In other words no additional stress.

Forget that old pitching mantra - throw overhand: “Less than 10 percent of Major League pitchers throw over the top. There’s more pitchers in the big leagues who throw sidearm or submarine than throw overhand.”

Want to learn how to throw a baseball properly? Throw a football that spirals: “It’s impossible to improperly throw a football that spirals.”

Keep a pitcher safe: “Have him complete his delivery with his glove in front of him above his lead foot. The glove is his shield.”

Be patient to correct a bad habit: “It will take 1,000 repetitions to do so.”

Remember where speed originates: “Eighty per cent of velocity comes from shoulder-hip rotation.”

Do not give the hitter too much credit: “The average youth hitter loses the ball 15 feet from home plate. The average big league player loses it within 10-12 feet. The above average player loses it within 6-8 feet.”

Basic mechanics will reveal a truth: “If your pitch is either to the right or left of home plate, your head and eyes are not level. If your pitch is either high or low, it’s because your glove is either high or low.”

Overuse is misuse: “The data says if a pitcher throws more than 200 innings in a season before his 25th birthday, he won’t pitch past 30.”

A 10-year old can throw a curveball: “It’s how you throw it that matters. If you throw like this (snapping his wrist inward) that’s dangerous. It’s more of a slicing, chopping motion.”

House had and shared data to support all his statements. The data he didn’t have, and what places him as odds with the medical community, is why a pitcher shouldn’t shut down his arm for 2-3 months a year.

“You have to tell the arm to wake up,” House said. “That’s not natural. Never let your arm forget how to throw. We are a throwing species. That’s how the caveman killed the saber-tooth tiger. I advocate kids throwing all the time. Anything. Like tennis balls, rocks. Only go to the mound when you are pitching a game. Otherwise always throw from flat ground.”

House is met with plenty of resistance on that point. It’s not an uncommon bounce-back for him. When he first began to apply science to the art of pitching House was met with dismissive shrugs. Goofball. Crackpot. Too damn intellectual. Just throw the stupid thing. What does he know? Heck, House was an eight-year journeyman in the big leagues with a 29-23 record.

Those people actually make his point. House had a 82-mile an hour fastball. He could hit a horsefly in the butt with a pitched baseball but he couldn’t break a plane of glass. So he had to think his way to and through the big leagues and … eyond. Now he has the clients to prove baseball and thinking do not have to be mutually exclusive.

“Off our pictures,” House said, “I made a slight correction in Roger Clemens’ head tilt. It was two inches off center. Here’s the scientific data: If your head tilt is one inch off center, your release point is two inches off center. If your release point is two inches off center, your pitch is seven inches from the center of home plate.

“The adjustment gave Roger five more years in the big leagues.”

And if it happens that this past weekend House gave some kids five more years of baseball, those kids don’t have to end up in the Major Leagues to feel and appreciate the sweet breeze of success. No matter what the age it never gets too breezy, when you throw the pitch where you want to throw it, how you want to throw it.

And when your arm doesn’t feel like a rusted drainage pipe after you throw it, well, that’s the best part.

To contact Bob Padecky email him at bobpadecky@gmail.com.