When it comes to the art of pitching few people know as much as Tom House.

House, who took over as pitching coach at Southern Cal on Aug. 2, 2007, is a co-founder of the National Pitching Association and has authored several books on pitching – “The Art and Science of Pitching,” “The Picture Perfect Pitcher,” “Fit to Pitch,” “The Pitching Edge” and “Stronger Arms and Upper Body.”

As a player, House pitched for the Atlanta Braves from 1971-1975, the Boston Red Sox from 1976-1977 and the Seattle Mariners from 1977-1978, going 29-23 with 261 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA. House was in the bullpen for the Braves in 1974, caught Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run and presented it to the slugger. As it turned out, 1974 was House’s best season as he posted a 1.93 ERA in 102-2/3 innings.

As a coach House, considered by many to be the “Father of Modern Pitching Mechanics,” has worked with the likes of Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Mark Prior, Robb Nen and Kevin Brown.

Recently, House spoke with T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder for our Sunday Conversation.

Q: What has been the most memorable moment in your career?

A: You can look at this as a fun thing or a sad statement, but catching Henry Aaron’s 715th home run was the highlight of my playing career. Probably the highlight of my coaching career in professional baseball was getting to work for Nolan Ryan for six years.

Q: What was it like working with Nolan Ryan?

A: It’s like, I don’t know, it’s like getting to work with Michelangelo or getting to work with Michael Jordan ... getting to work with the best in the profession there is, and you get to actually work with them on a day-to-day basis and actually have some input or feedback. It became more of collaboration as it was a coaching thing, and for me it took it to another level as far as the information and the instruction side of the equation. So, it was a blessing, and I think the net result was all of us involved in the pitching profession got better because of his unique ability to share what he did and look at new things.

Q: There’s been some news about Nolan Ryan demanding more from the pitchers with the Texas Rangers. What do you think of that?

A: Nolan came over here to Surprise, Ariz., and I went over there a couple days. Only about half the story got out. The story that everybody is reading is that he is going to ask the pitchers in his organization to throw an inning more than they did a year ago, to average an inning more than they did a year ago and they are going to be a little more relaxed about pitch totals. That’s only one half of the equation. The other half was, and it’s what they started this year in spring training, is they are going to work harder in physical preparation than they’ve ever worked before. Jose Vasquez, their conditioning coach, was able to hire a conditioning coach for every minor league team and they are literally going to prepare themselves to play like Nolan did when he was a pitcher. In other words, the physical side of their work, the physical preparation side that wasn’t mentioned in any of these articles, is going to be the precursor to more innings and more pitches.

Q: The science behind pitching is deep. It seems like you are starting to learn more and more. How far has the science come since you have started doing this?

A: I started seeing motion analysis around the baseball environment around the late ’80s, and I think it’s starting to make sense to all of baseball from the amateur game to the professional game. There are pockets around the country where it’s embraced a little bit more than other parts of the country. There’s no problem here at USC because we have the medical school, the exercise physiology school and the biomechanics school who are all behind everything we are doing. So, the credibility here is way more than it would be in (South Carolina) where if they have motion analysis it’s a medical model and not a performance model. But, I would say that across the board baseball is getting smarter about helping its athletes perform and stay healthy. We still have a long way to go, but I think the pendulum is starting to swing towards the new school and away from the old school.

Q: How much of your life have you dedicated to studying pitching?

A: Obviously, I have always pitched. I think I started to become more of a student of pitching when I figured out that I was not going to be really good in the big leagues. I was trying like hell to get to the big leagues, and I realized that I was a little short talent-wise. I had to figure out what and how I could maximize what little talent I did have, and that’s when you start hanging around with guys that knew about mechanics and knew about changing speeds, different pitches and physical preparation. That’s when I realized that if you are short on tools you better be long on everything else. So, probably, my second or third year in professional baseball, when I realized that the baseball world is not created equal, that’s when I became more of a student of the physical act of pitching.

Q: How many hours per week do you spend studying pitching?

A: It’s a vocation. It’s what I do. I’m on the field as a coach, 30-40 hours per week, and then researching in the lab and doing extra activity with motion analysis and conditioning. It sounds like I should probably get a life, and I probably should, but it’s what I do. It’s not really work because I have a love for it and a passion to help the game get better.

Q: It’s summer, travel ball is huge, and there are a lot of young arms going, sometimes, year-around now. What advice can you give on the development of young pitchers?

A: In a perfect world, I think that athleticism comes first. I think that kids should play all sports for their basic athleticism development. But, we don’t live in that world, and because the economics of baseball are so profound today kids are specializing and playing year-around baseball. And, this would be the caveat that I would put to year-around baseball: I think our kids pitch too much. They don’t throw enough. But, if they are going to play year-around, they have to physically prepare themselves to throw year-around. Playing year-around, and playing defense year-around on top of that, the conditioning part of the equation becomes huge. As a pitcher, pitching year-around is probably not a good thing for anybody that is less than 25 years old. This also, here’s a little sidebar, if you go on baseballprospectus.com and looked up ‘pitchers’ abuse points,’ the research is very strong about too many pitches off a mound before the age of 25. Between pitchers’ abuse points, the research coming out of SMI down in Birmingham with pitch totals per inning, per game, per week, per month and per season, combine that with what we have been doing since I’ve been counting pitch totals with the Texas Rangers and the NPA, and you can monitor pitch totals and if a kid is going to pitch year-around, you just need to make sure pitches per outing are minimized. I have no problem, if kids are going to play baseball year-around, I would pay more attention to pitchers, and if they are going to pitch year-around, you just have to make sure their pitch totals stay on the light side instead of the heavy side. In other words, frequency instead of duration. If they are going to go traditional with five-, six-, seven-inning starts, these young kids need to have three to four active months of rest away from the mound. The flat ground stuff; the ground balls every day and the swinging every day are not the issue. The only unnatural thing about baseball is the mound, going down the hill.

T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553.

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