Dick Mills or Tom House?

General Pitching Topics
#1

Hello, I’m pretty much new around here… I myself actually pitch (16 yrs old) with 69~74mph range and my brother is 14 yrs old and he hit 76 mph with his fastball recently with 72~73mph range. He started to throw (not pitch) around last year and making a progression on how to throw fastballs… but now I think it’s time to learn more about control, mental, conditioning, more grips… you know…

Some people might think sticking it to ‘pitching gurus’ might be foolishness, but I also feel that learning by DVD/book that’s focused on their theory for best is the best way to learn the better pitching.

The question is that which program is better? Dick Mills’s or Tom House’s?

I actually received Dick Mills’s free pitching report on his program, and it seems that his program is actually quite expensive, but has produced some quality results. (Barry Zito, Matt Harrison, Andrew Good etc) I also heard about Tom House’s DVD and his performance as a pitching coach (Mark Prior, Big Unit, Nolan Ryan etc.). House’s stuff aren’t as expensive as Mills’s though. Only thing that comes into my mind is that House has stated Prior’s mechanic is perfect and yet he’s plagued with injuries (Mills points that out a lot actually).

Which product do you recommend and why? Thanks :smiley:

#2

Neither.

I recommend you read everything you can get your hands on in the way of pitching art and science and then make your own decisions. In my opinion a pitcher’s delivery should evolve from his own unique influences not from a guru’s idea of one size fits all. There are alot of people competing for your dollar on the internet market. But the library is still free in my hometown.

#3

Each started with a new twist, not pushing off the rubber and tossing a football. Me thinks we all have an attention getter and likewise something to offer. I agree with Dino.

#4

I have a Tom House background. I like what he’s teaching today. He’s identified the things that the game’s top pitchers have in common and formed a mechanics model around those commonalities. But he otherwise does not use a cookie cutter approach with pitchers. For example, he believes arm slot is specific to each pitcher so he does not mess with arm slot. I would strongly encourage you to learn Tom House’s ideas.

Now, despite all of this, I agree with others here that you shouldn’t limit yourself to just one person’s ideas. In fact, I continue to try to learn about the teachings of Mills, Nyman, Marshall, etc. I would also encourage you to do the same.

By the way, I’ve found that most people are not up to date on House’s teachings. They don’t know anything about is current mechanics model. They dwell on the Mark Prior issue making uneducated assumptions that Prior’s injuries were due to his mechanics when, in fact, they have not real proof of this.

#5

Well I’d like to say that I’m anti guru, pro-capitalist. I feel that “Guru’s” Mills, Nyman, Marshall are one catagory and instructors, House, Mazzoni, are another. As noted the market has limited funds so “Guru’s” as a rule spend much time in marketing efforts which includes bashing the competition, instructors on the other hand expend their energies toward imparting knowledge…albeit at some cost, to either coaches or kids. This to me is a more valuable to the individual and the sport. I do believe that working personally with a guru can be wildly successful, but few have that opportunity. My personal opinion is that each kid/student is individual in style but delivering a ball to home plate can be developed to maximum effieciency. So getting a DVD may or may not be meaningful to a student. By my experience, using solid mechanical instruction, in conjunction with personal training (Professional, with a goal and a plan) will have the most positive opportunity for success. Like everything it will be dependant on what you can do as far as commitment and funds.

#6

As I said once before, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer cherce. :lol:
I also referred to an old poem about the six blind men who encountered an elephant, and the punch line goes like this: “Though each was partly in the right, they all were in the wrong.” This is especially true of these so-called gurus who have their own ideas about coaching pitchers—some of the things they say might make sense, but other things are just so much leftover dishwater and do nothing to help a pitcher improve. I’m a firm believer—and I speak from my own experience—in finding and working with a good pitching coach who really knows his stuff and who can teach as well as do.
I was lucky. For a little over three years I worked with an incredible pitching coach, an active major-league pitcher who doubled as an extra pitching coach for the Yankees. One of his basic premises was that every pitcher has a natural motion, and what he would do was to help that pitcher make the most of it. I was a natural sidearmer, and he took that and a number of other things he had observed me do and formed a jumping-off point from which we could experiment to see what might work for me. What I learned from him over that time was nothing short of priceless, and after reading all these other things I am more convinced than ever that nothing beats this one-on-one instruction from a pitcher who not only can pitch but can also coach and teach.
This person—his name was Ed Lopat and he spent 7 1/2 winning years with the Yankees—was one of the best strategic pitchers in the history of the game, a guy who was known as a “snake jazz” pitcher because he didn’t have a real fast ball, and he recognized that I was a similar type of pitcher, not much on speed but with good control and a few good breaking pitches, so he was ready and willing to share his knowledge and expertise with me. I will never forget such things as the day he showed me how to throw the slider and our many “curbstone consultations” about such subjects as strategic pitching, how best to use the crossfire, you name it. And over the decades I continue to remember everything we talked about and everything he showed me and worked with me to refine.
It doesn’t get any better than this. :baseballpitcher: :slight_smile: