By Coach Ron Wolforth –
Let me be clear right up front: We are NOT anti-weight room. We never have been. Strength matters. It matters for velocity. It matters for durability. It matters for an athlete’s ability to hold up across a long season.
What we ARE questioning is how many baseball players go about developing strength and whether their off-season strength program is actually helping them become a better throwing athlete.
Twenty-five years ago, pitchers were often told to stay out of the weight room entirely. Lifting would supposedly make you tight, slow, and more susceptible to injury. Today, the pendulum has swung almost completely to the other side.
Everybody lifts. Everybody wants to get bigger. Weight-room numbers have become badges of honor. And one phrase has become almost gospel:
“Mass equals gas.”
Not so fast!
In our opinion, both extremes miss the point. The goal isn’t to become a weightlifter who happens to play baseball. The goal is to become a better baseball player who uses strength training intelligently to enhance his performance.
As you build your off-season program, here are several things I believe every throwing athlete, parent, and coach should keep in mind.
1.) Assess BEFORE You Prescribe
This may be the most important principle of all. At The Texas Baseball Ranch®, we believe prescribing a training program without first assessing the athlete is simply guesswork.
Consider two 16-year-old pitchers: One is 6’4″, 170 pounds and desperately needs strength and physical development. The other is 5’11”, 205 pounds, already very strong, but struggles with hip mobility, thoracic rotation, and movement quality.
Should those two athletes follow the exact same strength program?
Of course not.
Yet that happens every day. Every athlete brings a different structure, training history, injury history, mobility profile, stability profile, and set of physical constraints to the table. That is why our philosophy is simple:
Assess first. Prescribe second.
Cookie-cutter programs are convenient for the person running the weight room. That doesn’t mean they’re best for the athlete.
2.) Remember: A Pitcher Is a Specialist
I’ve always found this comparison interesting. Does an elite football program train its quarterback exactly like its offensive linemen?
Of course not. The quarterback’s livelihood depends upon his ability to perform a very specific, explosive, high-speed throwing motion repeatedly and accurately.
Sound familiar?
A pitcher occupies much the same position on a baseball team, yet many baseball programs put pitchers, catchers, infielders, and outfielders through essentially the exact same strength program.
That doesn’t mean pitchers should train less.
In many cases, they should train more and with tremendous intensity. But they should train differently, with different priorities, different loading strategies, and a different relationship to the competitive calendar.
3.) Be Very Careful With “Mass Equals Gas”
There IS a relationship between body mass and throwing velocity across large groups of pitchers. But here’s the mistake: correlation across a population is not automatically a training prescription for an individual.
The real question isn’t whether getting bigger helps pitchers throw harder. The better question is: Will adding mass to THIS athlete, at THIS time, at THIS rate, make him a better pitcher? And what might it cost him?
That’s an entirely different conversation. We’ve seen athletes gain considerable weight and strength only to become slower, tighter, and less explosive. We’ve seen thoracic rotation disappear. We’ve seen hip mobility decrease. We’ve seen movement quality deteriorate. We’ve seen athletes add significant numbers to their squat and deadlift while adding virtually nothing to their fastball.
Why? Because weight an athlete cannot organize and efficiently move is simply ballast.
“Get bigger” isn’t a plan. It’s a slogan. And slogans don’t develop athletes.
4.) Strength, Stability, Power, and Speed Are NOT the Same Thing
This is another major blind spot. These terms get thrown around almost interchangeably, but they’re different physical qualities.
Strength is how much force you can produce. Power is how much force you can produce quickly. Speed is how fast the movement itself occurs. Stability is your ability to control and organize your body while force is being produced or absorbed.
And here’s the critical point: Strength doesn’t automatically become speed. Strength can raise your potential ceiling, but simply becoming stronger doesn’t guarantee you’ll throw harder. We all know young men who are incredibly strong and still throw 82 mph. Speed must eventually be trained at speed. And stability is often the gatekeeper.
I like to describe it this way: Being strong without stability is like shooting a cannon out of a canoe. You can have an incredibly powerful cannon, but if the platform underneath it can’t organize and direct the force, much of that force is wasted. The throwing athlete doesn’t simply need more horsepower. He needs the steering, suspension, and transmission needed to effectively use that horsepower.
5.) Build the Foundation, Then Make It Transfer
Especially with younger athletes, don’t make the opposite mistake and try to make every exercise “baseball-specific.” Squat. Hinge. Push. Pull. Carry. Learn to control your body weight. Build general athleticism. Develop tissue tolerance and work capacity.
A young athlete who cannot control his own body in space doesn’t necessarily have a pitching problem. He has an athlete problem. Build the foundation first.
As the athlete advances through the off-season, begin integrating more rotational, explosive, single-leg, diagonal, and high-velocity movements that better reflect the demands of throwing.
In other words: Build the engine. Then teach the athlete how to use it.
6.) Don’t Forget the Other Side of Force: DECELERATION
This may be one of the most neglected qualities in baseball development. We spend enormous amounts of time teaching athletes to create force, but how much time do we spend teaching them to safely accept and dissipate it?
A pitch doesn’t end at ball release. The body still has to manage everything it just created. That’s why a throwing athlete’s program should not simply be about producing more horsepower. It should also prepare his body to tolerate, control, and repeatedly recover from that horsepower.
Availability is a skill. Throwing 94 mph doesn’t help very much if you can’t consistently take the baseball when your name is called.
7.) Recovery Must Be Part of the Program
One of the greatest mistakes we see during the off-season is believing more work automatically means more development.
It doesn’t.
Training provides the stimulus. Recovery is where the adaptation actually occurs. Sleep matters. Nutrition matters. Hydration matters. Mobility matters. Tissue quality matters. Cycling volume and intensity matter.
There should be deliberate valleys in your training calendar. Because as we like to say at The Ranch: If your calendar has no valleys, you won’t get peaks.
Recovery isn’t what you do when you’re NOT training. Recovery IS training.
8.) Measure What Happens on the Field, Not Just in the Weight Room
This is the ultimate test. Did your squat go up? Great. Did your deadlift improve? Wonderful. Did you add lean body mass? Fantastic. But those aren’t the final scoreboard.
Ask better questions:
Are you throwing harder?
Are you moving better?
Are you more explosive?
Is your arm healthier?
Are you recovering faster?
Are you more durable?
Can you repeat your delivery more consistently?
Are you a better pitcher?
Those are the measurements that ultimately matter. The weight room serves the athlete. The athlete does not serve the weight room.
The Bottom Line
Maybe you’ve already become plenty strong, and continuing to chase bigger numbers is taking time and energy away from the qualities that would actually move the needle. That’s why assessment, personalization, and continuous adjustment are so important. At The Texas Baseball Ranch®, we don’t believe the answer is less training.
We believe the answer is more intelligent training.
Work hard? Absolutely.
Get stronger? Absolutely.
But never forget why you’re doing it. The goal isn’t to win the off-season weight-room championship. The goal is to show up next spring healthier, more explosive, more durable, and better prepared to compete on the mound.
That’s the scoreboard that matters.
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Important TBR Updates
- Attention Catchers! Our annual Elite Catcher’s Boot Camp will be held December 11th – 13th. Registration is now open. CLICK HERE to learn more and reserve your spot. $500 Early Bird savings available.
- Fall Classes are Underway! Reserve your spot for the October class now. Classes are held Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM, and you can choose to attend one or both days each week. Spots are limited. Email Info@TexasBaseballRanch.com or call our office at (936) 588-6762 to secure a spot or ask any questions.
- Our annual Youth Camp (for players ages 8-12) will be October 3 & 4. CLICK HERE to learn more and register. ONLY 5 spots remain. Secure your spot now.
- Join us for a Fall/Winter Elite Pitchers Boot Camp!
October 10-12 (Sat-Mon) Spots Limited
November 21-23 (Sat-Mon) Spots Limited
December 28-30 (Mon-Wed)
January 16-18 (Sat-Mon)
February 13-15 (Sat-Mon)
To register or learn more CLICK HERE
- Have you been considering attending one of our 3-Day Elite Pitchers Bootcamp but haven’t yet pulled the trigger? To help, we have a detailed mailing package entitled “What Makes This Boot Camp Different”. If you’d like to receive this package and start making plans for the summer, email Info@TexasBaseballRanch.com and request a copy.
- It’s back! You asked, we answered. We are binging back our pitching coaches workshop. It will be held this year on December 4th & 5th. For more information or to register go to www.CoachesBootcamp.com or email info@texasbaseballranch.com.
- Coach Wolforth is hosting a special 90 minute webinar – “The Velocity Code: 3 Secrets to Improving Velocity and Staying Healthy” on Thursdays at 7pm CST. If you’d like to attend the next webinar, CLICK HERE to register.
