From Training Tom Brady to Tackling Parkinson’s: Tom House’s New Mission

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover and then live your why. You see, we believe that knowing your why, that driving force behind every decision you make and every action you take, is the essential first step to really knowing yourself. It allows you to move forward faster and have a bigger impact. If you're already a fan of the show, then you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys, and then we introduce you to somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. This show will be more powerful for you if you've already discovered your why. If you still need to do that, head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now let's meet today's guest.

This week we're going to be talking about the why of make sense to make sense of the complex and challenging. So if this is your why, then you are driven to solve problems and resolve challenging or complex situations. You have an uncanny ability to take in lots of data and information. You tend to observe situations and circumstances around you and then sort through them quickly to create solutions and that are sensible and easy to implement. Often you are viewed as an expert because of your unique ability to find solutions quickly. You also have a gift for articulating solutions and summarizing them clearly in understandable language. You believe that many people are stuck and that if they could just make sense out of their situation, they could develop simple solutions and move forward. In essence, you help people get unstuck and move forward.

Forward.

And so today I have a great guest for you. His name is Tom House, and if you've ever heard of a quarterback changing his throwing motion mid season or a pitcher turning to neuroscience for an edge, there's a good chance Tom House was behind it. Tom's story starts in the bullpen. Literally. He was a major league pitcher for nearly a decade. He earned his stripes with the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, and Seattle Mariners. But his real calling was never just throwing a ball. It was understanding human potential. After hanging up his glove, Tom used his two bachelors, two masters, and a PhD to become the Throwing Whisperer, coaching legends like Nolan Ryan, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady. But his genius wasn't just in mechanics. It was in blending science, motion and mindset to help elite athletes unlock what made them great. Then, 15 years ago, life threw Tom a curveball. A diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. For most, it would have been a reason to step back. But for Tom, it became the next chapter of his why. Today, Tom channels everything he's learned, decades of sports performance, biomechanics, coaching and mindset mastery into his work with the National Parkinson's association, building movement based protocols that are changing the lives of those living with the disease. His journey isn't just about sports anymore. It's about legacy, resilience and healing through motion. So today, Tom will unpack the why behind his relentless curiosity. How Parkinson's gave new purpose to his passion and why he's more fired up today helping others thrive through movement than he ever has on the mound. Tom, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you very much, Gary. What? That's pretty solid what you just put up there. I gotta pal. I gotta palate all of you more. That's awesome.

Well, there's a lot to talk about there, Tom, and I want to get to all of it, but let's go back in your life because there's so much that has happened to you before what you. What you're talking about and dealing with now.

Right, right, right, right. Well, so you kind of talked about our dinner table is what it was like when I was growing up. My mom and dad were unique in that as parents, they were supportive of everything that my brother and I did. But the dinner table was always about what did you do today, how did you do it, and why are you going to do it again tomorrow? So I think both myself and my brother were programmed by my parents to not care so much about the outcome as the process and the why to get to the outcome. And for example, my mom had a rule, no a no play. My brother and I were pretty good athletes growing up and she loved it that we were playing, but she cared more about our grades. And on her deathbed she asked me when I was going to get a real job. So she never really understood what sports were all about and that they could pay the bills, but she did understand what the value of education and solving problems was. And that was an Iowa farm girl that was smart beyond her years. I think the success that my brother has had and whatever success I'm achieving is as much her. Her blending in as it was my dad.

So where did you grow up, Tom?

I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I was actually born in Seattle and my dad's job was Boeing. Took him from Seattle to Portland when I was a second grader. And I was in Portland until my freshman year in high school. And then we moved down to the Los Angeles area.

And when did you.

Know baseball was going to be your thing?

Probably when I was five or six years old, going to Multnomah County Stadium in Portland to watch the Triple A team with the Indians at that time, which was the Portland Beavers. And somehow baseball just felt good. And that was just about the time that game of the week with.

Dizzy Dean and I'm drawing a blank on Phil Rizzuto were on NBC. So the game of the week and this new thing called television kind of mixed together and made sure that I was actually in games even when I is when I wasn't, if that makes sense.

Wow. And so when you were, you know, take us through. If we saw you in high school. We're in high school with you now, Tom. What would we have seen?

Well, can I do a little sidebar story? So we came from Portland, Oregon to La Fuente, California, and it was mid semester and the baseball season was just getting started. And my mom went, how she got me in school. And then we went to the baseball coach and she asked the coach if I could join the team. And the coach said, well, it's a little late in the game. We've already picked our team. And I said, well, just have a look at him and see what you think, because we think he's pretty good and he might be able to help you. So he said, okay, Tom, I'll let you throw batting practice to my seniors. And if you do well, they won't talk about you being on the team. Well, they didn't get a ball out of the infield. I think I struck out seven or eight of them. So George Van Zandt was his name. He said, this is how you do. Have a kid that can play a little bit. And he became one of my mentors. When he said, okay, you showed up, you showed, you get people out under pressure. Let's see what you can do. And I ended up winning a lot of games for him in high school. And that kind of with good grades, got me noticed by USC and coach Rod Dadle. And when Rod came to recruit at our house, he looked my mother in the face and said, I can't guarantee he'll play for me, but I can tell you that USC is Southern California. He'll get a degree and he'll pay bills because he's a smart kid. I can't guarantee baseball, but I can guarantee the education is worth it. So that's what my mom said, okay, you're gonna fought. Wherever that man goes, you're gonna go with it. So you See, things had a chance of working out that way.

So were you always a good problem solver? Like in high school, could you figure, did people come to you and say, hey, Tom, you know, I got this going on, I need a little help. Can you, can you help me with this?

Yes. About certain things, I. I was a goofy left hander, but when it came to school, that was about. Was a good student. And we, we had. We liked puzzles and like playing cards, and my dad would take a bunch of us to the beach every summer and there were always things going on. But when it was a problem that people were having trouble, I always had an opinion. It may not have been a good one, but I always tried to throw something in that would help. So. Yeah, and my mother said I was oversmarted and under educated, so she tried to flip that when I was going to school. But yeah, both my brother and I always had an opinion on something.

And that's pretty common with the why of makes sense is that you're really good at solving problems. Maybe not have all the information, but you're pretty dang good at it and fast at it, and you can make decisions and let's get moving.

Yeah. Afraid to screw up. Not.

I'm not afraid to screw up something.

Then nothing.

Yeah. Okay, so now you're off at usc, which is my alma mater as well. So fight on. Right.

You got it.

And how did that go for you? What was college like for you?

Well, I love school. In fact, if I could have made a living being a student, I probably would have tried doing that. But it was a challenge that the first bullpen I threw at usc. I'm giving it my best luck for any curveballing, fastball. And there's this he man next to me throwing. And it's great stuff. I mean, it's like. And Coach Dado walks up behind me, puts his hand on my shoulder and said, tommy House, what do you think of young Tom Seaver? And I'm going now, maybe your eyes don't. Doesn't know who Tom Seaver was, but he was like one of the best ever. And I said, rod, if you need me to be him, you've got the wrong left hander. He said, no, no, no. I don't need you to be Tom Seaver. I need you to be Tom House. You throw your curveball and your change up from the left side, Let him be the power pitcher that he is. You'll both win games for the Trojans and you'll both play pro ball. And that's exactly what happened.

Wow. So you were at USC for four years.

I was there actually two four years. And then I was drafted by the Braves and I had some real good years both in Alaska and for the Trojans. And I didn't see any reason I should come back for my junior senior year. So I went to Ron and said, I got drafted, I'd like to sign. And he said, okay, if you will ask the Braves for your education through your PhD program, I'll give you my blessing. And I said, well, how do you do that? He said, well, it's a different budget and they'll give you your education because nobody ever goes to school after they sign. So I kept going to school Till I was 44 years old. So I made my mom happy and I made Rod happy and that's how I got into the game.

Wow. Okay, so you said you were first.

Drafted by the Braves. Atlantic Braves. Right. And so how did that, who was on your team and how did that go for you?

Who would be know probably the names that you would recognize would be Dusty Baker and Ralph Gar and then a man who was special in my life named Henry Ayre and you know, kind of behind my back without but I really know it. They call me the forest go of sport. So it seems like whatever I was, something good would happen. And going to the Braves, you're old enough to remember it was when he was chasing Henry. Henry Aaron was chasing Babe Ruth. Home run record at that time was 714 home runs. So I that was right in the middle of my time with the Braves and I got to know Henry and you know the story. I ended up catching his 715th home run in the bullpen in Atlanta. And that's. That was the highlight of my major league career. That's the good news. And the bad news is that's also the highlight of my major league career. So. But it got recognition and gave me a chance to hang around with the hall of Famer and the people that were in his bubble ended up being long term baseball friends too.

So we need to not gloss over that because that's a fascinating story of how you were able to catch that ball because. And tell us a story of how you helped Hank Aaron be able to hit that and then how you knew where the ball was going to go.

You've got a good memory. It's been six months since this story with you. I'm giving you a little Gary club. So Henry had trouble hitting a left handed screwball which was one of the pitches that I threw. So every spring training, he would take me and two or three buckets of balls over to Diamond 6 in West Palm beach and I would throw him screwballs, fastball, a couple screwballs missing and mashing. And over that time, I noticed that when I hung a screwball or I mislocated a fastball, he would always hit it to left center field. So as he's chasing the record and getting up to where it's actually going to be On a given night, which was April 8, a Monday night, April 8, 1974, the bullpen guys all drew straws and they got to choose what 10 yard territory that could cover behind the fence in the bullpen at Fulton County Stadium. So I had the second choice with my straw and I picked left center field. Right under it was a credit card sign. Think of it as money. So left center field right there. And Al Downing was the pitcher that night who was a left handed pitcher. That was me with a little bit better stuff. So when he got the first time, we all spread out. They walked him. The second time they couldn't walk him because Dusty Baker and Ralph Gar were on base. And it was, I believe it was a 31 count. It was a sinking fastball, change up, screwball out over the plate, and up he hit it. And all I can remember is saying to myself, this ball is coming to me. If I would have stood still, it would have bounced off my forehead. It wasn't a great catch. But being there at the right time again, Forrest Gump was a function of all the effort we had put in on the Maryland guyman's throne battic practice to Hindmir. So you never know. And my mom was always right. It's the process, not the outcome.

Well, and then for those of you listening, this is a very, very famous play. This isn't just a play that nobody knows about, because I've seen that play now on YouTube many different times. Many different people have talked about it. Because you caught that ball and then what did you do with it?

I read it in and put it in his hands at home plate. It was a big crowd of people. It was really a special moment. And you know where this story is going. He was hugging his mom. Both of them had tears in his eyes. I kind of broke through the crowd and put it right in front of his face. And he said, thanks, kid, and took it from me. And people don't realize that what I thought was the lifesaver moment, the hugging was really his mom protecting him from Getting shot because he had death threats for two years about chasing the record, and they had to peel her off of him for the game to continue when it was ready to go. So there was a lot of dynamics going on, but the bottom line was it got me in the hall of Fame. I would have never gotten in any other way. And again, my mom is in heaven smiling right now that even though baseball, she didn't understand, it did get me a little notoriety.

And you couldn't have known that in the moment, right, that, oh, if I go give him the ball, I'm going to be in the hall of Fame.

No, I had. All I knew was I could hardly wait to put in his hands. I was probably as excited as anybody on the field. And I truly believe anybody on the field would have done the same thing I did. If it would have gone in the stands, might have been a different story. But it wasn't about me. It was about Henry and his moment. And, again, being part of that is one of the best memories of my baseball life.

Wow. So you also told me a little bit more depth to that story about Sammy Davis Jr.

Okay. And you do have a great memory.

What's an amazing story?

Well, Sari Darris Jr. Was a friend of Henry, and he walked through the clubhouse before the game started and said, hey, you guys in the bullpen, if anybody gets that ball and gives it to me, I'll make Henry. I'll give you 25,000, and I'll make Henry come out and do a show with me in Las Vegas, and then I'll give him the ball, and he can take it to the hall of Fame or whatever he wants to do. So we knew the value of that ball was 25 grand, which was 5,000 more than I was making as a big league pitcher. So. But the idea of money and that ball did not occur to me until after it was all over. And here's what's really cool about baseball people, baseball fans. I probably got six to $7,000 in $5 bills and $10 bills from fans around the country that said, hey, we really thought it was cool that you gave Henry the ball. Here's four or five bucks. Buy yourself a hamburger, whatever it might be. So that, to me meant way more than a check for 25 grand.

Wow. Yeah. You didn't tell me that part. That. That's really interesting.

So you now are pitching in the major leagues, and you've gone to a couple different teams. How did you get into mechanics? How did you get into coaching?

Well, again, Lucky me. I hit the, the crease perfectly between old school baseball and new school baseball. And in that transition, there were things like three dimensional motion analysis and video and force plates and things that were in other sports, maybe track and field, more so than baseball. And what I represented was someone that when I asked another coach, an older coach, or whenever I asked someone how, I very seldom could get an answer that really made sense. Oh, it's baseball's way. That's what everybody does. This is what you need to do. Get on top. There were a lot of things, a lot of opinion, but not much science. So I kind of took it on myself as a coach. Wherever I couldn't get an answer to a teach that I thought merited teaching, I tried to figure out a way to determine a better way to teach it. And that's what got me into the four basic things that help elite athletes be good at what they do. Mechanical efficiency, functional strength, mental emotional management and nutrition and sleep for recovery, which I haven't had. Those were my degrees. And from academic side of the equation.

Wow. Yeah. And so once you started to learn that and use it, who was your first player that you worked with to help them improve their pitching?

Probably experimented with. We captured anybody that would be, would say, okay, you can feel me doing what I do. We had football players in core bucks in there, like golfers. We had Edwin Mo, Edwin Moses, who was a, what do they call it, the high hurdles, the 440 high hurdle. He was undefeated for like 12 years. So we wanted to know why he was so good. So we could film at a thousand frames a second and ask questions of the computer that we couldn't see with our eyes. So as good as coaches can be, having three dimensional motion analysis is a great compliment to cover what you think you're seeing, but you're not. Our eyes lie to us. And a lot of coaches with good intentions were giving bad information to their athletes. And my job, or I felt like it was my job to kind of take the guesswork out of coaching as best I could. And it really wasn't that well received to start with. Change is hard, and especially in a sport where experience in the fact that a guy's in the big leagues and was really good. Sandy Koufax would have more clout talking about what he did than I would about myself. So it took a while for.

A person like myself with great technology to get it out there and have it accepted by everybody. And part of it was my fault too, because I felt like if they weren't paying attention. They were being stupid. And it may not have been my words, but my body language kind of let them know that I thought they were stupid. So again, it didn't get out there as fast as it should have. So we've been doing motion analysis since 1986, and I think somewhere you and I have talked, I'm kind of looked at as a father of modern pitching mechanics too. So it's never a dull moment. Who would have ever thought? Right. A little left handy from Bla Point in California.

Wow. So as you continued on this path, more and more people started coming to you for help with their pitching motion. Or how would something like that happen? Would they just be in a slump or would they just want to change something up and say, well, who do I go to get help with this? There's some pretty big egos, I'm assuming.

Exactly. It had to be word of mouth. What really helped me again was having someone on the staff like Nolan Ryan. And for Nolan Ryan to buy into a pitcher throwing a football or actually getting a motion analysis to see what the hardest thrower in the history of the game had done intuitively, is it something we could measure, quantify, and come up with, teach. So a combination of persistence. Again, anybody that would agree, we would get them in on camera and put them in and evaluate their delivery. It finally got to a point where we had about probably 600 pitchers in the computer. Maybe 800 hitters, about 150 quarterbacks at all levels. Golfers, we have hitters. We had all this data and we started getting smarter about putting it together and putting it out there. And the fact that it was good information and not just me promoting it. Good. We had players and other coaches that kind of picked up on it. It's finally starting to prove really, really valuable across the board. That's where modern analytics have come from in today's game.

Wow. Yeah. You were the. You were way before your time, right?

Yeah. And again, I'd like to say it was well thought out and planned. It was just to go back to our first sentence. I'm a problem solver and I wanted to know why when someone. When someone couldn't give me an answer that I trusted, I pushed it. And you hit something that has been a problem my whole life. I'm not a very patient person when it comes to here's something that works. And when they didn't pay attention to it, I could get a little flippant. And I've learned how not to do that. And that's I think I'm a different person as a coach today than I was 15 years ago.

So who are some of the more famous pitchers that you worked with that. That our audience might know?

Well, if you. Up until I. I'm still working with current pitchers. Ah, yeah. So that's another thing I've been lucky with. I've been relevant because I stayed on top of the research. And even with some of the issues I had personally, I stayed involved. And I still work with elite quarterbacks on the professional level as well as elite pitchers.

And when I say elite, it's the guys that are high school kids who are going to play in college, college kids who are going to play pro ball. Same with quarterbacks. So relevancy is just staying on top of the technology and making sure they can all fit together.

But you worked with what, Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson and just some very big names.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that, but yeah. And they both recognized not just the fact that I was their coach, but the new ideas and the new technology extended both their careers probably five, maybe seven years. And the same with Tom Brady and Drew Brees. There weren't very many pitchers or quarterbacks that played into their mid-40s successfully. And with the technology and the information and the instruction that sports science provided, they all were relative and relevant into their mid-40s, which was totally cool.

So how did you get connected from baseball into working with Drew Brees?

Long story short, the sports world is a really small little collection.

Degrees of separation, I think is what they call it. And there's always a quarterback in football that has a best friend or a brother that played baseball. And one thing leads to another. Like Matt Castle, who pitched and played at USC.

15, 20 years after I get was second banana to Tom Brady with the New England Patriots. So when I was working with Matt Castle as a quarterback, he said, do you mind if I have one of my buddies come by and work with us? And the buddy turned out to be Tom Rain. So that's how it starts. It's, you know, buddies talking to buddies. The peer group that is an elite professional athlete is kind of a small little world.

Well, the ones you're working with and talking about are not just elite athletes. They are the superstar, like the best of the best that's ever done it. So that's a little bit different than just a really good athlete.

Well, the reason they were superstars is they recognize good information and instruction and they may go about it differently than you. And I, like Nolan was the smartest uneducated person I've ever met in my life. He was lucky to get a high school diploma. But as far as understanding what the human body needed to do to throw a baseball, hard, sheer genius. I mean, beyond what any, anybody could quantify. He was just showing woods he never had to show them again. So those, that's the kind of people I got lucky with. But again, they wouldn't have come to me unless the perceived value of what I was sharing with them made everybody better. So there were, you know, I, there was credibility. Initially that was a problem. But as soon as we started showing that our pitchers were healthier, throwing better and having longer careers, it became more and more acceptable.

You know, if I'm listening to this, what would cross my mind right now is why wouldn't every single pitcher and quarterback and golfer seek you out? Because if you've worked with those two guys, well, all the ones you just mentioned, I would be thinking, well, that's the guy I want to go work with.

And remember that the.

The perception of the person that is guiding you and measuring you is relative to those two individuals and everybody you work with to be good, they have to believe that they're the best at what they're doing. So there was a lot of stuff you had to overcome as far as old school versus new school. And this guy makes me understand better than this guy does.

So part of it was me being a little pushy early on and the fact that I used words that, things like propriocilitation and, and words that weren't common to baseball because coming from the academic and the medical side, baseball didn't have those kind of words. Well, now they do. So I was probably a little too soon and a little too aggressive to get mainstream buy in. But what I would call mainstream buy in right now is just an understanding of the technology. And some of these young instructors are way smarter than I am. And because they are young, they will appeal to a younger group. So I, I'm kind of like the strange granddad that comes in at Christmas and makes people realize that you can still learn from the old people, especially when they understand what's going on right now. And that's kind of, that's kind of where I am. I'm not as active as I used to be because that's 78 years old and I'm getting a little older. My capacity to be out on the road and have a full time big league job is a little too much for me, but I'm still plenty Busy. And coaching the coaches is now becoming as much fun for me as coaching a player.

So, again, for those of you listening, you might not be able to tell right now because we're probably going to be adjusting the volume, but Tom's voice is low. I mean, it's hard for me to hear a little bit right now. And there's a reason for that. And so maybe you can dive a little bit into that, Tom, because, what, 15 years ago, something happened that kind of changed the course of your life. Is that right?

Yeah. For a person like me who made their life purpose by yelling, screaming, talking and communicating, all of a sudden comes up with Parkinson's. And there's many different things that happen to a Parkinson's person, and losing your voice or as the day progresses is one of them. So I'm in the early afternoon. We talked about this before we came on your podcast. And this time of the day, I feel like I'm screaming, but it's barely coming out. I can't project anymore like I used to. And that's part of the. Part the Parkinson's symptoms that I do have. And when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's, I started asking, okay, when you have Parkinson's, what do you do? How do you do it? Why? And I couldn't find any answers. So it became my new mission to Once you're diagnosed with Parkinson's, there's gotta be something more than punching a heavy bag and riding a bike. That's what they told me to do. You can ride a bike and you can punch a heavy bag. I said, what else can you do? Well, we really don't know because there's so many different kinds of Parkinson's. It's a neurological disease that doesn't kill you. You don't die from it, but you die with it. And it's managing until they find a cure. What my goal every day is, what do I have to do to have the best quality of life, not just for myself, but for my caretaker and my current and my wife. Right now I want to be as normal as I can. What do I have to do? What having this disease on a day to day basis to be as normal as I can.

So take us back to when you were diagnosed with Parkinson's, because I remember when we were having dinner. So for the listeners, I met Tom through a friend and we met for dinner a couple times. We've met now for dinner. But the first time we met for dinner, I remember I walked in and you were there already and you stood up and shook my hand and sat back down and we talked for probably four hours.

Right.

And I. You never once mentioned that you had Parkinson's. And then when you did, when I, when I thought I heard that, I was like, like, what did you say? Because I saw no signs of Parkinson's at all. And. But towards the end of the evening, when you started to get tired after four hours of talking, you start. I started to notice it a little bit.

Yes.

But I remember you said that you. There was other people on your team that were diagnosed at the same time. You were some famous people.

Yeah.

And they didn't maybe take the same path you did.

Well, I'm amazed at your memory. The team I played on at USC, five of us on that 25 man roster, five of us had Parkinson's or got Parkinson's. And they think it was the chemicals in the fertilizer that instigated the whole thing. But I'm the only one left living. Of the five.

I won't mention their names, but it's. It breaks my heart to think that, you know, I'm still chugging away, but they basically.

They didn't have the information or the instruction or the desire to push. Like, like I felt I did. I, I wasn't gonna let Parkinson's beat me without a fight. And I think what happened, especially with one of the superstars that went down, he had some other issues also, and it was just a bit much for him to cope with. So I'm the last one left from that group, and I see no reason why I can't be. Now I'm slowing down.

I, I get frustrated sometimes because what's going on in my brain, I can't get out quick enough. I, I never really was quick with a comeback. I, I'm a great second banana. You can make fun of me and everybody has a good time doing it, and then I'll figure out a good comeback on the way home. So I'm a little. I'm a little slow with that kind of stuff, but my brain still works really well when it comes to problem solving. And I'm still doing that on an everyday basis. And that's what keeps me going on that end of the equation.

So what did you learn about Parkinson's that maybe they didn't know? And what is it that you're teaching others that have Parkinson's? Because I know that's a big part of, of what you're doing now. And maybe you can go into a little bit of that as well.

Sure. When I first Got it. I had gone probably six. Six months to a year being misdiagnosed. And I knew there was something wrong. I thought I had a brain tumor. It wasn't that. I thought I had a severe allergy to something, but it wasn't that. One of the doctors said I had a. I was toxic to B virus. It wasn't that. But I did notice that the only time I felt normal was right after a really good workout in the morning when I got at least got a runner's high. I lifted some weights. I did something that got my encatholines and my endorphins going. And that bought me about three to four hours before I'd start going in the tank again. Well, then I got diagnosed with Parkinson's. And it turns out that Parkinson's is. You're missing dopamine. Your. Your brain stops producing it, and dopamine are cousins and brothers and sisters of the other ends in your system. Encanthalines, endorphins, all the. All the athletic stuff. So right there, I had a vehicle to at least buy me some normal time. And then we experimented a little bit with the right dosage and the right. There's Levodopa, there's dopamine, there's Fibro. I don't. I don't know all the chemical names for what amounts to be artificial dopamine, but there is a. There's a dosage and there's.

Milligrams that will fit your need. So I've got that kind of figured out. And it goes all the way back to in the 60s. We didn't get beat. We got out milligram. So I understand. Understood the concept of having a little artificial help to go with your normal help and managing that process. So to this day, I'm continually, like, I came from the field today, and you know that I'm a little late because we got stuck on the freeway for two hours. With the frustration that I had in the freeway, I burned a little bit more dopamine than usual. So when I got to the house leading into this, I took a couple extra just to get through and give you something other than, you know, blah, for the time we get to spend together on this. So you see how you kind of manage it so it doesn't go away. But I. I hope people listening to this, when you feel like you aren't the victim or you feel like you're actually watching out for yourself and you're not. You're not getting better, but you're not getting any worse when you have control of your life like that, you have hope. It's a lot easier to get through a frustrating day.

And you work now with other people that have Parkinson's to help them, Is that right?

Yes. And I'm. I give you a bonus on this. I'm as excited about National Parkinson's association as I am about the National Pitching Association. We have a little lab up the street. That's where I was this morning, where we deal with Parkinson's patients of any age.

Any sex. Doesn't make any difference. Come on in. Especially if you're not getting the feedback you want from whatever you're doing. And it's turned out to be one of the best things I've ever done there. There is no one single diagnosis for Parkinson's. It affects everybody a little bit different. So we call it cross specific, personally adaptive functional training for where you are as a Parkinson's patient. And we literally. I've had people come in on crutches, in a cane or in a wheelchair that just fell getting out of their car, that walk out and go straight to the beach and jump on a surfboard for the first time in three years. So we're doing again. It's a little out there. Some of the stuff is a little weird, but it works. Why not? If you know this isn't working, why not try something over here? And that's, I think, what I'm most proud of. Now with National Parkinson's Association, I've got a group of people around me that are willing to try anything legally that they can do to make themselves at least hold their own with a disease that's only going to get worse. But there are cures on the horizon. And that's what another thing, when I wake up in the morning, I know we're one day closer to figuring out how to cure this illness.

So your goal then is to help people hang around long enough till the cure's here.

Yeah, tread water until we figure out what shore we're going to swim to. We still don't know. I'd like to be able to say that progress is going to be sooner rather than later. We just don't know. But there are breakthroughs coming across the board.

Whether it's your own stem cells they're creating. So there's stem cell activity. There's, you know, putting other chemicals in your body to facilitate what your body isn't doing because of the Parkinson's problem. There's a lot of really smart people who care a lot. And the business has Grown on my end exponentially. But more importantly, the information that's out there is recruiting more and more smart people to a cure.

So if.

People, the people that are listening to this, if they have somebody in their life that's touched by Parkinson's, is.

Should they connect with you or what? What's the process?

It would be awesome if they did. But I'm going to guess that most Parkinson's people out there are accessing. There's some really smart doctors, physical therapists, some really great researchers all over the world that have pockets of information. And if you can't access one of those people, you can always chase me down. Probably the easiest thing to do is just Google my name and that'll send you in a bunch of different directions. But Parkinson's, the National Parkinson's association, we're just now getting a website up. We will be user friendly for all the people that use the Internet for their information source. And I can't say we can take on every client that calls us, but we try to accommodate as best we can the person with Parkinson's and their caretaker. And here's something that with age, I'm starting to appreciate. There's not enough attention given to the caretaker of someone that has Parkinson's because that person has to be as patient as an individual can possibly be and be aware of everything that's going on with treatment as well as results. So we address both. Just like with sports, I dealt with biomechanics, functional strength, mental, emotional and nutrition and sleep for recovery. The exact same database is applied to Parkinson's and it works. Wow.

So are you spending more of your time now in baseball or with Parkinson's?

It's about an even mix.

Even. Okay.

Yeah. I. I try not to overload the. The cool thing about being someone that's worked with pitchers and quarterbacks those two seasons are complimentary. Parkinson's has worked itself into. It's a priority for me. So I would say my time is divided between pitchers, quarterbacks, and Parkinson's patients and their facilitators, their people that take care of them.

I remember you saying, at least I think I.

You.

You said that every morning it takes you X amount of time to get ready for your day. It's a. It's not like a hop out of bed and you're off and running. There's some, some it takes you a little bit longer that you have to go through.

If I was there with you right now, I'd give you a hug. Because the hardest thing. And I'm sure, if someone knows a Parkinson's person that's out there, the hardest thing to do is get up in the morning.

To get up and brush your teeth sometimes feel like a marathon, but we have this little rule of thumb. Don't do nothing. So when I wake up in the morning, hopefully after a pretty good night's sleep.

My body says no and my brain says go. And I'll give myself an extra three or four minutes to get motivated enough just to sit up and get my feet on the floor. Then once my feet are on the floor, I can walk to the sink and brush my teeth. And once I brush my teeth, I'm ready to go. And my coordination, my body, if I put in four hours of physical activity, it usually buys me about four hours of normal during the course of the day. So obviously, and you and I know this because we've had a couple of dinners together, I'll get up at 4:30 or 5:00 clock in the morning and get all my personal stuff done so I can have a normal 3, 4 hours with my wife and the kids I'm working with on a given day.

Yeah, I don't know that if somebody were to see you during that four hours time slot, they would even know that you had Parkinson's. It's not any, it's not really noticeable at all.

The least it wasn't to me.

You're being very kind. Well, you, you'd never seen me when I, when I thought I was normal. I used to be a pretty good athlete. I still try to golf with my wife. It's the one thing we do without fighting. She whips me, you know, all, all positions up and down. So it's good for her and the fact that she wears the golf pants. But I get out there and I, I, I do stuff, I just don't, I've lowered my expectations and I want to make sure that I, I do something every day. I, I'm not going to give in, just sitting back and doing nothing. Wow.

So Parkinson's hasn't allowed you to be lazy?

No, it's, it hasn't. And I'd like to say that lazy fits into anyone's vocabulary. There's no reason to be lazy in today's world, period. And you know, when you look in the mirror, I know how hard you've worked and you know how hard you've worked. And that's one of the things I tell all my new Parkinson's patients. When you go to bed, look at yourself in the mirror and say, okay, what three things did I do today that I can. Can I improve on tomorrow? And when you wake up in the morning, you're already a head start on to being better than yesterday. Hmm.

Wow. All right, last question. Tom, what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? Or the best piece of advice you've ever given?

But basically, it's Rod Dado's way of saying, don't be too impressed your opposition, because if they were good enough to beat you, they. They would beat you. So that was one, and then the. The other one was my mom.

Literally, she had do the right thing, tell the truth, and wouldn't make me proud when I said she was smart beyond her ears. An Iowa farm girl. Her three rules were tell the truth, do the right thing, and would it make me proud? And as I look back over my 78 years, if you're going to do those three things, you're going to lead a prayer life.

I love that. Tom, if. If people that are listening would like to learn more about you, find you, hire you for any of the things that you're involved with, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Um, I would just go to one of the websites. Um, I would give you my cell phone, but my wife would be frustrated with that. So I'm accessible and I. I have as much fun working with a 12 year old as I do a 32 year old. We don't discriminate with any of the information and instruction. Every day is a new day, and it's a joy to meet new people. So probably the best thing to do is just Google my name and use one of those avenues to get to it.

Awesome. Tom, thank you so much for being here today. Taking. I know this is kind of at the end of your day when your energy isn't like what it normally is, but thank you for being here and I. I really appreciate you taking the time to tell us your story and all the. All the people that you're working with. You're doing such amazing work. So thank you so much, Jerry.

Thanks very much. Let's not wait six months to see each other again.

I agree. I agree.

Have a blessed day.

You too.

All right, bye. Bye.

I really hope you enjoyed today's episode and that through today's guest, you heard how important it is to know your why and how impactful it can be in your life and the lives of those around you. Be sure to head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. Remember, the more you know about yourself, the more you'll know about others. I'm Dr. Gary Sanchez, and I'll see you on the next episode.