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Medicine Ball Exercises for Fighters

By Corey Beasley

 Fighters need to develop a variety of physical qualities to perform at their best. Things like balance, mobility, coordination, strength and power play huge rolls in how well a fighter performs.  In addition to traditional lifts, sprinting, jumping and throwing play a huge roll in developing speed and power for athletes.  In this post, we gathered videos, from coaches around the globe, using medicine balls to improve speed and power in their athletes.

Develop Upper Body Speed and Power with These Medicine Ball Exercises for Fighters

 

#Repost @sportsciencengineering ・・・ UFC Fighter Chad Laprise @chadlaprisemma performing Medicine or Slam Ball Side Toss @apcgym ! A valuable Power exercise, that may help MMA athletes develop functional rotational power. Rotational power is so important for MMA Fighters because punching “Power” is initiated in the “HIPs”. However, you can have tremendous strength in the hips, but if you don’t know how to use them or get that power out of them and translate that into punching speed then it is useless. Focus: We really want to focus on transferring weight from the back foot to the front foot while exploding rotationally through the hips and torso. Just like when we punch, we want to use momentum and make sure our hips are travelling towards the opponent while remaining balanced & ready, followed by a rotational release of built up tension through the legs, hips, torso and ultimately arms. This drill can be done by any athlete & we usually use a 10-20lbs weighted medicine or slam ball, with 3-4 sets of 5-8 repetitions. Coaches Note: I’m amazed at how many athletes struggle with this drill. Our athletes’ who can perform this drill usually do a good job of using their lower half when they throw, while the ones who can’t tend to be more static or use more of their upper body thereby leaving the more powerful lower half out of the equation. I have also noticed that our athletes’ who are the best pure athletes have no trouble with our various speed & agility drills, whereas our less athletic players struggle with them. I believe this has a large part to do with their gross motor skill development (neglected at an early age). References: Rick Boutilier & Mike McCarthy, 2013; Stodden et al., 2008; Szymanski et al., 2007, 2011

A video posted by fightcampconditioning (@fightcampconditioning) on

 

#Repost @woody_visvires ・・・ Exercise of the week - Reactive Medicine Ball Punch. Here we see Vis Vires Athlete - professional Muay Thai and K1 fighter @bradquakeriddell demonstrating a reactive medicine ball punch. First of all at full speed and then in slow motion. This move is fantastic for developing rotational power and strength whilst teaching the athlete to make the connection from lower to upper body. It is all about rotational power from the hips and it starts in fighting stance. The ball is held with both hands by the chin. The hand on the side we are working is to the back of the ball and the other just to balance. Brad keeps his chin tucked in, keeps soft in the knees, sits a little and rotates his hips to face the wall at the same time pivoting on his back foot. As he does this he makes his arm an extension of the force generated from his lower body and releases the ball just like he is throwing a punch, letting his scapula glide and arm go into full extension. The ball must travel in a straight line at head height. The 'reactive' portion is due to the med ball being bouncy and so will propel back from the wall with speed - Brad has to react and catch the ball and set himself up for the next rep. It is a nice drill to add into your strength and conditioning program depending on the athlete and where they are in their training phase. @tigermuaythai @fightcampconditioning #strength #conditioning #fitspo #fitness #muaythai #k1 #fightsports #fightcamp #tigermuaythai #visvires #athlete #medicineball #punch #phuket #thailand A video posted by fightcampconditioning (@fightcampconditioning) on

 

#Repost @elliotthulse ・・・ Been a while since using the Tornado Ball, still got it though ?? #strengthcamp #opengym A video posted by fightcampconditioning (@fightcampconditioning) on

 

#Repost @corefit_marx ・・・ Wrestling workouts at Northwood w/@mitch_minotti #explosive #wrestlingstrength #northwoodwc

A video posted by fightcampconditioning (@fightcampconditioning) on

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