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Fit to Pitch - Tom House
Fit to Pitch
by Tom House
NEW, 216 pages
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About Fit to Pitch
In more than 30 years in professional baseball as a pitcher, coach, performance analyst, and consultant, Tom House has helped enhance and extend the careers of many pitching greats, including Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan.
In Fit to Pitch, Tom combines his on-field experiences,
weight-room workouts, and years of research to deliver proven, practical applications that will strengthen your pitching throughout the year.
This comprehensive conditioning program:
• outlines essential training components to develop more speed, strength, and stamina on the mound;
• details pitcher-specific workouts for year-round conditioning; and
• highlights rehabilitation guidelines that help players return to competition faster and more safely.
In Part I, Tom describes training components that balance strength building and pitching workloads and won`t tear down pitchers` arms. He includes:
• more than 30 integrated flexibility techniques;
• aerobic and anaerobic workouts;
• both small-muscle and large-muscle group drills for conditioning; and
• flat-ground versus mound training cycles.
Part II shows you how to set up a complete pitcher`s training program using the components described in part I, including daily workouts, between-game sessions, and a season-long plan. You will learn to design workouts to meet the specific needs and styles of pitchers--starters, relievers, power pitchers, finesse pitchers--and build your body and arm for peak performance.
In Part III Tom outlines "prehabilitative" conditioning guidelines and exercises that help maximize pitching performance and minimize the risk of injury. He also shares his rehabilitative training methods, proved to facilitate the recovery time of injured players. With Tom`s nutritional dos and try-tos for pitchers, you`ll learn how to combine, rotate, and supplement food to stay healthy on and off the field. You`ll want to try the 14-day diet designed specifically to meet pitchers` nutritional needs.
Tom House takes the guesswork out of physical, mechanical, and nutritional preparation, so that you can take the mound Fit to Pitch.
About Tom House
Tom House is recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on pitching. In the Major Leagues from 1967 to 1979, he pitched for the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, and Seattle Mariners. He has coached major league pitchers since 1980 for the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, and San Diego Padres. He also has coached in Tokyo and Latin America.
Another dimension of Tom's expertise is as scientist and researcher. His company, Bio-Kinetics, is a leader in computerized, three-dimensional motion analysis, which helps athletes learn to maximize performance through proper biomechanics.
Assistant to the general manager and international baseball consultant for the San Diego Padres, Tom also travels the world as a consultant, lecturer, and sports psychologist for many professional and amateur baseball players. He has appeared as a guest psychologist on both 60 Minutes and Geraldo. And he appears nationally on television infomercials for HealthRider.
Tom, who holds a PhD in psychology, is author of six previous books on baseball and coauthor of four others and has filmed seven videos, including his highly successful The Pitching Edge. He is a member of the Major League Baseball Players' Association, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology.
Tom lives in Del Mar, California, and enjoys jogging, fitness activities, and golf.
Reviews of this Book
"From Texas to Japan, I've watched Tom House work wonders with pitchers. In Fit To Pitch you'll find the best and most complete pitcher conditioning program ever developed."
Bobby Valentine
Manager, New York Mets AAA Team--Tidewater, Former Manager, Texas Rangers
"Fit to Pitch provides the best information available to players and coaches from proper mechanics to the latest in strength, flexibility, and conditioning programs. Fantastic guide for all levels."
Patrick M. Casey
Head Baseball Coach, Oregon State University
About Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting against the pitcher of the other team (the fielding team), which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance via a teammate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for each team constitutes an inning and nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.
Evolving from older bat-and-ball games, an early form of baseball was being played in England by the mid-eighteenth century. This game and the related rounders were brought by British and Irish immigrants to North America, where the modern version of baseball developed. By the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball on the professional, amateur, and youth levels is now popular in North America, parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and parts of East Asia. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball, in contrast to the derivative game of softball.
In North America, professional Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL). Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central. Every year, the major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series. Four teams make the playoffs from each league: the three regular season division winners, plus one wild card team. Baseball is the leading team sport in both Japan and Cuba, and the top level of play is similarly split between two leagues: Japan's Central League and Pacific League; Cuba's West League and East League. In the National and Central leagues, the pitcher is required to bat, per the traditional rules. In the American, Pacific, and both Cuban leagues, there is a tenth player, a designated hitter, who bats for the pitcher. Each top-level team has a farm system of one or more minor league teams. These teams allow younger players to develop as they gain on-field experience against opponents with similar levels of skill.
Fit to Pitch
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