Coach Tom House And Coach Bill Thurston Square Off On An Important Baseball Pitching Philosophy

Coach Ellis,

I am a high school coach and I am in charge of the pitching staff. I pitched in high school and college, and I was always taught that when after throwing the ball, you 'hook', or pull back your glove hand to your body. We recently had a guy who pitched in the pro's for the Giants ( Mike LaCoss ) show up at our practice and he contradicted what I had been teaching previously. He told me that you teach to keep your glove hand forward, like you are holding it out, and not to pull your elbow back into your body. I would like your opinion on these different techniques and which one is right or better for the development of high school pitchers. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Lou V.

From the desk of Steven Ellis, The Complete Pitcher™:

Thanks for the baseball pitching question, Lou.

Like you, I was taught to separate my hands and move my lead arm (glove hand) down, back and into my chest in one continuous motion as I was cocking my throwing hand into the high-cock position (from Coach Bill Thurston). Thurston said this technique enables a pitcher to "fire" his hips and generate the explosiveness needed for increased velocity.

Now the Chicago Cubs' Mark Prior, one of my Chicago Cubs teammates in Spring Training, 2002, said he was taught to throw his glove at the target and leave it there (from Coach Tom House). Prior said he used his lead arm like a “scope on a rifle” for better accuracy. And Prior, as you know, throws pretty hard, too.

So which way is correct?

Here's an article that originally appeared on my blog Dec. 15, 2004 that addresses this very question...

Proper Pitching Mechanics: Tom House vs. Bill Thurston

Here we'll take a closer look at what Tom House and Bill Thurston say about the “glove-arm action” (or lead-arm action) of the baseball pitching motion.

What Tom House advocates:

Tom House, a pitching consultant for ASMI and a noted pitching advisor to numerous Big League pitchers (Mark Prior, Nolan Ryan) teaches pitchers to “throw” their glove-arm to the target and then bring their trunk and hips forward to the glove.

What Bill Thurston advocates:

Bill Thurston, also a pitching consultant for ASMI, is the head baseball coach at Amherst College (Mass.) and teaches a “down, back and up movement” with the lead-arm in which a pitcher “pulls” his glove-arm back into his side and rotates his hips.

(Thurston was my personal pitching instructor for seven years, 1994-2001, and his "glove-arm motion" is the movement that I used throughout my baseball pitching career.)

What ASMI's Dr. Glynn Fleisig** says:

"Both theories are correct!"

"At ASMI, we’ve quantified the biomechanics of about 1000 pitchers – from youth league to Major Leagues – with our motion analysis system during the past 15 years.

The truth is that when a good pitcher pitches, his front arm and trunk move close together when the trunk rotates to face the batter. You could say that the front arm moved back to the trunk or that the trunk moved forward to the arm, it’s all relative. As an analogy, picture a subway train (i.e. “the trunk”) moving forward down the tracks and a man (i.e. “the elbow”) walking towards the back seat in one of the cars. An observer in the train would say that the man moved back to the seat, but an observer outside watching the train go by might say that the back speed moved forward toward the man.

The bottom line is that the lead arm needs to be tucked in at the side in order to rotate the trunk fast enough, just like a figure skater pulls in her arms towards her trunk to spin faster. Whether a coach teaches pull the arm in or pull the trunk forward is up to the coach as to whether “feel” will get his pitchers to do the right motions."

(**Dr. Glenn Fleisig is the Smith and Nephew Chair of Research at the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI), an organization founded by noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews dedicated to improving the understanding, prevention, and treatment of sports-related injuries through research and education. Fleisig has worked closely with players and coaches at all levels, from youth leagues to the big leagues, teaching performance optimization and injury prevention methods. These comments are what Dr. Fleisig said in a Baseball Prospectus chat session, May 13, 2004 with Jonah Keri, staff writer for Baseball Prospectus.)

Yours in baseball,

Steven Ellis
The Complete Pitcher™
www.thecompletepitcher.com
www.thecompletepitcher.blogs.com