As an athlete, performance in any sport is directly related to speed and power. How fast and powerful you can get somewhere or perform a specific task is what makes athletes superior. Running fast, throwing fast, jumping fast, and jumping high are all present in great athletes.
All of these things require strong back muscles.
For example, lat muscles in the back are the catalyst in transferring energy when sprinting. The direct relationship with faster athletes and strong back muscles will always be present.
In other words, fast athletes won’t have weak back muscles. The lats (or your wings), spinal erectors (muscles along the spine that stretch and rotate the back), and the upper back muscles all have different functions but all help with having good posture. The way your body holds its posture directly corresponds to how you can have good force production when exercising or playing a sport.
Form is important. The relationship with great form, the condition of the posterior muscle chain (all the muscle on your backside), and a good balance between the lumbar (low back), thoracic (mid back), and hip extensors is crucial for optimal performance.
As an athlete, the back also requires a significant amount of motor control; without it there will be a decrease in muscle strength. Moving the body, whether it’s a twisting or rotational motion, back extension, pulling are all common, but working the back muscles in only one plane, like a simple lat pull, isn’t bad but doesn’t really get an athlete to train like an athlete.
Sometimes an athlete performs horizontally with movement when it comes to the back (lats, upper and lower Traps, Low Back / Erector Spinae, Rotator Cuff, Teres Major).
All parts of the back have to be trained in many different planes of movement to get the most out of the coordination and motor learning for how they perform certain tasks in their respective sports.
Without back muscles, the body won’t be stable enough to produce good running mechanics, throwing mechanics, or any other movement in sports.