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RANCH REVIEW THE
FALL 2023
www.texasbaseballranch.com (936) 588-6762
FALL AT THE TEXAS BASEBALL RANCH ®
No Season Is Slow Season
This August and September were chock- full of events. August is always the end of our summer program, and our Labor Day camp signifies the beginning of our fall and winter programs. As I write this, Ecclesiastes 3:1 comes to mind: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens.”
This fall, my, Jill’s, and Garrett’s grandparents traveled to Tulsa,
Oklahoma, to watch our son’s final series of the year. As many of you may know, Garrett is a catcher in the Houston Astros organization. Garrett had an incredible finish to his season, hitting .298 over his last 30 games. As a special treat with his family watching, Garrett finished with a terrific series and hit a 3-run home run in the final game of the year, helping the Corpus Christi Hooks
win the game 7–2 and the series 4–2. It was a great way to begin our fall. Later in September, we traveled to Santa Clarita, California, for our 17th annual Throwzone clinic with our dear friend Jim Wagner. While we were in California, Jill and I traveled to visit a Napa winery where we are a partner of a cabernet wine called Autonomy. It was an awesome trip with incredible weather in Sonoma, Napa, Bodega Bay, and Mendocino. In October, we held our Columbus Day EPBC, our annual Youth Camp. Later that month, the entire staff was in Italy for two weeks for our 4th Italian EPBC in Riccione. So, unlike 15 years ago, fall is a busy season for the Texas Baseball Ranch. We look forward to seeing many of you over the winter and next summer. –Coach Ron Wolforth
People often ask me, what is your slow season at the Texas Baseball Ranch? I would have said August and September or March and April 15 years ago. Today, that answer is quite different. We don’t have a slow time at the Ranch. Our August and September have filled dramatically over the past 15 years. March and April are now the only months where we can dedicate a substantial amount of time, energy, and focus to new programs. We dedicate ourselves at TBR to always advancing, so we take advantage of every moment we can toward that objective. The Texas summer this year was the hottest on record, and it was also incredibly dry. Thank the Good Lord; we made it through amazingly enough with no heat-related mishaps or setbacks. Our new pavilion has become a game- changer in this regard.
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Where You Can DREAM as BIG as Your Work Ethic Will Allow! PHONE (936) 588-6762
Service Highlight
TBR’S ELITE PITCHERS BOOT CAMP The Gold Standard
Now is the time of year many athletes join us for an Elite Pitchers Boot Camp to make sure they’re best prepared for the upcoming 2024 season. We host one every month from October through February. If you or someone you know wants to travel to Texas to participate in this incredible event, don’t delay. Besides, the fall and winter are the best times to be in southeast Texas.
The Texas Baseball Ranch ® is the country’s top baseball pitching training facility, and our Elite Pitchers Boot Camps are easily the gold standard of pitching camps. It’s much more than just a simple camp: It’s an event! It’s an experience! It’s something that you leave knowing you made a great decision when it comes to the investment of your time and resources. Now more than ever, an individualized, hyper-personalized approach to pitching development is critical to catch up or surpass your competitive peer group. At the Texas Baseball Ranch, that is our entire focus: helping YOU with what you need and designing YOUR personal plan. Nobody does it better. Others try, but it’s just not the same. We simply have better systems, people, and culture for training
pitchers. The Texas Baseball Ranch is a serious program for serious people who want serious results. Check out what these families had to say about their recent Ranch experience: “The Baseball Ranch is so much more than a ‘pitching camp.’ It is a respite from the ‘noise’ of Twitter, travel ball, etc. Coach Wolforth, his wife Jill, and his knowledgeable staff are a well of wisdom in pitching, movement patterns, and life generally. Their positive and encouraging energy was truly a blessing to me and my family.”
–David Skeels Parent, Aledo, TX
For more information or to register, go to TexasBaseballRanch.com/events .
EMPOWER YOUR TEEN WITH FITNESS GOALS A Parent’s Role in Creating Healthy Habits
Countless adults struggle to set fitness goals, so it shouldn’t be surprising that many teens don’t know where to start either. Parents can be a critical source of motivation and support for young adults as they create healthy habits. Whether your teen is a natural-born sports star or a bit of a couch potato, you can help them be more purposeful about exercise and fitness. The process begins by discovering what drives them. If your teen is already active, ask what they enjoy and what goals they have for themselves. For those more reluctant to break a sweat, discuss whether they’re happy with their fitness level. Are they satisfied with their current level of activity? Do they think it will continue serving them well as they age? But even more important than their goals is their motivation. We only achieve something with a compelling reason to drive us. Whether your teen’s goal is strength, weight loss, endurance, or something else, ask why it matters to them. Don’t be surprised if your teen’s motivations center around their looks — after all, we live in a very appearance-conscious society. But you can both acknowledge the pressure to look a certain way
while reminding your kids that their health is more important. Many reasons to exercise focus on avoiding negative emotions like insecurity, so help your teen flip their perspective and concentrate on how they want to feel in the future. Your teen probably won’t stop caring about how they look in bathing suits, but having these conversations is crucial. Adolescence is a particularly vulnerable time for developing eating disorders, so discourage calorie-counting or obsessive exercise. If you are concerned about your child’s relationship with food or fitness, you should speak with their doctor. Ideally, the focus should be on the benefits of physical activity. Talk about the reasons you make time to exercise. And if you don’t move as much as you should, see if your teen would be interested in joining you in becoming fit together. Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children’s relationship with fitness. Help them understand the lifelong advantages of being active so that the habits they create now follow them well into adulthood.
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YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR PITCH SPEED The Truth About Velocity
A WORLD SERIES FIRST (AND ONLY) This Month in Baseball History: Every pitcher dreams of throwing a perfect game against the best batters in the world, but only a select few have turned that dream into reality. Of the 24 pitchers who have thrown a perfect game, only one has done it in the World Series. In Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, the New York Yankees faced off against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Yankee Stadium. Don Larsen pitched for the Yankees after a lackluster showing in Game 3. With the series tied, Larsen took the mound and threw a 97-pitch perfect game to help the Yankees earn a 2-0 win. Only one player earned a three-ball count against Larsen throughout the game. The Dodgers went on to win Game 6, but the Yankees closed out the series 9-0 on the road in Game 7. Although Larsen didn’t throw another perfect game in his career, he won another World Series with the Yankees in 1958. do velocity enhancement better than anyone who has ever done it before, and we are far from finished evolving our processes. Not by a long shot! After 20 years, I can tell you that velocity creation is a multifaceted equation comprising dozens of variables. A few of those variables we cannot change. For example, some of us were born with a higher concentration of fast-twitch muscle fibers and the neuromuscular wiring to move faster than our neighbor or brother. However, most of those variables are within our ability to affect, enhance, augment, change, alter, and modify. In my view, the most frequent mistake made by parents, athletes, and their coaches is addressing only a few of those variables at any one time. At The Ranch, we address velocity enhancement from a 360-degree perspective. Our goal is to positively affect as many of those variables as possible over time. We refer to it as “massive simultaneous action.” If we use massive simultaneous action as our guiding dominant process, the chances are far greater that we will hit the area(s) with the greatest sweet spot for growth in that individual. Of course, assessment is a big part of our process, enabling us to tailor our training to fit each of our clients’ needs and greatest growth potential.
Many professional scouts will look you in the eye and tell you with conviction that velocity can NOT be taught. You either have it or you don’t. What they mean to say is THEY can’t teach velocity. At the Texas Baseball Ranch, we develop it every single day. In all honesty, I believe it is one of the more straightforward things we do when developing a complete pitcher. As I write this article, we’ve had over 577 students break the 90- mph barrier, 205 the 94-mph mark, and 32 the 100-mph benchmark.
I often joke with my clients, “But who’s counting?” when we count everything we can at The Ranch. We believe Edward Deming, the father of quality control, was correct when he said, “If you want to improve something, measure it!” Without question, velocity can be developed and enhanced. I see it every single day. I believe I can make the case that we at The Ranch
UPCOMING RANCH EVENTS
ELITE PITCHERS BOOT CAMPS:
PITCHING COACHES 1-DAY SEMINAR
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DEC. 15
• • •
NOV. 18-20 DEC. 27-29
ALUMNI/ ADVANCED CAMP:
JAN. 13-15 (MLK WEEKEND) FEB. 17-19 (PRESIDENT’S DAY WEEKEND)
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•
JAN. 6 & 7
WWW.TEXASBASEBALLRANCH.COM/EVENTS
A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR OATES SPECIALTIES ! EQUIPMENT PROVIDER,
www.OatesSpecialties. com/Durathro
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Where You Can DREAM as BIG as Your Work Ethic Will Allow!
PHONE (936) 588-6762
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www.texasbaseballranch.com 5451 Honea-Egypt Road Montgomery, TX 77316
(936) 588-6762
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
PAGE 1 TBR Stays Busy All Year-Round PAGE 2 Service Highlight Active Adolescents: Empowering Teen Fitness Goals PAGE 3 Improving Your Velocity This Month in Baseball History PAGE 4 Why Fitness Experts Are Steering Away From Crunches
Discover the Truth About Effective Ab Workouts CORE STRENGTH BEYOND CRUNCHES
WHAT IS YOUR CORE? You may hear the term “core” thrown around often, but where exactly is it, and what does it do? Your core is more than just abdominal muscles and includes muscles around your spine and pelvis. Your core muscles allow you to do most of the movements you make throughout the day, such as bending forward, rotating left and right, and holding yourself upright. When your core is weak, the muscles may not support you properly as you move about your day, which may lead to back or neck pain. As a result, if you suffer from backaches, try core-strengthening exercises to better support your spine. TRY AN ALTERNATIVE TO CRUNCHES. Since crunches aren’t the best for core strengthening, it’s time you start trying something different. There are plenty of core-strengthening exercises for every
To say crunches are not fun would be an understatement. Repetitive and sometimes downright painful, this exercise has been touted for decades as the primary way to strengthen your core and get those picture-perfect abs. Well, new research suggests that statement isn’t 100% true. In fact, most trainers and fitness experts now discourage people from doing crunches. When done incorrectly, which most people do, you can cause damage to your spine and neck while gaining few to no results. Even if a person does achieve those prominent ab muscles through situps and crunches, they likely still have weak core strength. Those exercises only work your external muscles, not your inner core muscles. So, while they may be able to flex their abs, they likely couldn’t hold a plank for very long.
fitness level, whether you’re a beginner, injured, or a pro. In particular, Pilates is an incredible type of exercise that focuses entirely on core strength and will have you feeling stronger in no time. If you want to get started, try some easy movements at home. Planks, bridges, toe taps, and swimmers are all great ways to build your core strength. However, you should always consult your physical therapist about the best core exercises for your unique needs.
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