I'm a huge fan of med ball work for all my athletes, whether they're home school High School basketball players in Mt Juliet and Lebanon, junior high wrestlers in Franklin, baseball players in Brentwood, or adults, surgeons, working moms of two, or grandmas. Med ball work is great for anyone in Nashville.
Any and all kinds... Regular slams, rotational slams, circle slams, chest passes, overhead throw, vertical drive, backward throw, lateral jump throws, backward jump throws, single leg slams, rotational chest passes. The possibilities are endless. But here are some videos just so you get the idea.
Something I've been tinkering around with are med ball no slams. And I think these could be crucial in preventing posterior chain injuries, especially to low back and hamstrings
A med ball movement requires explosive strength in the direction in which the ball is being thrown.
If I'm doing a traditional med ball slam, it requires a lot of hip flexors, core, and chest with a little bit of lat.
If I'm doing a rotational throw into the wall from rotating to the right, the right oblique, lat, and hip are the primary drivers of the med ball carrying that momentum through to the target.
But what if we were to suddenly stop? All that kinetic energy MUST be absorbed by the opposite side of the body.
So in a traditional med ball slam position with a no slam, the force is going down, being generated by the front (anterior) muscles of the body, but when that suddenly stops, the back (posterior) muscles have to counteract that force.
In a No Slam the spinal erectors, lats, rhomboid, glutes, hamstrings, and calves all LIGHT UP working to stop that momentum.
A 2020 study found a majority of hamstring injuries occur at point of contraction, so building a better contraction can help build resiliency in that tissue.
As you can see in these videos, the body naturally organizes to load the strongest muscles to absorb the stop. Those muscles are the hips and hamstrings.
The mind muscle connection that can be developed in these movements can be extremely powerful.
When clients do these for the first time, they automatically go "wow, that felt crazy"... They're simply not used to thinking about how those muscles work.
I love doing these, especially when it comes to warming up for posterior dominant movements like a deadlift, snatch, or power clean.
And these really don't require a ton of coaching -- some reminders to try to lock the body down and not let the ball carry too far downward. And the body seems to really want to stop with a neutral spine, loaded hip, balanced foot.
The brain knows that if it is out of balance it is going to load the spine in a bad position or take a tumble forward. So it does a lot of self organizing to get the back, hips, hammies, and feet organized for a stop.
Another thing I've been tinkering with is doing this single leg, to have the tension really build in an individual hamstring group, rather than across the entire hip joint and supporting cast. I imagine these would be really effective for an athlete with a history of hamstring issues.
According to a 2020 literature study, a majority of hamstring injuries happen when the hamstrings go from fully stretched to contracted (think when the front leg goes to hit the ground in a sprint).
The med ball no slammies are a sudden contraction of the hamstring. They hamstring lengthens, lengthens, lengthens as the pelvis travels back and the torso travels down. When those motions are suddenly stopped, the hamstring has to brace to absorb that bodyweight plus weight and momentum of the ball.
CONCLUSION
Med Ball work is phenomenal. Try working in a sudden stop of the movement to work the opposite side of the body. These can be particularly beneficial for building mind muscle connection, body awareness, and tissue resiliency in the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings.