Pitching Coach Ron Wolforth Discusses Mental Toughness Training For Pitchers

Ron Wolforth, director of Pitching Central, a Houston Texas based pitching development facility has developed a total pitching development program called “The Athletic Pitcher.” Wolforth shared how he teaches the metal aspects of pitching performance, and works with pitchers at his pitching boot camp to produce more mentally tough and competitive pitchers.

Wolforth was slightly below average college pitcher who stood about 5’9”, and threw in the range of 86-89 MPH. The driving force behind what he does today in his work with pitchers was motivated by his own personal experience that left him wondering how someone who threw pretty hard, had great attitude and work ethic, did not have more success than he did in college?

“You always here coaches and players in TV interviews after games say ‘We won because we wanted it.’, while no one wanted it more than I did in college. So I started to ask myself, why was I an underachiever? Through my experience I realized that work ethic and intelligence are important factors in pitching success, but not the sole ingredient in determining who will be a successful pitcher. So I started to search out why my performance was not as good as it could have been, and why so many pitcher fall short of their potential”

When pitchers fall short of success, it is often said that they just didn’t have enough talent. Wolforth believes that using a lack of talent is often a coaches excuse for a lack of coaching ability.

“People will often throw out the T-word in reference to someone who falls short of what they are capable, ‘They just didn’t have the talent’, and I can agree with that to a degree, but to me that is too easy of an answer, I am not satisfied with the completeness of that answer, there is just not enough substance behind it.”

Many times when you have a pitcher or a player that wants to be very successful, works extremely hard and is intelligent, the biggest obstacle for these athletes is often getting out of their own way.

“I truly believe that there are two things that can make a tremendous difference for a pitcher, and that is developing awareness and perspective. If you have awareness and perspective you can then start to develop what a lot of coaches would call “metal toughness” or “mental tenacity”. What I mean by awareness is, ‘what exactly is happening at that moment’. What I did for the most part in college, and a lot of players will do this, is try to please the coaches in what they expected me to do, rather than having an awareness of what was happening on the mound. Awareness is knowing if I am throwing it high or low, am I getting behind early in the count, can I not put hitters away? What is the reason I am not successful? Being constantly aware of what is happening at the present moment is critical because it allows you to make necessary adjustments.”
One of the issues that Wolforth had to overcome, as many pitchers do, is that often his coaches expected that he knew what was happening, that he knew why he could not locate his pitches, and he knew what he needed to work on to get better. Many times, athletes do not know what it is they need to work on to improve and are subsequently written off as mental midgets or someone that ‘just doesn’t have it’. As coaches we need to constantly be communicating with our pitchers about what they need to do to be successful and what they need to do to improve.

FIRST ROUND MENTAL COACHING

90 MPH Club

Ron Wolforth