I had the distinct pleasure of sharing profound insights with Rafael Rox Arroyo, the director of player development for the Tigres Quintana Roo. This unique episode takes you on a journey through Rafael's rise in the world of baseball, his approach to player development, and his deep-rooted belief in the power of holistic wellness in sports. Listen in as we unpack Rafael's famous saying "bendito beisbol", and how it illuminates the heart and soul of our baseball community.
Rafael and I get down to the nitty-gritty of personal growth, the art of visualization, and the importance of adaptability in the world of sports. We share personal anecdotes about the role of spirituality in our careers, my home run moment, and Rafael's unique "rox system" in developing players. This episode encompasses a deep dive into the core challenges of Mexican baseball and how trust, accountability, and cultural understanding play a pivotal role in building a successful team and personal career.
Towards the end, we touch on bigger themes: identity, purpose, success, and the significance of interpersonal connections in our lives. Hear Rafael articulate his journey of self-discovery, his viewpoint on success, and his take on the essence of peace. We examine the importance of trust and personal accountability in sports and life, and how to build loyalty in a team. Finally, we settle on the value of being a well-rounded athlete, and how to raise your energy to get noticed. This enlightening discussion is a fusion of baseball, holistic wellness, and personal growth. Join us and be inspired by Rafael's unyielding passion for the game and life.
I had the distinct pleasure of sharing profound insights with Rafael Rox Arroyo, the director of player development for the Tigres Quintana Roo. This unique episode takes you on a journey through Rafael's rise in the world of baseball, his approach to player development, and his deep-rooted belief in the power of holistic wellness in sports. Listen in as we unpack Rafael's famous saying "bendito beisbol", and how it illuminates the heart and soul of our baseball community.
Rafael and I get down to the nitty-gritty of personal growth, the art of visualization, and the importance of adaptability in the world of sports. We share personal anecdotes about the role of spirituality in our careers, my home run moment, and Rafael's unique "rox system" in developing players. This episode encompasses a deep dive into the core challenges of Mexican baseball and how trust, accountability, and cultural understanding play a pivotal role in building a successful team and personal career.
Towards the end, we touch on bigger themes: identity, purpose, success, and the significance of interpersonal connections in our lives. Hear Rafael articulate his journey of self-discovery, his viewpoint on success, and his take on the essence of peace. We examine the importance of trust and personal accountability in sports and life, and how to build loyalty in a team. Finally, we settle on the value of being a well-rounded athlete, and how to raise your energy to get noticed. This enlightening discussion is a fusion of baseball, holistic wellness, and personal growth. Join us and be inspired by Rafael's unyielding passion for the game and life.
I'm your host, seamonster Today. Guys, we are here with a special guest that I just happened to run into listening to him on another podcast, streak Talkers, that Juan and Pancho and all those guys run over there, which is an amazing podcast. If you guys want to listen to Streak Talkers, they're on all the platforms, like myself, google, apple, spotify or whatnot. What I happen to listen to a story and the funny thing is that as he was speaking and talking, god, we run in the same circle. But because we're different ages a little bit, you know, we kind of like just ran into each other here and there, know who we are, know people around us. I mean, he knows my sister, I know his cousins, we know each other. We've played ball. It's a big community, baseball, softball community. Sooner or later you either are the kid that played with each other against each other or parents of somebody that knows somebody now that have kids.
Speaker 1:But I want to welcome to the Can Be Broken podcast who we're going to talk about a variety of things from baseball to holistic stuff and whatnot, but he is the director of player development for the Tigres Quintana Roo. I don't know why I have it. Yeah, I have a problem saying that I'm from Chivocho Casoy, but I want to welcome to the show here and he'll tell us a little bit about himself and introduce himself. It's Rafael Rox Arroyo. I want to know how you got Rox. But we'll welcome to the show, brother.
Speaker 2:Thank you, man, I appreciate you having me brother. I really do, wow, anytime I get an opportunity to speak baseball, speak health, speak life. And, like you said, man, we're part of this small circle, man, the baseball circle, which is real small, and we're very connected through it. And I have a famous saying where I always say bendito baisbol, man. It's so ambiguous, but it means a lot to me, and that's another you know, bendito baisbol, man that brought us together today, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:It did. You know you have a hearing you speak before on the street, talkers and whatnot, Very intriguing into the holistic part of it, but baseball and where you're at, and I know you have a great story to tell and a lot of experience and whatnot. But tell us what you do now and how you got there a little bit and why they call you Rox All right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, as you mentioned, I'm the player director of player development for the Tigres de Quintana Ro, which is one of the two Mexican leagues down there. This is the summer league and then there's the winter league where you get teams like the Tomateros de Culiacán, naranjeros de Hermosillo, which I also have some experience in that league. So from the top I guess you know director of player development I get these young prospects some of them are from Sinaloa, some from Sonora, which are the two more popular baseball states down in Mexico and I developed them physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and I pretty much groomed them into to reach a certain level where we get way to showcase them to MLB scouts and now MPB scouts, which is a Japanese league. So we showcase them to them and try to get those kids signed and make dreams come true.
Speaker 2:Before that, I was a former baseball player. I signed with the New York Mets in 2004. I was a 26 round draft pick out of Cal State, la. I played six years there, pro ball with the Mets, and I got released in 2010, spring training, and after that I went home for a couple of weeks and they called me back and they said that there was a job opening for the second bullpen catcher in the big leagues. It's not a job you can apply for. It's a job where they go looking for you. So anytime you get offered a big league job, you better take it if it's something that you still want to be involved in. So I did that and I went from rock bottom where a dream got crushed. I got released, I got sent home. I had to face my parents and kind of explain to them what happened and two weeks later, man, I'm in the big leagues opening day I believe it was a Monday against the Marlins 2010. And did that, man? I lived the dream for a whole year. I enjoyed every second of it and I ended up being good friends or befriending a buddy of mine, oliver Perez, a life-tended pitcher. So a little backstory on him. He signed a big deal two years prior to that 2010. And he ended up not doing very well. He didn't fulfill the contract.
Speaker 2:At the end of 2010, he invited me down to Culiacan because he was going to perform or going to go play for the Tomateros, and he knew that I love strength and conditioning. That's what I studied in college at Cal State, la. I got my degree in kinesiology and he would. He'd just see me in the gym every day and in Spanish he's like Paisa, you know, you know all this stuff about. He called me Paisa. You know everything about strength and conditioning.
Speaker 2:I need to make a change in my career, man. I signed this three-year deal. I got one year left and he was at that point too, where he had about seven, eight years of service time MLB service time so it was a very important couple of years for him to fulfill the contract but also to get that 10-year service time. So we went down to Culiacan and we revamped everything man, mind, body, spirit, physically built them up. There was a lot of emotional things that he had to go through in New York City. You can only imagine you can perform in New York man. That media is. You know, it's 10 times worse than TMZ.
Speaker 1:Yeah, LA or New York. Exactly, brother.
Speaker 2:So that's where I kind of fell into that profession. If you want to say that I was like my first or my second client, I call myself my very first client because I had to do that for my own career. Yeah, I was like a big guy man, so I had to find a way to get bigger, stronger, faster and compete with these other guys that were physically more, I guess, blessed, and yeah. So then after the Oliver Perez story, I ran with strength and conditioning, got into. I met up with Marlon Bird a couple of years after that, and then that led me into the whole holistic approach to things, and that's what I do now, man, I like to consider myself a catalyst, because there are so many job descriptions that we have. And that's what I do, man. I just want to spark something in somebody and make them better, yeah, and you know, again back to that, the physical, the mental, the emotional and, you know, get them right in that sense so that they're able to perform.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think at the elite level and the high level and the highest you can be, you have to embark on making sure that everything is working in conjunction. When you're talking about the mind, the body, the soul, all these different things, I mean you can talent-wise, physically be talented, right, you can be strong fast, but if you're a hot mess up in the mind it can jack up a career. Or you could be the smartest baseball player, but maybe you're not the most physical guy. But it's all got to come together and I think that's what you're doing. That's what you did to invest in yourself and you're obviously doing that player development with the kids and people that you're grooming into to go to a higher level. How did you feel when you got released and inside internally? How did that rock your world of confusion and whatnot, and what were you going to do? Did you feel that was the end of the world? What was it?
Speaker 2:The end of the world, times 10, man, I thought it was the end of the universe.
Speaker 2:It was definitely the biggest blow that I had received in my life. I've gone through a lot as a child. Everybody goes through challenges. We've overcome them, but this was probably the biggest one because I got released when I was 27. So it was 27 years of hard work. On top of that, it was two, three generations back of hard work. When I looked back and I understand who I am and who I was chasing this dream and constructing this dream. All of that was shattered in that moment. So I felt I mean, if you want to talk about depression, man, I think that to me was just that. Everything was just gray. I come home, so I got released at the end of March, at the end of spring training 2010. How high did you go up? I got as high as AAA and as a catcher. So, yeah, I went through the whole system. Rookie ball I got drafted in 04, went to Rookie ball, then you go to low A, then you go to high A, then you go to double A and triple A.
Speaker 2:I had a couple stints in tripleA where it was just kind of a big league guy goes down, they send the triple A catcher up to the big leagues and then I'd go up there and fill in for a month or two and then come back down. So yeah, I covered every level and prior to that spring training you could kind of see the riding on the wall.
Speaker 2:You don't want to believe it, but it's just a numbers game. It's a business man. And then the game revolves and they sign X amount of guys per year. They got to release a certain amount of guys. So when that happened, I got that phone call. Terry Collins pulled me into the office that day and he said hey man, there's no other way to put it we don't have a job for you, but we think very highly of you. The coach is here, fought for you tooth and nail. But it's just one of those things. It's a numbers game. And I said Thank you, terry, I appreciate your honesty. I go, I gave it all, I had man and I could be proud of that. But the depression kind of set in once you go back home. It's late March and spring training and you turn the TV on. The guys are still there and facing my parents and just telling them that I felt like a failure. But it was a weird thing because when I felt most like a failure was when they felt most proud of me.
Speaker 1:Of course, man, yeah, yeah, but that's what? That's that self reflection. You have what you feel about yourself at that point, but the people around you are like God damn, that's awesome what you've done and completed, and so on. So yeah, that's crazy, but okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2:So then I faced the music man and for the next couple of weeks I didn't know what to do. I remember going hiking and I'll never forget this day. I went over down the Malibu point doom. You're up on that cliff overlooking the ocean. And that was my first, I would say, kind of spiritual moment where I'm sitting there just having a conversation with God. Man, it's just me and God and like, what do I do? I don't know what to do. I was confused.
Speaker 2:I had my degree, I could have, you know, when taught high school PE, but it wasn't. You know, that wasn't fulfilling for me. I was like I don't want to do that route, so just kind of meditated on, and then I don't know, man, it was weird. I still see this image of you know, the sun going down and you know the light glistening off the ocean, hearing the sounds and everything. And at the end of the day I said, well, what do I love to do, man? I love the train. What else do I love? I love the travel, I love baseball, and you know, you know, I want to be a big leager.
Speaker 2:At that point I hadn't really known what it was, and so then I made a decision. I said, all right, you know, fuck it, let's go. So I'm going to find a way to train, find a way to travel, find a way to be involved in baseball and help others. And a couple of days later, man, I get a phone call from my minor league coordinators and or minor league coordinator and the funny thing is that I saw the call and I didn't even answer it because I was like what the hell is this?
Speaker 1:guy want yeah, then he calls again and I'm like man, whatever.
Speaker 2:So I'll pick up the phone and yeah, he said hey, sandy Elamar Jr went over to the Cleveland Indians with Manny Achtes.
Speaker 1:I love Sandy Elamar Jr. He was awesome player.
Speaker 2:He was with us in triple A one year and some plays that he made.
Speaker 1:They're freaking amazing. One of the best man, Very underrated catcher.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, baseball family everybody, so all the other Mars right?
Speaker 1:there yeah.
Speaker 2:So he was. He was a key part in. You know, whether he knows it or not, we catch your stick together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's calling.
Speaker 2:Hey, come on over here, fool, yeah. So he went over to Cleveland and they said we need a second bullpen catcher. Yeah, you want the job, we'll call you back tomorrow. This was on a Friday. They said we'll call you back tomorrow. And you know, see what you decide.
Speaker 2:As soon as I hung up the phone, man, I jumped up and down, like you know. Probably when I got drafted by the Mets it was that same feeling. So I went from rock bottom to, like you know, trying to figure things out till I get this phone call. And I remember running and telling my parents I got this job or I got this offer. I don't know what are you going to do. I said, man, I'm going to take it. And I called one of my coaches and he told me the same thing, because that's a big league job, you don't turn those down. So they called me Saturday and I said, yes, I would love the job. Thank you for the opportunity. Sunday I got on a flight from LAX to LaGuardia and then Monday morning was opening day against the Marlins. Yeah, so I remember I didn't get one wink of sleep, bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I really, when I was going through my transformation and my healing and my I was getting clear, you remind me. Except I didn't go to the beach, I didn't go on this thing and see the sun glistening off at the ocean. I was at a cemetery where my nephew had passed away and I and my dad is in an urn and I took him with me and I just had them talk to me. You know I was talking to them and advice, it was like a conversation and that really spoke to me. You know, in a different, spiritual way as well.
Speaker 1:But I always feel like when you get clear and you talk to yourself and you're in silence, things open up. You're asking the world, your energy is asking what's next, what's going on. You get clear and I tell people all the time I said look, you want to find out your purpose, you want to know who you are. Go, get silent, exactly, put your freaking phone away, get away. And it's not like for an hour, it's not like you know, I'm just going to go meditate. No man like really feel what's going on. It's not something you're not going to hear somebody telling you exactly what to do, like that's not the way it works. You don't hear it, just you're putting it out there and eventually this call that you don't want to answer and you did led to this and it's unlike you're going to go to Malibu and you're going to hear a voice, like in a field of dreams. If you build it, you will come.
Speaker 2:It's not going to happen like that, you know.
Speaker 1:But you will find yourself internally, you will find your purpose, you will find who you are and what you're meant to be and where you want to go from there. Like slowly, you know to process obviously.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, like you said, it was a process, right. I remember driving up and down PCH for a long time before I actually went out to point to him and I would just look at the ocean and I'm like, man, what am I going to do? And then you started thinking about all those memories you had and, like you said, you had to get silent. There was a lot of noise in my head. That was like, looking at the past, could I've done something different? But there was nothing I could have done.
Speaker 2:And then once I just kind of let all that go. It was almost like I just gave it to the ocean and I said, here, man, you take it away. Then everything became crystal clear and that was just like a cathartic, like emotional release to everything. And then I was able to connect to something, just like your experience, right. Then I started to hear some things and like, okay, it was coming to me. It was kind of like in a voice, but also I could feel certain things when I came up with a thought like you know, god, god, is this what I want to do? And it felt right. So then I was like, okay, okay, now I got it. But it did take a couple of weeks to kind of, you know, decompress and recompartmentalize everything, and then it was like, okay, I got it now.
Speaker 1:When I was in college we used to have a coach by the name of coach Cal Gill. I forgot his first name, but he was the first one that brought to us, to our team, the mental aspect of baseball, like visualizing. Never knew what it was before. You know, I was a young kid and never had been brought about. You're talking in the 80s and 90s, right Graduate from high school in 93. And he brought this before the game. He would have us.
Speaker 1:Well, at least myself, I would go out to the left field, we'd warm up, we did everything, batting practice, and I would literally lay on the grass and I would visualize myself at second base taking routine thrombos, backhands, diving, making great plays. But before we got to that, he had me feel what the sun felt on my face, what kind of day it was that day, whether it was cloudy or sun, wind, getting tuned with myself. And then he had me go through the game and the progression, and then defense, and then hitting at bats, from taking pitches to curveballs, to seeing everything, to then the ultimate is you know, base is loaded. Last inning you had a grand slam and who was against? And actually visualizing it like it was on TV, and I would go through this and it became quicker and easier and just kind of flowed with it. And I remember one time we were playing Bakersfield.
Speaker 1:I was at JC, I was playing at Pierce College and we're playing Bakersfield and he had a kid by the name of once again I forget his first name, but last name was Romo and he got drafted.
Speaker 1:He threw hard, tall, lanky kid got drafted and sure thing I had visualized he was one of the top pitchers in the Western State Conference league and I remember visualizing him all the time hitting the home run off him hitting the home run and sure thing when I was up there in this time of you know people on base and it mattered at home pitch came right where I thought it would come a fast ball and I just dropped head on it and bombed. You know, and it just all comes to being to me that we're all one big host of energy and the more you visualize where you want your path to be, then doors open up. You know, opportunity opens up, like yourself and myself sitting right here. Like I reached out to you, I had heard you based on somebody else, we had known each other a long time ago and here we are again now, you know, going through different experiences and being on this podcast, and I think it's because we put ourselves out there and we visualize those things Right.
Speaker 2:I think our frequencies match, you know, and that's something too. It's like this was the right moment for us to meet. Had we met any other time, it wouldn't have mattered, it wouldn't have had that same spark. One thing I forgot to mention was where I got the name rocks from. And we were talking earlier, my boy Vinny Rock, vince Vargas, oh yeah, vince.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:If you I you probably don't remember, but my cousins grew. When I grew up they called me rats with a T, so like ROTTS. And I remember I was a freshman at Monroe and my sister was a senior and me and Vince became good buddies and my sister was a senior, so she had the privilege to leave school for lunch, you know, and come back for fifth period and she said ROTTS, do you want something to eat? And I was like no, thanks, angie, I'm good. And then Vince was there and he's like what's she called you? I was like ROTTS, he's like ROTTS. I thought she said rocks. I was like no man, rotts, he goes. Man, rotts is whack, he goes for that he goes.
Speaker 2:your name is rocks it just sounds better it sounds tough. He goes you're like you're a tough little dude man. So rocks, rocks Like a rock. Yeah, and freshman year, bro, everybody started calling me rocks and you know Vince Vargas was a popular dude on campus so he, you know, everybody loved Vince.
Speaker 1:He had good energy and yeah so everybody was just rocks, rocks.
Speaker 2:And college, you know, ran with it and everybody started calling me rocks. Growing up, you know, I played on the travel ball team called the Sun Valley Park Bums and they would call me Ralphie you know, little Ralphie. But then rocks, you know, in college. And then when I got drafted everybody called me rocks. So when I came to this path of mine that I'm on now, I said, you know, I had a brand myself.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I got to be, you know, my own company and I have to do this. And I looked at the name rocks and I hit one of my buddies. I said, hey, can you do me a logo with rocks? So when I started looking at it, there's this Japanese symbol called the Enzo, which I it just popped out at me. Man, that was one of those things too right, it's just something about it. So I put that Enzo right in the middle and I put the R on one side and that served as a no, the Enzo. And then I put the X. Then I looked at the RX as prescription that's the abbreviation for prescription and then the Enzo.
Speaker 2:I started looking into it. I look, it's a Japanese calligraphy symbol meaning when the body or when the mind is free to allow the body to create. It means class, it means elegance, it means strength, it means the universe and the void, which is everything and no thing. And I was like this is perfect man. So when I look back I'm like man, vinny Rock must have done something. And then he now gets. He goes by Rocco because of a, as he told me. I think his grandfather was. His name was a Roque. So just similarities in his path, my path, and then the similarities in the name. So now it's just like man. This is all too perfect, bro. So that's the story of rocks, yeah, rock.
Speaker 1:So that's good. That's a great story actually. From rocks to rocks, from like rotten.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it evolved, man, it wasn't ready yet. And then Rocco. Yeah, and then Rocco.
Speaker 1:That's a good story, man Shout out to Vinny Vargas. Man Shout out to them, to your cousins. We played ball, my brother myself. There's a lot of people that we're in circle with, you know. I'll mention them now All the Dorado brothers. They're well known in the valley, from playing ball to fighting.
Speaker 2:No, they're just great dudes, bro.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm talking about themselves, but that was cool. We've played ball with them and grew up with them, my boy, juan Velazquez, and all the Dorado brothers and the sister Norma my sister who played ball with your sister, my Valley College, and so it's a small circle and how it all evolves and stuff, and I'm so proud of that. I'm so proud that, being Latino growing up in North Hollywood and having nothing to go into Notre Dame myself and just kind of making and giving back to my dad who couldn't afford college, and giving back in those days and those ways, I'm blessed. And now I'm just trying to kind of give back in different ways, from my strength and conditioning and what I do here, to the nonprofit law enforcement where I came from and all mind-binding and so the same way that you are, in different ways as well.
Speaker 1:So I respect that you have a system called rock system. Yeah so let's a little bit about that and how you came up with the rock system.
Speaker 2:So the rock system, you know, as we talked about earlier, everything is connected. So we have a digestive system, we have a respiratory system, if one counts on the other right. So same thing with me. When I looked at everything I was like, okay, so what is our body? It's mind, body, spirit, mind body, soul, however you want to look at it. And then you look at the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual. Those all have to work together. If you're physically gifted, but if you know they say million dollar arm, 10 cent head, then you're not going to get too far. So all of those things have to work in conjunction as one to perform and provide, you know, a certain amount or a certain output. So one of my buddies, beto Durand, he one day he just called me rock system, rock system.
Speaker 2:But I was already kind of thinking of, like you know, not a slogan but it just kind of developed and I was as I was we were talking earlier when I was influenced by Marlon Bird and to looking into Paul check. Paul check has a system he talks about the four doctors you'll ever need which is Dr Diet, dr Quiet, dr Movement, dr Happiness. So you know, nutrition, dr Dr Quiet is, you know like. So let's say, sleep, dr Movement is your exercise and Dr Happiness is your purpose or your dream or whatever may be. So the system for me was that what I learned through Oliver Perez and what we did, I learned that I built his body up, but then there was a lot of emotions trapped in his body that we needed to release. And once he's a very faithful man, so the spiritual part of it was kind of there, and then the and then the. The other one is the mental. You know he, he had lost a lot of his confidence, so we had to get his mind sharp again. So we worked. When I worked, all of that, it just made sense to me. So the rock system is just that. And when I meet a baseball player or when I meet, you know, potential client, whoever it may be, I kind of observe and I see where are they out of balance, you know, because if they're mentally sharp, spiritually connected, emotionally balanced, but they're physically lacking something, then that's what I have to attack. So those are the pillars that I, that I, you know, I guess, labeled as rock system and that came from from Bethel Duran, these.
Speaker 2:He worked for ESPN, he does some radio stuff, he's in the media and he was one of the first guys when, when I was with the Mets in 2010, we came to the Dodger Stadium and I think it was Friday night or Thursday night, and I see a guy sitting over there in the dugout and he comes up to me and he knew everything about me. He's like hey, man, monroe High School, cal State, la, you know, 26, rod Drafpe. And I was like oh, what's up, brother, good to meet you. And he goes yeah, man, I do my homework, I work for ESPN radio and I wanted to kind of give you some shine. You know your local guy. I thought that was awesome and he's a guy that does give back to the community, to the Latino community, you know, the Mexican American community here in Los Angeles, and that's where I first met him. But, yeah, when he came up with that, I was like man, that was perfect, yeah that's cool.
Speaker 1:And then you do training besides with the player development and you train catchers or other people here in the States, obviously when you're here at certain places or whatnot, in catching, or the whole rock system, or how does that?
Speaker 2:work. Yeah, so I'm. I've been blessed, man. I'm multifaceted. I guess you know I was a catcher as a player. Okay, I the hitting stuff we talk about. Juan Velazquez he's the one that linked me up with Doug Lada in the ball yard back there. They were the the OGs, in my opinion. Craig Wallenbrock was over there and Brown.
Speaker 1:Brown and those guys.
Speaker 2:They started this man. This was, like I want to say, early 2000s, because I met him in 2002. Yep, right, so I got a good feel for, you know, the catching I was just blessed with. But I also worked hard at it and through my experiences in pro ball, I felt like I reached a certain level of, you know, my defensive prowess, I guess, and I could catch in the big leagues. I just couldn't hit in the big leagues.
Speaker 2:So the catching thing is one of my passions, probably the my number one passion, to be honest with you. And then the hitting stuff. I know, because of all the failure that I went through, right. And then the strength and conditioning was what I studied, but I also was influenced as a child because of that, the strength and conditioning. So I offer everything that I. You know that I do have the offer. Yeah, yeah, the catching I work with catchers here at Legends Baseball Academy in Pasadena, pasadena, run by Al Quintana.
Speaker 2:They do a great job over there. They got a lot of, you know, a lot of talent and they work hard down there and they, they're, they're, they do a very good job. And then the I also do some of the pitching stuff that I learned when I started working with Oliver Perez and then I ended up, you know, working with a Julio Diaz and he had Julio, in my opinion, when I first met him had some of the best mechanics I've ever seen on a 17, 18 year old kid. So I got to learn that we study movement and we talk about, you know, the WAC method, and then we talk about Gota and those guys, marlin Bird and some of the things. So all of those things I put it all together again, kind of taking the holistic approach to movement, and then we go into I can, you know, talk about Dr Savie, talk about Dr Robert.
Speaker 2:Morris and all that and how the fuel is important and what we put in our bodies is just as important, if not more important than our movement patterns. You know so I. So I offer all of that and I, I, I got certified check HLC level one, which is a holistic lifestyle coach level one, and he talks about that, how to assess somebody's you know body, how to assess what they need. It goes back to the Dr Died, dr Quiet, dr Movement, Dr Happiness and whatever is out of balance. Then we address that. So I try to cover as much as you know, as much as I know and as much as I live too. You know I'm an example. I won't just tell you what to do. I actually have done it before and I'll never ask of any player or any client to do something that I haven't done yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. That's exactly the workouts that I put out here. I need an evaluation, what's going on, and then workouts that I have I've done before, so then I know exactly where people might feel defeated or that they don't have anymore. And it just depends on the client who I have, because I do a variety from from athletes to to weak and warriors, to people trying to run marathons or triathlons or people just trying to lose weight, and then do you take that rock system or everything that you have and who you are. Is that what the player development is about? Or is it a different thing that you're doing over there compared to you? Know, if, if I were to say, hey, I want to be your client here, man, I'm trying to change, I'm trying to do this Is it the same thing, a little bit different, or is it all still a part of the, you know, rocks?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's all consistent. Okay, Obviously, you know, being a professional player is a little different than you know being a weak and warrior, but a lot of it is very consistent. Yeah, when I, when I work with a professional ballplayer, it's a little more in depth, Right, and the you know what I ask of them is a little more Right. So let's take a 16 year old kid from Los Mochis. You know, and I need to know, obviously I ask, I look at the kid, I see what he needs.
Speaker 2:Most of them are physically weak because there's no, they don't have a system or they don't have the upbringing of physical education in school. They don't. Gyms aren't that popular over there. They're starting to, but they're, you know, they're a little bit behind, yeah. And then now that I apply that same concept of the rock system to that kid as I would, let's say, a buddy of mine wants to drop 40 pounds for his wedding, right, and I look at the same thing, but obviously I'm not going to be as demanding to a buddy of mine who needs to get you know, just look for the wedding, yeah, and then what this kid is is.
Speaker 2:His life depends on it, Correct? We're talking about millions of dollars, and we're talking about leaving home at 15, 16 years old to go work and build yourself up to a certain level of capability so that you can sign a multimillion dollar contract.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, of course there's a, there's a foundational base there that you're carrying with you at different levels based on the athlete or the person in front of you, right, that's awesome. And then so people reach out to you over here, either through Instagram or Facebook or word of mouth or whatnot, and then they're doing work over here with you, and then Quintana Rule is basically you're down there for the summer a player development.
Speaker 1:How does that look like out there with these athletes that for the first time they're meeting you, you're meeting them? Take us a little bit of that process for them to trust you, which are bringing to the table, is gonna help them, benefit them and make them better individuals and hopefully, obviously, carry them on the path of Major League Baseball or somewhere else that they can make some money and make a living.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me back it up a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:So they know. Luckily, when I started with Oliver Perez, he was out of baseball. He missed. I wanna say it was 2012. Okay, and being from Mexico, these kids they know who's who. Right, Oliver Perez is one of the staple ball players. He's spent 20 years in the big leagues, eventually. But at that point when I started working with him, we worked for nine years together and we got back to the big leagues. We worked hard to get back and he made a hell of a career a second half of his career out of it. He turned into a reliever. He was a starting pitcher, you know, debuted at 19,. I wanna say 19 or 20 with the San Diego Padres. First batter he struck out was Ichiro Suzuki, or that was the first batter he faced and struck him out.
Speaker 1:So that says a lot. The man Ichiro.
Speaker 2:So I gained a little bit of recognition in the Mexico network and circuit as to like, oh, they owe me as a baisa. And then from there I linked on with Julio Rias. And then Julio came, and he came with a big splash here in LA, young phenom. And then the second coming up, fernando Valenzuela, and all this stuff that the media put on him right. So when I meet these kids they know my track record, they know that I've worked with these guys, so there's trust there.
Speaker 2:Okay, and most recently, two years ago, my first year in Cancun, we signed a 16 year old lefty from Los Mochis to a team in Japan which was he wasn't the. I think he was the first amateur to sign directly to Japan, but it was the second Mexican to sign a contract over to Japan. But to me, I think he was unique in what he did 16 years old, throwing 90, or he was throwing 89 to 90 miles an hour. He got him up to 93, debuted in the league imagine man. But debuting in a professional league at 16, facing former big leaguers, that's crazy, yeah. So now that they saw that. And then we ended up signing another kid to the New York Mets and another kid to the Anaheim Angels most recently. So when I meet these kids they understand that. So they're like, oh no, he obviously knows something.
Speaker 1:This is the guy right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the guy and I devote myself to them just as much as I would to a son, just as much as I devoted to my career. I'm all in man and that comes from, obviously, my grandparents and my parents and how hard they work and that immigrant mentality and the immigrant path. So they also get that connection. They know that I speak their language in their country. I mean I'm legally a Mexican citizen now, so they know that I've accepted that culture.
Speaker 2:So it's almost like I'm a hybrid right. I'm American here, it's everybody but I'm also a Mexican down there helping them. And to me it's almost like I achieved a certain level of competence here in the States and now I'm taking all that back to Mexico.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what is the hardest challenge you think you get from these kids that you meet for the first time? Is it changing the way they think or accepting certain things, or is it physically? Or what's hardest to you to transform, I guess, in that person in front of you? Oh, that's a great question man. The whole thing is a challenge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no it's all hard man because I think this last summer was the biggest challenge out of all of them. I think because you fall in love with these kids, you see yourself in them. I think the biggest challenge is that I'm bringing a system in that Mexican culture or Mexican players aren't used to Over there. It's different man. They're not so methodical and they're not so diligent with their work and consistent. So what I try to do is I try to bring the American culture, which I love, which is punctuality, which is hard work, everything is in order.
Speaker 2:They always say like Mexican time is 30 minutes late. So when I tell them stretches at nine and they're strolling out at 855, they think they're early man because nine o'clock to them is 915. So I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no. So once I think that's a challenge in itself is just to try to assimilate them to the American culture, the Japanese culture, just being all that other stuff, being on time, being dressed the right way that's a challenge.
Speaker 2:The other challenge is the physical demands these kids they've never worked out before. So they're sore the next day and then they don't wanna do it and then they got their little attitude. So that's another challenge, but I find creative ways to make it fun and I tell them like, look, I get it, I've been there before, I'm not making you do nothing, I haven't done any myself, but it's only temporary. And then I just find ways to motivate them. But it's all a challenge at the end of the day. But those are probably the first initial challenges. But once I get them groomed and I program them, man, it's beautiful because now we're able to work, we're able to construct and they're very attentive. I give them a lot of credit because a lot of kids here are a little different with the discipline and all that. And these kids are hardworking, they're all ears, they're all eyes and they trust me enough to do what I tell them. And then once we get all that packed and good man it's beautiful to develop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk about programming. We're all programming. We're kids, right? Yeah, man In different ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was programmed by my cousins. Yeah, exactly, go fight somebody, or else we fight you Shit Now. They made me tough man. That's cool.
Speaker 1:No, I hung out with them, like I told you. I don't want to tell any stories here, but it was a Cool ass group that we hung out with, that we played ball with and we had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun, but you know, chingassos were part of it at some time, which was cool.
Speaker 2:It was fun. Well, that's the name of the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when I played at CSOME man, we threw amongst each other at one game. I remember Adam Kennedy and Robert Fitt who played in the pros and the bigs and stuff. We're playing Fullerton and during the middle of the game a guy stole base and Fitt throws this guy out but Kennedy drops the ball. And we were about you know accountability and we held ourselves accountable and had a work life on a team. Long story short is Fitt calls times out, goes up to the pitchers man, we're like what's going on. He calls over Adam Kennedy. They started throwing down right there. The umpires are like our coach is like let him go. Fullerton is looking at like what the hell are they fighting themselves? They're supposed to fight us. You know who do you throw out? Nobody, let's go back to play ball. But um, yeah, that was, this was a good old days.
Speaker 2:Wow, and I'll tell you what man.
Speaker 1:that's why they were big leaders though.
Speaker 2:Correct, it's that competitive fire and it's that accountability.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and.
Speaker 2:I probably wasn't the right way to go about it, but I can respect that they both cared and that Fitt called him out, and I'm sure you know yeah. But it was. You know that's what makes a winning team. And a little side note I remember now that was the reason I wanted to go to CSOME at one point. You know, growing up USC was like my school of choice and that was like the dream school. But I remember you guys were making some noise, man.
Speaker 2:You guys were beating up on UCLA's and, you know, the Fullerton's and all that. And then when title nine came in and wiped everything out Correct, but I remember those Erasmal Ramirez was another one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Mo Mo, he played in the bigs. He's a coach now somewhere in Orange County.
Speaker 2:I think he played in Mexico for quite a bit too. He played in Mexico a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Benny Flores, Robert Crabtree we had a good team. Eric Gillespie those guys all got drafted, except your little second baseman here didn't.
Speaker 2:It wasn't in the cars man. Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 1:You know, no good I played. As far, as I always tell people. You know, hey, baseball is going to take you so far, sooner or later it'll get taken away from you. You got to know who you are, right, right, because it's a game and you can only play it for so long and sooner or later, you know, I mean unless you want to sit down and play RBI baseball or something which you still can, you know, you know, sunday League, not Sunday League, but Sunday League over the line. You know.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think I remember my brother telling me, when you're talking about developing these kids and whatnot and physically and emotionally and spiritually and all these different things and how hard certain things are and other things, my brother always told me that adaptability, being adaptive and how quick you can adapt, is the biggest way to progression in the bigs 100%, but also in life. Right, like if you and I are going for a job and we both come from the same education, both our Latinos speak two languages and we go in front of the boss and like you know what I like you guys both, let's do one week of on training and see who learns it quicker and if I adapt quicker and I learn it quicker, probably going to get the job before you 100% so as you're moving up in.
Speaker 1:You know single A, double A, triple A and all that. If you're able to adapt, get the system quicker, you're going to move up quicker. And I was told the kids that I train. I said, look, are you going to wait for four bats before you figure it out or are you going to wait one about? How about wait one, pitch One?
Speaker 2:pitch, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Like you just got caught up on this curveball. That freaked you out. Okay, you know what it looks like Like. Let's adapt, let's figure it out. You can't wait till the end of the game. You've already over four now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So adaptability in so many different ways. It's these guys taking in what you're telling them and then adapting, saying hey, I'm not going to be here at 855 or 850. I'm going to be here now, at this time, because this is what he expects of me, and then I'm going to do all the work and not that needs to be physically done, because that's that's what's going to change me consistency and all that stuff. So tell us a little bit. I know we talked about how you. You went through a hard time when a transformation, a little bit of of when you got released and you were out in Malibu. But was there another time? I know we all have different times in our lives that have projected us and transformed us into where we're at right now, maybe when you were younger, maybe during you know your career now, what you're doing that has changed your being, has evolved and has constructed who rocks his right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's, there's a lot. I think there's a couple that that stand out. Yeah, I can speak on one of them, which is in 2009. I was with the Mets and we go to spring training and I was in AA08 and all of a sudden, you know, there's a couple of triple A catchers and then we signed a couple of big league guys. And then, you know, as, as right before we go report, they ended up signing a couple of extra guys and a couple of triple A guys and former big leagueers. I'm like, oh man, this is going to be interesting because we have a double A prospect catcher is going to catch. Every day we have our triple A guys, but then there's like four more catchers and there's me and another catcher named Mike Niqueas, another local kid from Westlake, and he got traded over from the Rangers. So me and me and Nique were like in the middle, like bro, there's six triple A catchers and you know, you got the big league guys and then you got, you know, totally down in AA and he's the prospect. So what's going on here? I don't know.
Speaker 2:So I thought I was going to get released in 2009 and so did. He were like, oh, I don't know, man. Well, it is what it is, let's just go out and have the best camp we can. Yeah, so we had a good spring training and we get down to the last week where you know people are starting to make the teams and they break camp and everything, and they pull them into the office and me and Mike Niqueas. But I go first and they're like hey, you know, we obviously flooded up top and triple A, so we're going to hold you back and we're going to send you here to high A after I had been there in 07. So it was two years after the fact, holy shit. So they sent me back to high A and I'm like it was a blow, man. I was like what?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean better than being released. But fuck man. Like you know, I already I already beat that league you know, there's no point in going back. And they're like we have this young prospect named Francisco Pena and we want you to back him up and help him out. And so I felt like the Mexican crash Davis man. I was like go back to high A and love that movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one of the best. So I was pissed off and I was just like what? And then they called Nick in the office and they said hey, you're going to go to triple A and you're going to be on the Phantom DL and you're going to be in the bullpen, you're just going to catch bullpens. So, me and Nick, you're pissed man and catching coordinator. At the time Bob Nato comes up to me. He goes you all right, I go. Yeah, man, I mean whatever's fucked up, but you know he goes. Well, let me tell you this the game doesn't know you anything.
Speaker 2:He goes and I'm going to give you today Go home, do whatever you need to do, go get drunk, go whatever. Tomorrow you're going to show up and be a professional and you're going to tutor and help this young catcher and mold him as somebody might have helped you before. The game doesn't know you anything.
Speaker 2:And he said, hey, barry Barnes retired last year. Is the game still going on? I said yes, sir, it is, he goes exactly. Nobody's bigger than the game. So it was like it was a very tough moment because I wanted to quit. Also, when they told me the news I was going to go back down to high A doing infield outfield, you know, all over again, hot ass, port, st Lucie, florida, I was just thinking of the negative and I was like I don't want to do this and I'm nobody's coach man, I'm playing, I'm trying to get to the big leagues myself and you're going to tell me to go mentor a young kid and tutor him. And you know I was like that was the ego talking. So I go home that night and I think about it. I get pissed off whatever. I show up the next day. And as Nate told me, man, be a professional. And when I got to meet Francisco Pena and he's a good kid man, the son of Tony Pena is for the big leaguer.
Speaker 2:And me, and me and me and Frank. He became good friends. Francisco Pena became very good friends. We're still friends today and he appreciates me because I was able to help him. And just you know, I was sitting there as, like a coach slash player, but that was the beginning of the rocks.
Speaker 2:You know where I have to mentor now, and it was a humbling experience. And that's when I realized that the game doesn't know you anything Nobody, I don't care who you are, and you stay humble. And so, instead of quitting, I ended up enduring that and I was only there for like two and a half months. Then they ended up calling me back up to double A. You know, movements happen, guys get hurt, and so I go back up to double A and I finish off the year there and then the following year happens what happens right, so I get that job in the big leagues as a bullpen catcher.
Speaker 2:Had I quit, I would have never got that opportunity to go back to spring training, 2010. I would have never got the big league job. I've never met Oliver Perez. Everything crumbles, but it was a test and it was a challenge and I endured that.
Speaker 2:Mike Niqueas endured that in triple A, somehow got activated throughout the year, guys got hurt and then he ended up making his major league debut the following year, in 2010. He was up there for, I think, a couple of weeks, but he got a cup of coffee in the big leagues, man, and those are the two things that life will present you with challenges and adversity and you can bitch about it, you can mope and quit or you can, you know, naturally be pissed off, but then you show up the next day and be a professional. There's a job to do and, as Nate told me, somebody along the way helped me, which was the case. There was a lot of older catchers that would help, groom me and help me out, and now I'm returning the favor to the game and this is what I'm continuing to do today. Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a great story, man, and exactly what you're doing right now and you're giving back and that door opened up based on the advice that Nate gave you, and you listened and you were a professional and you gave back and you stayed humble. The Nego got suppressed and right, I needed it. I needed it. Yeah, I think it's a lot of help.
Speaker 2:There's a very cocky, very egotistical. You know, our shit doesn't stink and that was the beginning of, like you know, when you and that's how life is too when you get too high, life's going to smack you around a little bit man. So, you know, I go hiking every morning and I take a moment. Which, which trail are you doing? That's a run in Canyon? Oh yeah, running, yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's get some steep hills.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they got a bunch of different trails every day for all the celebrities.
Speaker 1:The rocks is going there. Everybody's going to start going there Rocks yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a good one. Yeah, it is. There's a lot of all that stuff but I go in there to get my work in man, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I always, every morning, I see the sunrise. It's a reminder. You know that I'm I'm as great as God. God is within me. I'm, you know, I'm him. But at the same time, I got my feet deeply rooted in the ground and I'm thankful and I'm humble for every opportunity, every sunrise, every sunset, every waking moment, because I understand what goes into it and understand who came behind me and understand who's going to come after me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so 100%. That's a great trail and it's a great view. Once you get to the top there you can see all the valets beautiful. It's a good steep one. You probably do. Do you do the road down and then come up one way?
Speaker 2:I do so I started. If I started the top off of the Mohallan entrance, I go to the top and then I run down the asphalt, not the asphalt one but the far left.
Speaker 2:So there's, if you, if you, if you from the very top, you either have the far left one or it's like a dirt dirt one with the stairs, and then you take the asphalt. It's the one right down the middle, then there's another one to the right and then there's another trail that a lot of people don't know of from the bottom side. I believe the street is called Kursan, so there's really four, four ways to go up, so I'll loop different ones, just depends on how I feel that day. Yeah, if I'm feeling really good, then I'll loop like two of those. If it's just like a quick, if I only have you know 45 minutes to get it done, then I'll probably do like the asphalt one. Just get down, come back up, yeah. But yeah, it's a beautiful view, man, and on a beautiful like clear day you can see the ocean, you can see the downtown skyline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:I also go down to Santa Monica a lot, do Griffith Park every now and again, but I think the hiking man is you ever do? El Mavini? I did it once. Yeah, with a buddy of mine. Yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you see the valley a little bit open up. Right there's a bunch of trails.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just let me in the nature, love being there's a certain energy that you get up there and a certain connection. It's kind of a form of meditation for me. You know I've kind of dabbed into some meditation but I feel like when you get up there, whatever just kind of makes your mind still and be present in the moment and I think that's what helps me. But for me it just charges me up again and if I have doubts in life or if I have questions, that's where I get my answers from. Is doing all that.
Speaker 1:Do you do music or earphones, or do you go up there solo?
Speaker 2:It depends. I mix it up Like sometimes I'll if I'm really locked in, like you know, when you get into, your mind is right and you got the rage against the machine and I'm locked in and I'm trying to get something done, then I can have music on.
Speaker 2:Other times I'll listen to podcasts. Other times I'll listen to this. I've done some Reiki and did some different ceremonies down in Cancun and there's this. I don't even know what you call this music, it's just, it's like very natural kind of flutie drummy music and there's just all these beautiful lyrics. So I'll listen to that. Other times I just go nothing, I just want to hear the sounds. I want to hear the traffic, or I want to hear the birds chirping, or I want to hear the wind, you know whatever it may be.
Speaker 1:How'd you get into? I know, obviously you graduated with Kinesiology major, but what brought you into the spiritual side and the holistic side and all that?
Speaker 2:I think that just evolved and I think getting released in 2010, that's when I had questions.
Speaker 2:You know I had a bunch of questions like why am I here? Like my dream was to play in the big leagues or get to the big leagues. Actually, my dream was to get to the big leagues, and that's a quick little side note. When you have a goal in mind, you got to be very specific. I want to play in the big leagues, I am going to play in the big leagues. I always told myself that I'm going to get to the big leagues.
Speaker 2:I got to the big leagues, you know. So I accomplished a dream, but I did, you know. So that's a little side note, but I think Well, no, but you're 100%.
Speaker 1:That means everything. What you say and how you say it is a lot. I always tell my clients I say what do you need? And they're like well, I want to lose weight. You want to, or do you need to lose weight Right? Or you're going to lose weight or you're going to lose weight, but one team. We just put this kind of like I want to, but you've been wanting to do it forever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but do you need to? I need to lose weight? Okay, then we need to fucking do this. Yeah, exactly, and this needs to happen. And so the way we talk and exactly what you said, you said it yourself. You always said I'm going to I want to make it to the show, or I want to be in the big leagues, but do I want to play in the big right? Big difference, but a big difference, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the spirituality thing. When, once I got broken down by the game, the game broke me down. I remember Nikki is telling me that he's like fuck this fucking game. And he's like it'll suck you, sucks the soul out of you and it's bits on it and it shits on it. And so, once I got broken down by the game, I you know you have questions. You're like well, my purpose was to play in the big leagues, but I didn't do it. So maybe there's something behind the curtain or maybe there's something more that I need alert, look for.
Speaker 2:And, as I was, when I linked up with Oliver Perez and I went down to Mexico, there was a lot of you know, solitude man. So it was like alright, well, what am I doing? Am I doing the right thing? Why am I? In Mexico, people are what are you doing? Cool, yeah, kind of. Isn't it dangerous down there? And I was like man, if I live in fear my whole life, then I'm never gonna achieve anything. So all those questions were being asked and they just started to build a build and build.
Speaker 2:And 2012. I met Marlin Bird and Marlin Bird ended up Working with Doug Lada at the ball yard and then we started talking and then I helped get him a job down in Culiacan. He introduced me to a couple guys Steve Cotter and another guy by the name of Paul check, mm-hmm. So Paul check was a guy that really resonated with me 60 year old man, rip jacked, and he took the holistic approach to everything and he had a bunch of YouTube videos and at that time I would have all mornings you know what I go to the gym with Oliver Perez in the morning and then I'd come back and I'd have three, four hours before I got to go to the field and I remember just listening to all his lectures on YouTube back in the day and he talked about God and what God meant.
Speaker 2:You know, capital, capital, god, god and capital G, lowercase, oh, d, god, and then lowercase God, and and he started talking about spirituality like this is it so a lot of those questions that I had Started to started be had the answers to them. Then I started to kind of just observe everything and then the work that I was doing, my, the purpose that I that I had At that point in time was my calling. It was my purpose. Then I look into my name, rafael. There's an archangel, rafael, who is medicine a God, he's a healer. So I was like wait a minute, man.
Speaker 1:This is crazy.
Speaker 2:And and then that that came from, I was down in Miami. I went to the all-star game in New York I don't if you remember what a city field. They had the all-star game, a city field and I went down to Miami. After that I go into the spiritual store called the I think it was called the eighth chakra and this lady goes up and she's like she kind of, I guess, felt my energy and she's like, oh, you work with athletes. I was like, yeah, how'd you know she was? I can sense it. She goes what's your name?
Speaker 1:Somebody give her a call before.
Speaker 2:No. So she, she took me over the book, like to the bookshelf, and she goes what's your name? I go, rafael. She goes. Oh, you know you're not a conchill, right, she was a latin and I was like, no, she goes here and she goes. You know what? I'll give you the book and I took it home and I read it and I was like man, this is crazy.
Speaker 2:So, that that's what connected me to the whole spiritual side. And then when you, you know, I fasted before I've detoxed, I've done all that, so I connected to a higher source, mm-hmm, and once I realized that we're all connected, this is all one, we're able to manipulate different things, yeah, then I was sold a hundred percent and I I Include that into some of my training. I say some because not everybody's ready for that. There's a process that you all, you obviously need to, I guess, go through. And as an athlete, you know, we're very kind of physical, physically loaded, where once you get out of being an athlete, you see, you know you'll see a guy as an athlete he's 20 pounds heavier than what he is after he retires, because you kind of get rid of all that weight that you don't need anymore. And once you you get to a certain point, then you're able to understand, you know, the consciousness side of it, the higher shockers of it and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's crazy, that's amazing, that's. That's really really cool. And then, obviously, what is? What are some of the books or some of the things that you're you're into right now with podcasts? What people, what? What's your daily routine look like? Do you meditate? Do you visualize what's the difference? You know what are your rituals and whatnot.
Speaker 2:Well, my daily rituals, that is working out. Any day that I can't work out, I find a way to still get my body moving, whether if I have to work, if I have a heavy day, or I'll find a way that just wake up Earlier and get it done. So my daily ritual is that let's just say like today, you know, I went out to run you, I get my work and I, you know, I say my prayers, I meditate, I breathe, I just put myself, you know, here now.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I'll be here now. Be here now. I breathe, I relax, I feel everything and in the elements, right, then I get my workout in, whether it be, if that day is gonna be, you know, hiking, running, jogging, whatever, walking, whatever it may be. My as far as, like my diet goes and all that I'm heavy into the fruit, heavy into water, depends on where I'm at. Also, I can intermittent fast.
Speaker 2:The quality of water that I drink always has to be, you know, the best quality because we are made of, you know, 99% water molecules and we're 70% water. However you want to put it again, the power of word right. The water has memory. So the higher quality water, the higher quality Capability, it has to memorize whatever in intention you put into that. If I, if I work that day, then you know I'll go into the Pasadena to legends baseball Academy, go to Pasadena, work with my guys, whether it be training them, giving catching lessons or or pitching lessons or whatever. And then podcast and stuff like that. Paul check he has a living 4d with Paul check. That's one of the podcasts that I listen to. Listen my buddy Vinnie Vinnie rocks podcast Dr Robert Morse, who's a detoxification doctor. He does a lot of Q&As that I listen to Joe Rogan obviously.
Speaker 1:Everybody listens. Joe Rogan, yeah, even Joe Rogan.
Speaker 2:So I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to you know, all that podcast Music, same thing, whatever my emotions are feeling, not knows, not so much the new music stuff, but you know a lot of older stuff, things that kind of like. Yeah, I guess, please my mood. Yeah, I do a lot of reading. I just actually got this book called I just forgot it man, something about your emotions, controlling your emotions, like two point or something. But the Paul check has a book out called how to eat how to eat, move and be healthy, which is a great book. Dr Robert Morse has a book I like to dive into, spirituality books. Most recently, like I told you, I'm into the Mayan culture. I'm into the indigenous and how things used to be. You know, getting back to nature. You're born here, I was born here and then family or what.
Speaker 1:Where are they from?
Speaker 2:my parents are from Zacatecas. They're from here. It's a good thing, as they came over here as late teenagers. They were married young. My mom was 16 when she was married, my dad was 18 and I was born in Northridge. I was raised in panorama City, here in 818 man.
Speaker 1:I always represent it made me man, it made me I take a lot of pride in it.
Speaker 2:to a lot of people, this place is a dump and you know that's fine, but it made me man and it made a lot of baseball players, were a lot of the valleys populated with baseball players and you know we have a good pedigree of that Hell, yeah. So yeah, mexican, mexican American upbringing yeah, was raised in a Two-bedroom house with two families. Man, we have 14 people living under Team right there yeah that was a immigrant mentality in the 1980s. Sure.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I grew up in North Hollywood and my mom still lives there where we grew up, but downstairs now because she can't go up the stairs that. We were up in the the upper floor, but, yeah, one bedroom apartment. My parents slept in the living room, my brother, my older brother, my younger sister, slipped in one bedroom and People can say whatever they want about the value or whatever, but you know what you make With what you have, and I loved my childhood.
Speaker 1:Yes whether we had no money or not. Man making Waffleballs out of, out of, you know, paper and tape and playing in the backyard where the days oh man, that's the best we can afford a whiffle ball, bro.
Speaker 1:We can afford to go buy a whiffle ball. So we had to make. My mom used to get pissed off because but can we go on this one last time? Yet, that's good, we're gonna use them and I'm like but yeah, those were the days for sure. Let me ask you some tough, difficult questions. You know sometimes that I ask and whatnot. This is probably surprising, but when I asked people it's one of the hardest, at least people that maybe don't know themselves to answer, it's because they don't know themselves, and it's. It's a, and it's a simple question. It's who are you? Who is rocks? Who is Rafael? Who are you?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, I kind of touched a little bit up on it, right, correct? Yeah, when you asked me that question too, I was like it's a, it's a very loaded question because I can tell you who I am. I could tell you who people think I am, yeah, but yeah, who am I? I think the best way to put it that kind of pleases both sides is, is just that I'm a Mexican-American expression of this cosmic procession. Right, sounds like a wrap.
Speaker 1:It rhymes, man yeah.
Speaker 2:It took me years to understand who I was. Yeah, right, I was. I was trying to label myself to be certain things that I wasn't. Am I Mexican? Am I American? Am I, you know, my poor and my rich, whatever. But to get deep, you know, I'm a, I'm a soul man, I'm a spirit, I'm a child of God. I was put here to fulfill the purpose, to fulfill missions, to To sign contracts that I'd signed in the previous life, or to to clean up my car I'm, or to pay up my karma, good and bad, I think at the, at the very fundamental conscious level. That's who I am. My body is not me. My name is me in this lifetime, but it's not me who I am. You know my, my culture, my, my skin color, all of that. I could take a deep dive in that, but you kind of get the idea 100%.
Speaker 1:It's just that when I would ask some other people, the first thing that comes out of their mouth is like well, I'm a teacher from like that's what you do.
Speaker 1:That's what you do and a lot of people answer, but what they do for a living, right? I'm not asking you what you do for a living. I'm asking who you are and that's how, when you start talking about you invested in yourself and your soul and your spirit and all these different things, you can tell that you know who you are. You're a grounded person of various different things that that make who you are, and you're also just a Ball of energy and one big host that's hosting some of that, with some human aspects of you, but different Molecules and atoms running wild within you. Right as I am, in different parts and and and then with a purpose. Yeah, your purpose is to, like you said, you have karma, give back, instruct so many different ways, but you have a well-being about that and that's why I love to ask that, because some you know everybody can choose whatever they want and say whatever they want, but I can tell that that was a question that I needed to ask you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm on the show, so no, I appreciate you asking that because it also sheds light on my ancestry man and, like you know, my, my grandfather, and what he did in his life. He was one of the one of the pioneers Back in her S, in his rancho, to fight for baseball there, to bring baseball to the to the rancho, and I know his dream was, you know, base, but he loved baseball. So now my father comes to this country, he loved baseball as well, but he couldn't play because he had to work Right. So me fulfilling my dream to get to the big leagues and to have that last name With the number hanging out in my locker. And I look to my right and there's David did David, right. And then, on no, the other side, there's Jose Reyes and Pedro Martinez, carlos Beltran.
Speaker 2:That's not me, that's, it's generations of hard work. You know, that fabric, that cloth, that big league feel is different. Yeah, and when you ask me who I am, I am, you know, the sum of all of those generations of hard work and sacrifice. And my grandfather, you know, worked in the fields and he was a, but I said, oh, and my father, you know, work two jobs to make things work here in America, to give me the opportunity. So that's that's where I feel like, that's who I am, man, yeah, and then I'm, you know, I'm Mayan, I'm Aztec, I'm African, I'm European, I'm all that. Those are all, just you know. Like you said, I'm a teacher, I'm this, I'm that At the end, at the end of the day, man I'm. I feel like that. I'm a son of God and I'm here to fulfill a purpose and I'm here to help everybody who's with me.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I can't help everybody. Obviously, I got to help myself first and foremost. But anybody who's along, man, let's go.
Speaker 1:Let's go. What is Success mean to you? The word success, how does that look like to rocks?
Speaker 2:success to me is when I look in the mirror. Are you happy? Do you love that person that you see in the mirror? Are you happy with that person? Do you have the ability To be free, you know? Do you you get to wake up in the morning and do what you love? That, to me, is success. I used to think success was how big is your house? How much money do you have in the bank? But over the last 13, 14 years living down in Mexico and understanding who I am, I've seen multi-millionaires cry Because they're looking at their paycheck and the money doesn't mean anything because something was taken away from them. And I've seen these little kids playing barefoot stickball and a rancho being the happiest most you know successful kids in their eyes, man, they had a home run, you know. So when I looked at all that, I was like what a success to me.
Speaker 2:To me, success is health. Success is success is freedom itself, love, and it's making your family proud. You know, having people speak highly of you, yeah, and. And success is leaving things better after you leave than how you found them. Well, fucking put brother.
Speaker 1:Well, but what is uh? What does peace mean to you?
Speaker 2:peace to me is is stillness. Peace to me is being able To be here now and live in the present moment, where tomorrow doesn't matter, yesterday doesn't matter. When I think of peace, I remember having this peaceful moment where I'm sitting in Isla Mujeres, playa Norte. Sunset, you hear the ocean, you know the little light waves crashing, and I'm with a bunch of people that I care about that are enjoying the same thing that I'm enjoying. So I think there's a serenity right which is harmony, balance, and there's no thought, there's just you're filling the elements, and and those elements are God. So peace is being at one, being whole, where nothing is needed and Nothing is excluded Complete circle kind of back to that end zone of rocks, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's, that's, that's really really good, that's good, I'm deep man.
Speaker 1:No, I love it. There was a saying I was trying to think about right now. Where you were, you were talking it's and it. You know, I used it before in this podcast it's less and less. Do you need to force things until you arrive in non-action, where nothing is done, nothing is left undone? You know, and that's the reality. I used that when I played ball. Somebody told it to me and I was like what say it again? And you know, as kids, you, you write it down, then you repeat it and it was just, basically, when you've done the work and You're in the state of flow, state or peace, or right, mindlessness, you've done, you're doing the work without even thinking about, you're just there, yeah, it's happening. But when you have to think about doing the work, you're not there yet, or it's not stillness, it's yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:There's a book by member Sean Green, left-hander. Yeah, yeah play for the Dodgers. Yeah, play for the Dodgers so he wrote a book called finding stillness at 95 miles an hour and that that book was life-changing and actually Right that that on on the cover of that book is the Enzo, that same symbol which was kind of funny because we both kind of understood that Zen quality of it.
Speaker 2:Right, and and that's what that Enzo means is, you know, again, when the mind is free to allow the body to simply create. And so that book was life-changing man because he talked about when he signed that big contract with the Dodgers. He was trying to hit home runs and he was trying to force the game and he was living in the future and it was all anxiety, right. And then when he, when he thought about what he did with the blue jays, he's living in the past. He's like man. Why can't I just be like the blue jays again? And I don't know if you remember he would hit a home run and you would take those white batting gloves off that he had and you toss them into the stands.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:That was his way of saying. This moment is now over. You haven't done anything, move on living the present moment, which was which was awesome.
Speaker 2:And then another little thing that he would do he said he and Carlos Delgado would always in their BP around hitting balls, the center field, to live in the present moment. If you pull the ball, you're out early, right If you're. If you hit the ball the other way, you're late, you're in the past. So his thing was always like use the big part of the field, stay up the middle, and that was what he found he. So he applied, like that Zen concept of be here now, that's cool to baseball and that resonated with me, man, and I applied that to to what I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I gotta get that book. Yeah, it's the film, this at 95. Yeah, okay, let's talk about Some of the traits, values or morals that are most important to you or that you try to instill in some of the players that are coming that you know that you're developing Mm-hmm. What are some of those traits and values and things that you're like this is foundational, this is it. We're not breaking these. This is what's gonna, no matter what, make you be a better person.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, yeah, I mean, there's a bunch of them that I wrote down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're all all important, right everything.
Speaker 2:We're gonna go from everything. They all are. I can name all of them that I yeah, but I'll try to just whatever pops out. Man, for sure I'm not gonna look at it for sure, let's go. I would say you know, obviously, integrity, yeah, you know, I want one honesty. I want trust, consistency, ambition, fearlessness, humility, yeah. Vulnerability, which is one of the key things a lot of people are afraid to be vulnerable man, yeah, you know, at the end of the day Doesn't matter, no matter what. So what else? Responsibility, accountability, yeah.
Speaker 2:All those things, I think, at the end of the day, those values they to me. I like to express that, but I also like to live that and teach, teach that to these guys. I need to be able to trust you. I need to be able to trust you, I need to be able to communicate with you. But I think the ones that probably pop out the most are are are that of Humility. You know it goes back to that right the bandito, base ball and bow down to the gods, and but also it's the, the ambition man. I want guys to be Fearless or be fearless. I want guys to be courageous. So it's kind of to me the image that I, when it comes of values, is that like deeply rooted, as rooted as you can be man to the depths of hell, but also highly elevated, as high as the universe goes and or as much as the universe expands.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think those two things are just being, you know, deeply rooted, highly elevated, but those are some of the qualities of the ones that I just mentioned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's so true. I mean there's so many, obviously, because you need them all. But yeah, you know, I got asked this yesterday by somebody you go coach what do you think is the biggest catapult or the biggest trait or value that to win championships? And I was like oh fuck. And I started thinking about when I played ball and we talked about earlier, when accountability and all these different things right, you have leadership, you have discipline, you have responsibility, ownership, all these different things and I could think about what does that, what's the word, what's the trait that applies most in everything, not just baseball, right, and all that. And I thought about trust.
Speaker 1:In a relationship. You need trust In a work. You need trust In the Navy SEALs team. You need trust Law enforcement trust your partner In baseball. You need to trust that the guy's going to put the button down right. And I told him, I think to me I said, in my opinion, trust is everything. Trust is the number one thing. People, if they don't trust you, that you're going to develop them and give them the best advice, it's out the door, right? They're not even trusting you, right? So that trust has to be built.
Speaker 1:And I was reading this book on leadership that I have and I kind of peruse around it sometimes and it said how do you gain trust? Right, because people always talk about you got to earn trust. You show me. It's like okay, well, how's that done? What is the process? What does that look like?
Speaker 1:And it said there's three things that involve you to receive and earn trust. And it's credibility. You're credible. You talked about yourself. You have this track record from the major league baseball player and all this and who's gone there and who's the OGS and everything. So you have the credibility, reliability that you're going to show up and do what you say you're going to do, you're going to be on time. You say you're going to wake up the next morning, no matter what you did the night before, that you're going to be there, that you're going to be there with integrity and all these different stuff. So you have credibility, reliability.
Speaker 1:And the last one is on I, which is interpersonal connection, interpersonal connections. I know you, I feel for you, I have that vulnerability, I have that connection that you and I know what we want to do and need to do in order to win this championship. And I'm going to sacrifice maybe my career, maybe something else, by putting this button down. I don't care how many scouts are on there, but I'm going to put the button down because you're relying on me, I'm credible enough and we have the same connection and you create that trust.
Speaker 1:But how do you break trust? And it's one simple thing self ego and self interest breaks all that shit. When you start thinking about yourself rather than the team, when I'm like, fuck that, I'm not going in there, or, yeah, I'm not going to clear, or you lie about not clearing this room and you know whether it be law enforcement or something else, or it goes away. The trust can go like that, but you need a lot to get it, which is the credibility, the reliability and the interpersonal connection. And it kind of resonated with me and I I felt that and I was like and I feel that's a big part in life One and two, one of the biggest traits in general for catapulting change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but anyways, I was just no, that was all good, man, because now you got me thinking. But you know, the crazy, the crazy. No, there was a bunch of light bulbs that popped up because and I'll add to that, and not all that's beautiful, right, yeah, but for me too is like I was speaking to myself, right? Like when you talk about trusting a teammate or a partner. How often do we hold ourselves accountable for?
Speaker 1:that.
Speaker 2:You know, if I have a girlfriend and I go on a trip and there's all these beautiful women, do you trust yourself to? Not or to say hey, sweetheart, I'm going to this hotel and there's a bachelorette party here, and I'm going to be honest with you and tell you what it is. I could lie about it or I could maybe not tell you, but you can use that on yourself and say okay, let's see how trustworthy you are to yourself right, that's your word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your word, and be honest, don't be a hypocrite. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, or a lot of people you know alcohol or something like that, where you know you don't trust yourself. So you get. I don't trust myself to go talk to that girl, so I got to have a couple of drinks before I go. That in itself tells me you already don't. I can't trust you because you don't trust yourself. Yeah so little things like that and yeah, that's so true, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that's important too for us to understand. Like you said I was thinking about, I was dependable with my guys, reliable. You know, I was five minutes late today, which pisses me off till this day yeah, just tells me a lot.
Speaker 1:No, I got a phone call man, we've got some projects that we'll talk about later.
Speaker 2:I see that, yeah, no but even then, that bugs me right? Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I'm like fuck me, I like you know, but I like to communicate and let you know, like, hey, dude, my bad, I'll be there. You know, 10-05, boom, I was here, yeah, but I was still late in my opinion. But, yeah, I was thinking about that with Oliver, with Julio, and these guys need to believe that they need to trust me Now. They can trust me for 40 years and if I make one mistake, in a matter of a split second it's gone. Yeah, that's how fragile this thing is.
Speaker 1:That's what's important, and it's hard.
Speaker 2:How many people can you really trust man?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, but I think it starts with oneself. Right, 100%. It starts with oneself. That's so true and I'm glad you brought that up, because that is a different perspective also, but something to add on to trust.
Speaker 2:I think us as coaches and trainers and catalysts that we are again. I'm not going to sit there and tell you you need a detox and then I'm over here eating pizza and drinking beers with my buddies on Sunday, correct? Yeah, you know that's wrong. I think, Unless it's you know, and I think we both are transparent in that sense, Correct?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, I want to get off. I mean, we got into some deep stuff, which is really good. I just wanted to pick the brain on that. But I also have this thing because I think you yourself and I grew up where well, at least I know I did, I'm older we didn't have travel ball, you know, we didn't have showcases. Where I went to high school was a big deal Scouts and college scouts and things went to go see you there, maybe a little bit of Legion ball and then some area code ball that was around for a while, which was like A1A playing the two and three, and you would mix in like Crespian, notre Dame and Monroe would be with Kennedy or something like that, and it was pretty cool that you would play different so that Scouts can go see you.
Speaker 1:But I know that travel ball has become monetized and it's where it's at right now. But what is your feeling, which you see, with travel ball now? I know there's good and bad. We can't tear it down, but you know there's things that could change. But what is your feeling now? Obviously, being gone to the pros, played in the major league system, continuing to stay involved with baseball and what you see, what can change and how can we make it better, and do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing?
Speaker 2:Well, luckily, I've been a little bit disconnected because I've been. I did the whole pro ball thing and then I started working with Oliver and then we went down Mexico and so I've been gone from that kind of circuit here in the valley or travel ball in general, yeah, travel Over the last couple of years I have kind of connected a little bit and I am seeing some things, I'm hearing some things and then what you see floating around social media and all that. I personally I guess the travel ball team that I played for was like that was like the beginning of it, right, so that was like the early 90s. Like you said, you might have just missed the travel ball stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably had the high school, and then you had the air codes and all that.
Speaker 2:So my travel ball experience was amazing only because I had a guy named Roy Artigus who started everything and we talk about values, right. He taught us. He taught us a lot about life and a lot about baseball and most of the guys that stuck together from six, seven, eight years old all the way through high school, which is very rare from what I hear these days. As far as travel ball goes, I think it's great because you're able to further develop young players abilities, but again, I also know that a lot of people are using travel balls and money grab now, where they're just trying to sign up as many people and give out the minimum output and make money and run with it.
Speaker 2:I personally, my experience is in travel ball and being able to travel to Atlanta, georgia, when I was eight and going to Minnesota, lakesville, burnsville, going to Ohio, going to different states and getting on a plane and checking into hotels and being respectful of others. Those lessons still stick with me. So that to me, was awesome, aside from playing competitive baseball man, where you're playing some of the best in the world or in the nation. That side of it is good. My advice, or what I see now I guess for any parent or any kid is try to be as loyal as you can to any organization.
Speaker 2:I hear a lot about kids transferring high schools. I hear a lot about kids jumping from one travel ball team to the other. Why not build your own? If you sign up with this team and you lose every tournament, that doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Nobody cares about a chocolate chip ring or whatever Chocolate chip ring, like an edible ring or whatever they give these days, but she would not last long. I love chocolate chips bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they get crazy with it, or they give these WWE belts and all that yeah whatever.
Speaker 2:So nobody cares about that man. And I think as you develop from the youth age into like adolescence and then high school, you know recruiters and scouts get paid to go look for talent. So why would you go out and pay $1,000 to go showcase when half the people there really don't care. They care about the $1,000 you gave, on top of the other 50, 100 players that gave the $1,000.
Speaker 2:I wasn't a heavily recruited kid out of high school, not even out of college, but scouts. All that takes is one scout, all that takes is one college recruiter. And what I tell Yonk is like your best showcase is you go into practice every day, you getting better every day and when it's time to play a competitive season in high school, go three for three, go four for four. Attract these scouts, make noise, make your own noise Right. You don't have to go out and search to go get a scholarship. You know, and a lot of these, I think a lot of these colleges, they'll have camps, right. They'll say, oh, we're having this you know, Washington State camp or whatever.
Speaker 2:But who's paying the bill? The kid is. The kid's got to pay for flight, hotel to go to this camp because he's going to be seen again. Man, I'm old school and I think I still think that works. It's like if you make your own noise, if you hit 800 in high school, I promise you, if you'd 800 out Monroe, I promise you at least one person is going to be like this kid's hitting 800. I got to go see this Right, Right At shitty Monroe.
Speaker 1:Right being deniable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, you got to raise your own energy. Yeah. I think Bill like or yeah, he says I says raise your own energy and when they show up, you bill them.
Speaker 1:I like that yeah.
Speaker 2:Invest in yourself, get better, you know, be and grow your own apples and oranges, and be loyal to whatever organization you're with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you're 100%. I remember, you know, back in the day, how did I get looked at? I was like shit, I don't remember. I know I sent out some letters or because it wasn't, there wasn't emails back then, those letters, or I don't even know if I send out videos, yeah, send out the VHS or whatever, I don't even know. But yeah, I made noise, you know.
Speaker 1:And then you're right, you show up every day, you work hard, you show what you got. When you have an opportunity, you stay consistent and the coaches would get a call hey, who's, who's your best? We're looking for a second baseman. Who's your best second baseman? Is he good? What's up? Can he fit in our program? That's what we're looking for. Hell, yeah, I got Caesar Martinez. Is what he does, and this is what's going on Works hard, never worry about school, what's going on? Oh, no shit really. They're making another call, they call another college, so-and-so. They come back to Caesar Martinez and then, next thing, you know they're there showing up and watching, because that's what they're going to do. What kind of character is this kid? How about his family? Where's he grow up at? Okay, and if you make noise, it's undeniable. If you're batting 800, I don't care. I don't care if it's in Little League.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I'm saying. He's batting 800 in Little.
Speaker 1:League. I mean, that's hard to do regardless. 800 is hard to do in any league, I think even in Sunday League. But yeah, I think you're 100% right. That's where we're at right now.
Speaker 1:That's where we're at right now. So I think every parent has to just make-. My opinion is that make sure that you're loyal, exactly because there's not a lot of that going on, especially in colleges. Well, now, with that portal thing, you can go wherever you want. Kid doesn't get-. I'm not going to start or I'm not going to do this. I'm leaving, I'm gone. What the hell? What?
Speaker 2:are you talking about? Why don't you work hard, take the easy way out? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Take the easy way out. So I think that's very important. And two, it's not about winning chocolate chip rings. It's about learning and growing and, like you said, staying consistent, having opportunities and you growing your own apples and oranges, like you said. 100% well said, brother. So advice that you would give a 12 to 18 year olds right now what would you like them to what do you think that they should be doing now to, first of all, be better human beings, but also be better athletes, be more rounded. What do you think Should they start working out already at that age? What kind of advice would you say? This is what I think a 12 to 18 year old teenager 13 to 18, whatever needs to be doing now to if they want to play in the bigs or they just want to be better human beings.
Speaker 2:I think play sports man.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No matter what you are, if you're a football player, if you're a basketball player, baseball, hockey, whatever play different sports, don't be one dimensional, because the benefit of playing different sports is that it teaches you different athletic moves. If you go play basketball, you're going to be pretty agile a lot of lower body strength, quickness, jumping up and down. If you play football, there's going to be some toughness. There, too, there's going to be some collisions. You're going to build the body up a little bit. If you're a boxer man, it's going to teach you endurance. It's going to teach you mental toughness. Baseball the same way. So if I had I looked at it like if I'm speaking to myself at 12 years old, I would do exactly what I did, and I remember we used to play flag football when it was football season basketball when it was basketball season and baseball when it was baseball season, and then sprinkled in between we would do some training.
Speaker 2:And my cousin when I was a freshman in high school he'd come by and pick me up every day at five in the morning. Man, and it sucked and I hated it, but it built up my body and it improved my performance. So I think the strength and conditioning everybody's different, but I think the number one thing is health. Don't be worried about squatting next amount of weight. Everybody at their own pace. But I think if you're building your body up, you know physically and also what you're doing with your nutrition and stuff. All of that is a plus. But at the end of the day, be an athlete. Study the athlete study.
Speaker 2:The best movers in the world soccer players, basketball players, baseball who are the guys that play 162 games every day? You could think of Mookie Betts. You could think of Freddie Freeman, right, which are probably the two best Dodger players. They're both well. I would say Mookie is a great athlete. I don't think Freddie is as good an athlete as Mookie. But what does he do every day to stay healthy? What does he do every day to show up? Part of it is his mentality. He says I'm not coming out of the game because I want to play every day. If you rest, you rest. So for Freeman, he's a very routine oriented person.
Speaker 2:He knows what he needs. So back to the younger guys is understand who you are, understand your strengths, continue to build your strengths and work on your weaknesses. And if your weakness is, you know, I can't run long distance and go run cross country man. Or if I like strength and go play a sport where strength is demanded, and don't be afraid to go through those pains, don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to worry about what people think Because, like I said, in the grand scheme of things, nobody cares. You want a ring at 12 years old man.
Speaker 1:I like that. I want to say that ring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, nobody cares at that point. In the grand scheme of things, I would say continue to develop and know who you are, know who you are, know who you want to be. Model yourself after somebody. I know we had you. Know, I'm sure you had guys that you looked up to. Yeah, my birthday is in October, so every birthday I'm watching the Yankees in the World Series and Derek.
Speaker 1:Jeter. October. Yeah About Mr.
Speaker 2:October, Mr November Now. I was too young for that one.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're too young for Reggie, but I knew who Reggie was, yeah, but now, watching Jeter man and watching the way the Yankees went about it, and then I started like what? All these guys have to shave their facial hair and they have to act a certain way. So that was my best education, man from 12 to 18, was that? So yeah, these kids need to understand you know who they are and model themselves after a good role model, but also continue to develop. And it's a process, man. Fall in love with the process. Don't worry about results. At this point, nobody cares.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I wasn't out of high school. I wasn't recruited by anybody, it was. It was a game that I had where it was just like a. I backpicked, a couple guys, got some hits and the head coach at that high school called the Cal State LA coach, and that's how things happen.
Speaker 2:So things happen, you know. So, when you least expect it, things will happen. So for these young guys too, when you least expect it, boom, you're going to hit that ball over the fence 300 feet. When you least expect you're going to make that throw. You're going to hit 90 miles an hour, you know. But it's just continuous, consistent work and developing mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a process, for sure. I always tell people look, you can have icons, you can have people you monitor yourself up to. That are good role models and whatnot. But remember that you be the, you be the main character in your own book. You write the own, your own story here. You know what I'm saying, because you can idolize them, you can put them up on a pedestal and whatnot, but don't be them. You do you, but you should still follow some of the good traits and good values and morals and what, how they're doing it, because they're there for a reason, right, but you remember, you're your own story, you're your own person. You be that person that then somebody else will say I want to read that book. You know you write your own book.
Speaker 2:Right, why not you? Why?
Speaker 1:not you. Yeah, no, it's great advice, brother man, I appreciate you for coming down here expressing that. I mean we can talk days. I think we could keep going. How do people reach out to you and find you whether they want to go hiking, whether? They want to work with you, catch hit pitch, have any questions about your training or mind-body and soul stuff. How did they reach out to you, how did they get a hold of you and all that?
Speaker 2:Well, everybody's got social media Instagram, so I'm under Rock's Rock System or Rock's underscore system. I think that's probably the best bet. I'm gonna apologize now to a lot of people because my lifestyle is kind of wacky, I guess. So I'm not wacky. I'm in Mexico for six months and I come here for a couple months and then I may be leaving to Mexico at the end of this month. So I'm almost like I'm like the Airbnb man. It's like you gotta get me while I'm available and book me. But yeah, I would say Instagram is the best way to do it. Rock's underscore system, same thing on Twitter. But yeah, man, my journey is kind of here and there, and so I do my best to accommodate to all the people.
Speaker 2:I know that it's tough but, like I said, I do my best to get everybody get some training in whether, like you said, whether it be going on a hike, I'm here to help anybody that wants help. I'm here to help anybody that can help themselves, that wants to help themselves. And I've been overweight, I've been diseased. When I was a child we didn't talk about that, but that's what kind of propelled me into the health side of things.
Speaker 2:So, I'm not this guy that's ripped and has had a six pack since he was out of the womb right. I've been through all that man. I've transformed, I've weighed up to 180. I've gotten down to as much as 140. I've been ripped, shredded the whole nine and I've been big and stocky, but yeah, so I've covered everything and I feel like if I have something to offer that anybody's interested in and they know where to find me and we can get to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's something. I'm sure you're gonna be back here. Hopefully I can get you back here another time so we can do part two of telling that story of your health and how you were overweight, maybe obese at one point, but not only that. That affects your mind, right? Oh, man it affects everybody yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so what you did in order to overcome that, that's a whole different, not a whole different, but that's something we didn't touch upon. That I'd love to dig into. In regards to that the nutrition aspect and getting a little bit more into depth on that, what is something that you wanna leave our audience and people with? That? You know anything you can. You know whatever you wanna say.
Speaker 2:I mean as far as the health goes, man, and it's you know, make one healthy decision a day. Yeah, you know, I think if we, it's just one little grain of salt right Every day. Every day, it's a process. Be patient, be perseverant, be patient, be persistent. You know we're never a finished product. Everybody wants to look like all the you know models in the magazines. That's not real. Social media 99% of it isn't real.
Speaker 2:So, don't get caught up in all that. But I would just say you know, believe in yourself and that belief will lead into the love in yourself. I think love is a powerful word that we don't utilize the right way. Like you said earlier, who are you? Yeah, you know who are you. You gotta understand who you are. What you want out of life I know we all come from different avenues and you know some people are married, some people are divorced, some people have kids, some people don't.
Speaker 2:But I think, at the end of the day, is that believe in yourself, know what you want and attack it, man, and don't be afraid of anything. Fear is normal. You know to fear. I fear every day and part of that motivates me. So just get to know who you are, make healthy decisions, and you're not alone, man. It's everybody's in a battle. You know people think that this guy has a perfect life. No, they don't. You know, I've been. I've seen millionaires that have terrible lives. So you're not alone. We're all in this together, man, and if you're healthier, I'm healthier, and we hold each other accountable 100%.
Speaker 1:There's this. I have a tattoo on my ankle and it's an old Mexican proverb. It says only the dead have seen the end of war. And I use that because life is hard and it's a battle. We're all in it, and so let's fucking do it. Let's live it, you know, believe in yourself. So true, man, I appreciate you. Man, it's a pleasure, I wouldn't say even meeting you, because I know we've crossed paths just at different times. You know I'm a lot better looking, but older, and I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:I'm older than you. We got to get to work on it in part two. Oh, there you go. Yeah, put it on YouTube or something.
Speaker 1:I was just going to invite you, I'll invite you off the thing. Maybe do some Ovalvani or go over there to run your camera. I've done that it's just a little. You know LA traffic fucking one way or another. Once you get to that one-on-one it gets congested. It depends what time you go. If you go early, you're good.
Speaker 2:If you get on the freeway, if you get on the 405 at 4.55 AM, you're good. If you get on the freeway at 5, you're stuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly there it is so, yeah, and then you know I have a busy clientele here as well. So to get there and get back, there's hills everywhere in LA, which is amazing. There's trails everywhere and that's the beautiful thing about living in LA You're at the beach in 30 minutes or you're in the mountains in another 30.
Speaker 2:Yes sir.
Speaker 1:But I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much for coming down here, showing some love, some vulnerability, some of your experience, sharing some of your life where you're at right now. I appreciate you Keep doing what you're doing and I appreciate your time being here on the Can Be Broke podcast, brother.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Thank you, man, I appreciate it. Let's keep at it, man, and collaborate on something For sure. Like I said, I appreciate you helping? Me share my story. Somebody can benefit from this. I think it's a win. We can inspire, motivate somebody or, like you said, be vulnerable, it doesn't matter man. Yeah, but yeah, and I appreciate the time and I love doing this.
Speaker 1:Thank you, bro. I appreciate you and everybody who listened up. I appreciate you guys. Just make sure to subscribe, download whatnot, and I appreciate you guys for listening. Hopefully you guys took something out of this. I know you did and remember you can't be broken.