2009 Summer Program for Baseball Athletes

The Texas Baseball Ranch

“ATP IIB Summer Program 2009”™

Recently literally thousands of otherwise intelligent, very successful people lost their life savings with Bernie Madoff.

Several years ago thousands of otherwise intelligent, very successful people lost their life savings while others lost their livelyhood… with Enron.

How you may ask, could this happen to good, honest, intelligent, hard working people?

Answer: They were duped…fooled into buying into something that sounded good but in fact was an illusion…a mirage.  These victims were far from stupid. They were successful people. They wanted to believe.  At first glance, I’m certain the plan seemed sound. Unfortunately it was a costly mistake.  Financial lives were ruined.

Now we are not saying most summer programs are run by the equivalent of Bernie Madoff or Ken Lay. 

What we are saying is just because the plan ‘sounds’ good…doesn’t make it so…and that’s certainly the case even in training your baseball athlete.

We have been running a summer program for the last 10 years.  We’ve tried to improve it 5-10% every year.  Two years ago we began the process of objectively measuring, recording and tracking some of the progress of our students.  What I found was that what we thought was occurring…what we hoped was occurring…was not occurring nearly to the degree nor at the speed in which we had originally thought.  In short…we found the workouts were substantially lacking in specific results.  Sure our kids were working hard and sweating a lot...but the workouts weren’t as good nor were they nearly as productive in terms of game time performance as we thought they were… in fact far from it.  Our kids were doing their part…but they were not working smart and that was our fault.  Coach Wolforth felt the failure personally…he felt he was letting those kids down.

It was a very painful pill to swallow.

We knew we had a choice to make.  We could simply go forward, convincing ourselves that being a solid program, a national leader in instruction and better than the rest was enough…or….make a sea change…and totally redo and reengineer the entire summer program.

There is a World of Difference Between Activity…and Productivity…And Many Fail to Understand or Grasp the Difference.

The Harsh Reality- 3 Strikes and You are OUT!

Agilities/ Speed & Explosiveness

            Who could possibly argue with agility, speed and explosiveness? But here is where most…including Can-Am and the Ranch for the past 10 years… really swung and missed. If you train the wrong energy system…and 99% of the common workouts absolutely train outside of the ATP/PC energy system that a baseball player will use in competition: 1) you simply will not optimally recruit the right muscle fiber type for peak performance-Strike 1; 2) you will reduce range of motion (mobility) Strike 2…and 3) You will train a less efficient neuromuscular firing- meaning you MOVE slower Strike 3.

             You can CALL it anything you want…we certainly have been guilty of this before…but a great sounding name doesn’t mean you are doing anything productive.  Nice sounding names and descriptions aren’t a substitute for sports specific training…and each sport is indeed unique.  It’s about time we built a system to match those specific needs exactly.  Up until 6 months ago we had missed the most important piece of training which was matching up energy systems.

            Bottom line: While our athletes did sweat a great deal and were exhausted at the end of the day…in reality…if their primary goal was to throw it harder or hit for more power or run the bases faster…they have instead gone backward.  In fact what we did would actually be classified as anti-training…our workouts might cause you to LOSE mph…not gain it.  You may lose weight and look better in a bathing suit but we doubt that’s why anyone was training.

            In truth some of our athletes were gaining in spite of some of what we had them doing…and not because of it. 

Some of our specific past mistakes and failures:

300 yard shuttle run-

Endurance jumps-

30-45 second rope exercises-

Rope Fire/Carry drills-

Flipping tires for 50 yards up hill-

But your athlete is a baseball player NOT a Navy Seal!  In terms of training, the difference almost couldn’t be more profound.  It would be the same as taking a world class 100 meter sprinter and making him train with marathon runners.  NOT a good idea if he wants to be the very best 100 meter guy in the world.

This is where we messed up before and many continue to absolutely get it wrong. Working hard in the WRONG way isn’t honorable or courageous or mentally tough…it’s just plain dumb.

            Your baseball athlete’s activity is completely over in 95% of all cases in less than 2 seconds and never lasts longer than 12 seconds.

            See any problem with this scenario?  If your athlete is in search of peak baseball performance, you as a parent MUST get it!  The 30+ second workout is an absolute mismatch for his sport!

But it’s worse than that!  Far worse than that!

If these previously mentioned exercises are done every week for 6-8 weeks, it would not only be a waste of time, sweat and money…but your athlete most will almost assuredly go backward in terms of being explosive for 2-5 seconds- which IS baseball.  Is that how you want him to spend his summer break? Out of breath, sweating profusely, completely exhausted and losing power, mobility and neuromuscular efficiency?  We don’t think so.

So what is the alternative?

The New Texas Baseball Ranch “ATP IIB Summer Program 2009”™

 What exactly is involved?

Much of the new program is proprietary because it is so brand new to baseball so I’m not going to get into detail but here are the important 5-6 highlights.

#1. Motivation:

-Each and every morning to start the day, Coach Wolforth will give a different 15 minute motivational presentation and show a clip on the big screen.

How important is this?  What difference will this make?

You tell me.  All summer…Each and Every day starting with the right frame of mind?  Coach Wolforth believes the right frame of mind is 90% of the battle.  He believes knowing exactly who you are and specifically where you are going is critically important to achievement. Few seem to understand this link. Fewer still set aside time for this crucial difference maker.

In fact this Spring and Summer Coach has been asked to speak to the University of Illinois football team and to a fortune 500 company in Michigan on motivation.  So how valuable would it be for your athlete to be in front of such a motivational presenter all summer?

            “Coach Wolforth in my view is simply the very best in the world at what he does. We brought him and his wife to Tennessee and to the Refuge at Cool Springs and they were simply amazing. So much so that we’ve made his appearance an annual event. My 10 year old son & I have been to the Ranch and will return at least once each year. Coach’s abilities as a master teacher begins by his understanding of motivation. It’s better than anyone else I’ve ever been around and I would know a few things about motivation. I am a former DI football coach at Tennessee and have worked with the likes of Johnny Majors, Phillip Fulmer, John Gruden, Ron Zook and Mack Brown. For training the baseball athlete, Coach is the best in the business.”

Jack Sells Nashville Tennessee

#2. Nutrition:

Each and every week Jill will give a short presentation on various nutritional issues: Fuel, hydration, recovery, and sleep and give each athlete homework regarding changing their lifestyle so they can get the absolute most out of their workout.

#3. Training Manual:

Every athlete will keep a personal hard bound training manual. Approximately 80% of every exercise will be measured, recorded and tracked.

A weekly quiz and final exam is in the manual. 

#4. Assessment and Personalization:

One size not only doesn’t fit ALL….One size barely fits ONE! While we all intuitively know that…we often accept such a program anyway.  At the Ranch we no longer do and neither should YOU!

*This was such a huge mistake for us in the past.  We didn’t pay attention to the unique needs and physical constraints of each individual athlete when they came in.  Everybody did the exact same workout.  We didn’t look for asymmetries or strength imbalances…we just went right to work.  Never mind that we possibly could be making a bad situation worse. Unfortunately, this is what all the rest still do and frankly it doesn’t make any sense.

Each athlete will get a personal assessment the first two days in camp and their workouts will be personalized accordingly and adjusted weekly.

#5. A Brand New, Smarter, More Skill Specific Training System:

Unlike our past programs as well as every other summer program out there, NEVER will your athlete be out of breath in our new “ATP IIB Training System”.  If your athlete is EVER out of breath during a workout they have moved from the ATP-PC energy system to the Anaerobic Gycolysis (Lactic) system or the Aerobic Gycolysis system… Systems they will never use in competition. I can’t tell you how critical this change is. This huge mistake is made over and over again and getting this correct is vitally important if one wishes to really make gains in power and explosiveness. (See the enclosed article by Coach Wolforth that was featured in Collegiate Baseball.)

And for the record we now know for a fact that we have gotten this particular piece of the puzzle EXACTLY right…and…at least for today…until it will eventually be copied by others (great stuff always is)… it absolutely separates us from everybody else.    

            “There is absolutely no comparison in the old Can-Am training program and the brand new Texas Baseball ATPIIB Ranch training. It is almost the difference between night & day. It is so much smarter and just makes so much more sense. I’m 24 years of age and 2 months ago after just 12 weeks of the new training protocols I was able to dunk a basketball for the first time in my life. That’s how much more explosive I’ve become in a relatively short time. I used to leave Can-Am and the Ranch sweaty and exhausted. Now I’m never out of breath. I train incredibly explosively with full range of motion and I’m fully recovered before I begin again. I only wish Ron would have figured this out 6 years ago when I was a junior at Huntsville HS.  Who knows how much harder I would be throwing than my current 91/92mph.”

            Brian Oates, Seattle Mariners

ÄOur program will revolve around full body explosive bursts of 2-10 seconds.

ÄOur program will focus upon creating structural symmetry, strength balance, mobility and stability.

ÄOur program will focus primarily upon recruiting and developing Type IIb and Type IIx muscle fiber types (the types of fibers involved in explosive bursts). 

Texas Baseball Ranch Pool Exercises 2009
                                                                                                                                         

Designed Specifically for the Texas Baseball Ranch by Phillip B. Donley, PT, ATC, MS.

Chester County Sports Medicine

Sample of 2 of the 24 exercises

One of the advantages of water exercise is that you don’t need weights to increase the load.  All you have to do is move faster.  Gradually increase the speed of each movement to increase the resistance and gain more strength.  

1.       Shoulder abduction/adduction.  Keep your elbows straight and move your arms up and down to the side, but no higher than shoulder level.  Pull down with your palms pointed down and raise to shoulder level with the palms pointed up. Move both arms at the same time.

2.       Shoulder flexion/extension.  Keeping your elbows straight and palms pointed up, raise your arms in front of you to shoulder level.  Turn your palms down and pull your hands down and behind you to a comfortable position behind your back.  Move both arms at the same time.

The Brand New Texas Baseball Ranch Indoor Training Facility

                                                We will never be rained out this summer!

You might also be interested in:

The Texas Baseball Ranch & Pitching Central

Present:

The Elite Pitchers Boot Camps with Brent Strom, Flint Wallace and Ron Wolforth

The 2009 Summer Boot Camp Dates Are:

June 5-7; (Fri-Sun)
June 19-21; (Fri-Sun)
July 3-5; (Fri-Sun)
July 24-26; (Fri-Sun)
August 21-23; (Fri-Sun)
September 5-7; (Sat-Mon)

WARNING: The Texas Baseball Ranch/Pitching Central Summer Program for Pitchers is NOT for the pitcher who typically resists hard work OR won't push past their comfort zone OR doesn't have as a dream to pitch at the Collegiate or Professional Level.  For those pitchers this program would be far too intense and too advancecd.  This program is developed specifically for the driven Elite Athlete ONLY.

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