Strength Is Important, But It Is Not the Whole Picture
If getting stronger automatically made you throw harder, the strongest baseball player in the weight room would always be the hardest thrower. Obviously, that isn’t how it works. Strength matters, and we spend a lot of time developing it with our athletes, but strength by itself is only one piece of the puzzle. At some point, the athlete has to be able to use that strength quickly, efficiently, and in the positions their sport actually requires.
Baseball is a great example because almost everything happens fast. A pitcher doesn’t have several seconds to slowly produce force like he might during a heavy squat or deadlift. Force has to be produced, absorbed, redirected, and transferred through the body in a very short amount of time. That is why we can’t look at athletic development only through the lens of muscle and strength. We also have to look at how the nervous system, tendons, fascia, joints, and muscles all work together.
What Is Fascia and Why Does It Matter?
Fascia is part of that system. It is connective tissue that surrounds and connects structures throughout the body. I think this is where the topic gets both interesting and misunderstood. Sometimes fascia gets talked about like it is some separate system that needs its own special workout, when really the bigger point is that the body does not move as a collection of isolated muscles. Everything is connected, and force has to travel through that entire system.
Think about throwing a baseball. The force does not start in the shoulder. It starts with the athlete interacting with the ground. Force moves through the foot and lower leg, through the hips and pelvis, through the trunk, into the shoulder, through the arm, and eventually into the baseball. If one area is not doing its job well, another area will often have to compensate. That is why mobility, strength, stability, timing, coordination, and elasticity all matter.
Research on fascia continues to support looking at the body as an interconnected system rather than simply looking at individual muscles. Fascia has a role in force transmission and responds to mechanical loading, while muscles, tendons, fascia, joints, and the nervous system work together to produce movement.
One way to think about fascia and the elastic system is to picture a spring. A spring can store energy when it is loaded and then release that energy quickly. The body can do something similar through the interaction of muscles, tendons, and connective tissues. You see this every time an athlete runs, jumps, cuts, or throws. They load into the ground, accept force, and then have to redirect that force quickly.
How Do We Train the Elastic System?
This is where training has to go beyond simply adding more weight to the bar. If we want athletes to become more elastic and better at transferring force, we have to expose them to movements that require them to absorb and reproduce force quickly.
Plyometrics are one of the best examples. Jumping, hopping, bounding, and landing all challenge the body to accept force and then use it again. The important part is that plyometrics should be progressive. We shouldn’t take a young athlete who has never trained and immediately put them into advanced depth jumps or high-volume bounding. We start by teaching them how to land, how to control their body, and how to create good positions.
A progression might start with snap-downs, basic pogo jumps, low-level hops, and countermovement jumps. Once an athlete owns those movements, we can progress into repeated jumps, broad jumps, single-leg hops, bounds, lateral jumps, and more reactive plyometrics. As they develop, we can increase the speed, force, and complexity of those exercises.
The goal is not to find the fanciest plyometric exercise we can put on Instagram. The goal is to progressively prepare the athlete to handle and produce greater forces at faster speeds.
Plyometrics Should Happen in Multiple Planes
That multiplanar piece is especially important for baseball. Athletes do not only move straight ahead or straight up and down. Pitchers rotate, hitters rotate, fielders move laterally, and athletes are constantly accelerating, decelerating, planting, crossing over, and redirecting force.
Because of that, our plyometric progression should eventually include multiple planes. Vertical jumping has value, but so do horizontal jumps, lateral bounds, rotational jumps, and combinations of those movements. We want athletes who can accept and produce force from different directions because that is exactly what their sport is going to ask them to do.
For example, a lateral bound asks the athlete to produce force sideways, land on one leg, and control the force they just created. Eventually, we can progress that into a more reactive lateral movement or combine it with rotational work. A broad jump challenges horizontal force production differently than a vertical jump. Pogos challenge the athlete to become quicker and more reactive off the ground.
All of these exercises can have a place, but there should be a reason they are being used and a progression behind them.
Sprinting Is Part of the System Too
Sprinting is another great example of training the elastic system. At higher speeds, the foot is only in contact with the ground for a very short amount of time. The athlete does not have time to slowly create force. They have to hit the ground, create stiffness, accept force, and redirect it very quickly.
This is one reason we sprint with our athletes. Sprinting is not just conditioning. There is a huge difference between going for a run and actually sprinting. Sprinting challenges the athlete to produce large amounts of force quickly and repeatedly.
For a baseball player, those qualities matter whether they are stealing a base, getting out of the box, tracking a ball in the outfield, or trying to develop the explosive qualities necessary to produce velocity on the mound.
Medicine-Ball Training and Rotational Power
Medicine-ball work fits into this same picture. We use medicine balls frequently with baseball players because they give us a way to train rotational power at much higher speeds than we can with most traditional strength exercises.
We can teach athletes how to create force from the ground, transfer that force through the hips and trunk, and then express it through the upper body. We can also change the starting position or add a step, shuffle, countermovement, or lateral component depending on what we are trying to train.
Again, this should be progressive. There is a difference between teaching an athlete to rotate from a controlled position and having them perform a high-speed rotational throw with a run-in or shuffle. Just because an exercise looks more athletic does not automatically mean the athlete is ready for it.
The progression matters just as much as the exercise.
The Arm Is the End of the Chain
The baseball comes out of the hand, but that does not mean velocity is created by the arm alone.
A 2023 systematic review looked at 17 studies involving 909 adult pitchers and found relationships between pitching velocity and several lower-body factors. Those included hip strength, hip range of motion, lead-leg mechanics, stride characteristics, and the positioning and movement of the pelvis and trunk.
That is important because it reinforces what we see practically. How the lower body creates and accepts force matters. How the trunk transfers that force matters. How the athlete sequences the entire movement matters.
The arm is the last part of a much larger system.
If we only train the shoulder or only worry about arm strength, we are missing a huge part of where velocity actually comes from.
Strength Still Creates the Foundation
None of this means strength training becomes less important. Strength still creates the foundation. If an athlete is weak, there may not be much force available to express in the first place.
We still squat, hinge, push, pull, carry, and train single-leg strength. We still want athletes to get stronger over time. There is tremendous value in building a bigger strength base.
The difference is that we do not stop there.
Eventually that strength needs to become useful. We want the athlete to use it quickly. We want them to absorb force, control it, and redirect it. We want them to move in different directions and different planes. We want the lower body, trunk, and upper body working together instead of looking like separate pieces.
That is why a complete sports-performance program should never just be a collection of exercises. Every movement should have a purpose. Strength work should be there because the athlete needs to produce more force. Sprinting, jumping, medicine-ball work, and reactive drills should be there because the athlete needs to express that force faster, in different directions, or under more sport-specific demands. The goal is not to check boxes and make sure every type of training is included. The goal is to identify what the athlete needs and then choose the right tool for that job.
Why a Complete Offseason Program Matters
A good offseason baseball program should include more than just lifting. It should include strength, sprinting, progressive plyometrics, medicine-ball work, change of direction, appropriate mobility work, recovery, and eventually a progressive throwing program.
Those pieces should support each other rather than compete with each other.
This is also why training age matters. A middle-school athlete who just went through a growth spurt may need a completely different program than a college athlete who has been training consistently for five years. One athlete may desperately need basic strength. Another may already be strong but needs to develop more elasticity and rate of force development. Another may have plenty of power but lack the mobility to get into positions where they can effectively use it.
This is why simply handing every baseball player the same lifting program makes very little sense.
Build the Athlete, Not Just the Lifter
The goal is not to create the best weight-room athlete. The goal is to create a better baseball player.
Strength is part of that. Fascia and elasticity are part of that. Sprinting, jumping, throwing, mobility, and movement quality are all part of it as well. When those qualities are developed progressively over time, an athlete becomes better at creating force, absorbing force, transferring force, and producing it quickly.
That is ultimately what we are trying to accomplish during the offseason.
Where Do You Start?
This is also why we don’t believe the answer is simply handing an athlete a program and telling them to start lifting.
Before we decide what an athlete needs, we need to know where they are starting.
At Impact, our athletes begin with an evaluation process where we look at movement, mobility, body composition, speed, jumping ability, change of direction, strength and power qualities, injury history, recent growth, training experience, and the goals that actually matter for their sport.
From there, we can start answering the important questions. Does this athlete need to get stronger? Do they need to move better? Are they strong but unable to produce force quickly? Do they need more elastic and reactive work? Are there limitations in the hips, ankles, or shoulders that need to be addressed before adding more load or speed?
Two baseball players can be the same age, play the same position, and need completely different programs.
That is the value of having an actual developmental process instead of simply following a workout.
If you have a baseball or softball athlete who wants to use the offseason to become stronger, faster, more explosive, and better prepared for their next season, start by sitting down with us for a No Sweat Intro at Impact Fitness & Sports Performance. We can learn more about the athlete, what they are trying to accomplish, where they currently are, and whether our Sports Performance program is the right next step.
The goal isn’t just to work harder this offseason.
The goal is to make sure the work is actually moving the athlete in the right direction.
Works Cited
Manzi, Joseph E., Jonathan S. Yu, Suleiman Y. Sudah, et al. “A Systematic Review of Lower-Body Kinematic and Strength Factors Associated With Pitch Velocity in Adult Baseball Pitchers.” Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, vol. 32, no. 4, 2023, pp. 440–448. DOI: 10.1123/jsr.2022-0059.
Parisi, Bill, and Johnathon Allen. Fascia Training: A Whole-System Approach. Independently Published, 2019.
Roberts, Thomas J. “Contribution of Elastic Tissues to the Mechanics and Energetics of Muscle Function During Movement.” Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 219, no. 2, 2016, pp. 266–275. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.124446.
Schleip, Robert, and Divo Gitta Müller. “Training Principles for Fascial Connective Tissues: Scientific Foundation and Suggested Practical Applications.” Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, vol. 17, no. 1, 2013, pp. 103–115. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbmt.2012.06.007.
Skolfield, Stan. “Baseball Off-Season Development Part 2: Pitching Velocity Is About More Than Muscle: Why the Fascial System Matters.” Skolfield Sports Performance, September 9, 2026.
Zügel, Martina, Constantinos N. Maganaris, Jan Wilke, et al. “Fascial Tissue Research in Sports Medicine: From Molecules to Tissue Adaptation, Injury and Diagnostics: Consensus Statement.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018.
