“Medicine ball” and its use in training athletes

Do you want to have powerful and crushing blow? Like Nikolai Valuev or Mike Tyson? If your answer is “yes,” then this article is for you! Today we will tell you about such an indispensable training tool as medicine ball. Yes Yes! This is what leading Champion athletes use in their daily training. For example, the world-famous Ukrainian brothers Klitschko developed their crushing blows by exclusively throwing medicine balls...

Exercises with a medicine ball are designed to develop and improve strength and power in athletes of those sports disciplines that require explosive strength, and also use strikes, throws, all kinds of jumps, in general, a sharp change in the direction of movements, etc.

Medicine ball (hereinafter referred to as NM), what is it?

A medicine ball is a specially weighted training equipment used not only by athletes, but also by doctors for medicinal purposes in post-traumatic programs and rehabilitation activities. There are several different sizes of medicine balls available, but we recommend training with balls that are approximately the same size as a volleyball or its basketball cousin.

The mass of the ball often varies in the range of 0.5 – 4 kilograms. For beginner athletes, it is recommended to use very light medicine balls, weighing 0.5 - 1 kilogram. The emphasis should first be on right and subsequently flawless execution exercises, with a gradual subsequent increase in the weight of the projectile.

It is important to understand that firstly: every throw of the ball must be made explosive and as powerful as possible. The second key point is that in this version of the training you should direct the main emphasis of the load not on the arms, but on strengthening the muscles of the torso, in particular the abdominal and back muscles.

A typical beginner's mistake is that the athlete throws the medicine ball mainly due to hand strength and upper shoulder girdle. In fact you need to work with your whole body entirely, engaging the abdominal and back muscles throughout the entire throw. It is important to understand that the power, strength and direction of an attacking blow in boxing, wrestling, volleyball and other sports is provided by body work.

Explosive strength training exercises using medicine balls and similar implements.

1. Starting position - legs apart, medicine ball in front of the chest;
   1. squat on your right leg with your torso tilted to the right;
   2. pass the ball to your right hand, push the ball up;
   3. catch the ball with both hands above your head;
   4. then do the same in the other direction.
2. With both hands, throw the ball up 1-2 m and then catch it (the weight of the medicine ball is 1-3 kg).
3. Sitting on the floor, alternately transfer the NM from hand to hand.
4. Starting position - feet shoulder-width apart, with the torso tilted forward. Quickly straightening up, throw the NM upward and catch it.
5. From a squat, throw the ball up with both hands, straighten up, and catch the ball.
6. From the position: sitting on the floor, throw the ball up with both hands, then quickly assume a position lying on your back, and immediately stand up and catch the ball.
7. Starting position - NM on the right hand, throw up and catch with both hands (one hand). The same goes for crouching when catching a ball.
8. Starting position - arms to the sides, LM in the right hand. Passing the ball from hand to hand over your head.
9. Throwing and throwing exercises (with cannonballs, medicine balls, stones, sandbags. Projectile weight 1-5 kg):
   1. chest thrusts with two, one hand. Options: in a jump, with a change in direction;
   2. with both hands simultaneously from behind the head forward and upward;
   3. with both hands from below forward and upward;
   4. two hands back over the head;
   5. bending over, throw the ball back between your legs with both hands;
   6. standing with your back to each other, throw the ball back and up across the side with your torso turned to the left (right).
   7. from the “lying on your back” position, quickly push out a medicine ball with your feet; the partner must catch the ball and immediately throw it onto the feet of the lying athlete.
10. Throwing small balls with one hand from behind the head forward:
    1. at the target from standing, sitting, kneeling positions;
    2. over high obstacles from a standing position;
    3. at targets in the direction of running or located away from the direction of running;
    4. against moving targets;
    5. throw at a distance from a preliminary take-off run;
    6. to the distance of rebound from the wall;
    7. ricochet throws at the target.