S B Coaches College -Elastic Core Development with Medicine Balls




		Elastic Core Development with Medicine Balls *Joe Bonyai, CSCS*

Introduction

Medicine balls can provide a coach an arsenal of exercises to achieve any training effect. We can use them for warm-ups, prehabilition, power, strength and metabolic development. Specifically, med-balls are my essential tool in developing rotational power.

Many untrained athletes are ineffective in producing power efficiently. In an effort to perform better, athletes may just attempt to swing the racket harder, or generate greater arm speed. Teaching our athletes rotary mechanics will improve their throwing, swinging and striking ability, and can also improve their multidirectional acceleration and deceleration skills.

In order to rotate effectively from the hips and through the shoulders, both must be mobile. The hips themselves must be able to dissociate, rotate, flex and extend in opposition. The shoulders must be able to rotate independently of the hips. Golf analysts commonly refer to this as the X-factor, but it’s been mentioned in the performance community as well. During swinging and throwing-type movements, the shoulders will turn through a greater arc than the hips. The hips must generate a lot of force in order to pull the shoulders around with great velocity (in order for the shoulders to “catch up” with the hips at impact or release). Also, as the hips begin to accele-rotate, the shoulders remain turned for instant. This produces greater separation between the hips and shoulders and induces a stretch reflex across a functional line from one hip to the contralateral shoulder.

Rotation is not only limited to throwing, swinging and striking but includes lateral or multidirectional movement as well. Effective multidirectional acceleration is produced by rotation through the hips and shoulders. Powerful rotation and extension propels the body towards its target and places the body in an efficient position for linear acceleration mechanics to take over. Examples of this include a base-runner attempting to steal or a tennis player reacting to their opponent’s serve. Proper multi-directional deceleration mechanics involve preventing rotation in order to change direction quickly with minimal energy leakage. Accordingly, athletes must learn how to both produce and resist and rotational force.

Before I go further, med balls are not my only method of developing power. Med ball work has its own place and progression like Olympic lifting, plyometrics and strength exercises. A sensible, balanced approach will lead to a quicker first step or increased bat velocity, even without med balls.

However, med balls do serve as an essential link between traditional weight room preparation and sport performance. Although we can expect to see a transfer of strength and power from traditional methods to sport performance, med ball training produces a greater specific mechanical-stimulus. Rotation is a complex movement and its mechanics should be introduced in the weight room.

Another benefit of med ball training is that it provides the option to train with speed. This not only enhances power development, but can also serve as a prehabilitory, eccentric training component for the hips, torso and shoulder girdle. Injury commonly occurs during deceleration-eccentric movement in the transverse plane (Clark, 2001). Med ball work makes a pretty good case to be implemented into any coach’s program.

Principles for Progression

Linear vs. Rotational Exercises

My athletes will perform med ball work two times per week. During the earliest phases, one day is assigned to “linear” exercises and the other to entry-level rotational exercises. “Linear” med ball work includes chest passes, overhead passes and overhead slams. I designate this type of work as “linear” because there is no (or shouldn’t be) visible rotational movement allowed. The focus isn’t on the speed of the ball, but on maintaining a solid upright posture, with the glutes fired, abs pulled in and tight, and the shoulders back. Professionals like Gray Cook, Michael Clark and Mike Boyle have extensively outlined the importance of developing multi-segmental stability before we can expect our athletes to move effectively.

Stance

As the program evolves, the easiest way to sensibly progress each exercise is by altering the stance. This way the athlete does not have to adapt to learning too many new exercises; the basic principles stay the same. Most of my teams will follow the same progression from a half-kneeling position, to kneeling and then standing. I use the same chop and lift-stance progressions outlined by Gray Cook (2003) and implemented by various professional coaches. I would progress to a split-stance or scissor position if time allowed. It significantly narrows the base of support, and can be difficult for many athletes.

Speed of movement

Another way to alter the training effect of med ball exercises is with speed. Generally, I consider most of the work I do with med balls under the umbrella of Elastic Core Development. My elasticity continuum is fairly simple. My exercises are broken down into three speeds: non-reactive, reactive, and very reactive. The directors of methodology at Athletes’ Performance refer to these speeds as varying degrees of “response”. I’ve adapted this idea and simplified it for my athletes. Non reactive med ball throws will be single, max effort throws, much like a pitcher delivering to home plate. A reactive med-ball throw will be continuous, with generally a full functional range of motion in between each rep. I relate the speed of this movement to a shortstop fielding a routine ground ball and throwing the ball across the infield. He has time to field the ball, arrange his body and make the play. Very reactive med ball throws are continuous, but with little “ball contact time” in between each rep. I compare the speed of this movement to a second basemen receiving a feed from the left side of the infield and turning a double play. He must make the turn quickly and doesn’t have time to rotate completely.

I like to train both ends of the elasticity continuum, so one day will be assigned non-reactive throws and the other day to more reactive throws.

Don’t forget that these exercises employ a velocity-specific, eccentric-deceleration training effect, especially on the shoulder girdle. By implementing appropriate progression by exercise, volume and speed, these exercises can be useful in preventing injury. However, the eccentric load should not go overlooked, especially as the program approaches competition, when velocity increases and your athletes might be practicing sport skills (throwing, swinging, and movement) outside of the weight room.

Exercises

Half-Kneeling

This position gives the athlete a longer base of support in the sagittal plane, which helps to prevent compensatory lumbar flexion and extension. However, the athlete should be cued to brace the abs and fire the glute of the hip that is extended (knee down). This also serves to build linkage between that glutes and torso, which we’ll need during rotational exercises.

Tall-Kneeling Linear (Stability Emphasis)

The athlete begins kneeling and is cued to get as “tall” as possible. The athlete must squeeze the glutes, pull in and brace the abs, and keep the shoulders in proper alignment throughout each exercise.

Kneeling Rotational Exercises

The athlete begins by either facing the wall (Hips-Square) or facing away from the wall (Hips-Perpendicular). From a tall-kneeling position, the athlete loads the hip by “sitting back” and rotating through the thoracic spine. Once the athlete has loaded the hips, they should focus on squeezing the glutes to explosively fire the hips forward. The athletes should finish “tall”.

Hips-Square Rotational Pass

Hips-Perpendicular

Standing Exercises

Starting Position

The starting position is very similar to a base or universal athletic position. The action is virtually the same as the kneeling exercises, at least at the hips and torso.

One thing I look to prevent is excessive femoral adduction/internal rotation of the lead leg. The standing exercises can even be done with a light-resistance mini-band around the lower thighs to insure the lateral rotators of the lead hip are firing to stabilize the knee. Excessive femoral adduction/internal rotation demonstrates inadequate hip mobility. Hip mobility dysfunction has many causes and consequences. The details outweigh the content of this article but hip stiffness will lead to two mechanical issues during med ball throws:

In order to generate rotation, the athlete rotates the pelvis excessively (Cook, 2003). I’ve found athletes who are immobile through the hips are generally tight through the thoracic spine as well. Rotating the pelvis too much with little mobility through the shoulders loses any chance of creating an X-factor, or separation between the shoulders and hips.

If the lead hip is medially rotated and adducted, it forces the knee to travel in a long, dangerous arc. During swinging motions like golf or baseball, as the hips generate speed, the lead leg straightens and acts as a stable post for force transmission. Excessive hip medial rotation/adduction forces the knee to travel a greater distance before “posting up”. This combined with high angular velocities may put the lead knee at increased risk for injury.

Hips-Square Rotational Pass

Hips-Perpendicular Rotational Pass

More options..

Single leg variations are an excellent reactive prehab exercise for rotary hip and knee stability.

Most of my standing exercises (above) are demonstrated with a narrow stance. Alter the stance based on the athlete’s sport or movement.

Split or Scissor Stance

Acknowledgements

I must thank my mentors at Athletes’ Performance in Tempe, Arizona for their support and contribution to the material and this article. The methodology and progressions used in this article are very much a reflection of my education under the AP staff.

References

Cook, G. (2003). Athletic Body in Balance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Clark, M.A. (2001). Integrated Training for the New Millennium. Thousand Oaks, CA: National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Joe Bonyai is currently an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Springfield College in Springfield, MA where he is completing his Master’s degree in Exercise Science and Sports Studies with a focus in Strength and Conditioning. Prior to attending Springfield, Joe graduated from Gettysburg College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Sciences. At Gettysburg, Joe was a four year starter on the baseball team where he earned first-team all conference and academic all-American honors. Prior to attending Springfield, Joe completed full-semester internships at Velocity Sports Performance and Athletes’ Performance in Tempe, AZ. Joe is certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Joe can be contacted at jbonyai@spfldcol.edu.