Was Goldie Locks a Great Pitching Coach

By Coach Ron Wolforth – 

 

Maybe the primary reason many of us were told the story of “Goldie Locks and the Three Bears” as children was more profound than even our parents and grandparents realized at the time.

 

If you are reading this as an adult, you realize that most of the regular challenges we face in life—financial, health, relationship, professional expertise, spiritual journey—we constantly ask ourselves, “Are we overthinking this problem, or have we underestimated this problem’s width and depth?”

 

In essence, have we been too naive and, to our detriment, underestimated the complexity of the challenge? Or are we overcomplicating the problem and making it far more extensive and complex than it needs to be?

 

I have made both mistakes multiple times in my life, and I’m fairly certain I will again make these mistakes many times before I finally meet my maker. I’m quite certain most of you reading can relate to this experience as well. It is a human thing, a universal challenge for us all. We are constantly trying to figure out our “just right,” “best fit,” “correct perspective,” and/or “optimal path forward.”

 

One of the most common challenges for my team at TBR is successfully meeting our clients’ needs and expectations and guiding them to a more productive process. So many wonderful people are currently adrift on their baseball developmental journey. They are either desperately trying to make it too simple so they can feel like they have a handle on the chaos happening around them, or they have drifted deep into complexity and convolution in search of an ideal solution.

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that, I would give you anything I have.” 

 

Let me help you with some “simplicity on the far side of complexity” in terms of throwing development… 

 

  • Arm health and durability are paramount to everything else. Nothing comes a close second. All the things we are attempting to enhance going forward—velocity, command, creating sharper secondary stuff, improved consistency from outing to outing, etc. — revolve around the individual athlete’s ability to regularly and consistently throw a baseball at high intensity. Not only that, but also throw at moderate/high volume without discomfort. If we can’t do that, no other strategy or process will matter in the long term. Our potential gains will not only be impeded by poor arm health, but whatever gains we acquire will be short-lived and unsustainable.

 

  •   At the end of the day, there are only four performance parameters for pitchers: 1) Velocity, 2) Command, 3) Stuff/Movement/Deception, and 4) Consistency of Execution. Everything else falls within these four parameters—whether you are eight years old and just beginning to pitch or a 40-year-old MLB veteran at the end of a hall-of-fame career. These parameters are critical to you, and you should be working on them on a very regular basis.

 

  • The athlete’s ability to “bounce back” after his outing (and return to full functionality as quickly as possible so that he can perform at his consistent best on his next outing) is absolutely critical. It doesn’t happen by accident; high levels of recovery must be created on purpose. 

 

These three concepts are why we spend so much time at the Texas Baseball Ranch® with an emphasis on mechanical efficiency and arm health.

 

When our arm feels great, all of our performance objectives have a far, far better chance of occurring. When we experience increased micro-trauma to soft tissue because of significant mechanical inefficiencies, our arm discomfort, tenderness, tightness, and/or pain will increase.

 

This microtrauma always inhibits arm health and recovery. If the micro-trauma is high enough, it will almost certainly create a cycle of dysfunction that will negatively affect the development of velocity, command, and secondary stuff, constrain our recovery, and, by extension, inhibit our ability to perform at our consistent best. 


So…

 

Dedicate yourself to improving your arm health and durability. 

 

When your arm feels great, you can:

 

  • “Step on the accelerator” more often and without hesitation (velocity). 


  • Throw more often and, therefore, develop a feel for making minor adjustments and be closer to your intended target a higher percentage of time (command).


  • Throw more often and, therefore, develop a better feel for how the ball comes out of your hand and how you can make it spin and move in the way you desire (secondary stuff).

 

Furthermore, I advise all parents and athletes to avoid ANY instruction that doesn’t make arm health and reducing micro-trauma via mechanical inefficiency an essential focus in their training. 


Until next time,

 

Stay curious and keep fighting the good fight.

 

Coach Wolforth     

 

—————-

 

Important TBR Updates

 

  • Fall/Winter Elite Pitchers Bootcamp Registration NOW OPEN! Please CLICK HERE to learn more and secure your spot.
    Dates include:
    Oct. 12-14 (Columbus Day weekend)
    Nov. 23-25
    Dec. 28-30
    Jan. 18-20 (MKL weekend)
    Feb. 15-17 (President’s Day weekend)

 

 

  • Have you been considering attending one of our 3-Day Elite Pitchers Bootcamp but haven’t yet pulled the trigger? To help, we have a detailed mailing package entitled “What Makes This Boot Camp Different”. If you’d like to receive this package and start making plans for the summer, email Jill@TexasBaseballRanch.com and request a copy.

 

  • Attention parents of pitchers ages 8-12. Our 2024 Youth Elite Pitchers Bootcamp is Oct. 5 & 6 and we’d love to have you join us! Please CLICK HERE to go to the website, learn more and register to secure your spot.

 

  • Attention Catchers – Registration NOW OPEN for our 6th Annual Elite Catchers Bootcamp (ages 13 & up). CLICK HERE to sign up.  

 

 

Previous post:

Next post:

Google