Medicine Ball Exercises for Hitting and Pitching Power
In these videos, I show you how to correctly perform medicine ball exercises to improve hitting and pitching power without negatively affecting mechanics.
In these videos, I show you how to correctly perform medicine ball exercises to improve hitting and pitching power without negatively affecting mechanics.
Hey Joe,
Great videos. I assume that the thought process in being able to emphasize the hips by throwing from the knees is to complete the motion using fewer joints. I tend to use more upper body when completing this movement (and others) from the knees. While coaching and performing various rotational softball/baseball drills the drills performed from the knees empasized upper body mechanics and those that are designed to emphasize lower body mechanics minimize upper body movement – such as the old tee drill with the bat behind the back. Have you noticed this with any of your trainees and if so what cues have you used to address this?
Hi Kelly,
The purpose of beginning on the knees (during medicine ball drills) is to dissect out and emphasize the contribution of the hips during the rotational sequence. I don’t understand the second half of the question,
JB
Hey Joe,
The second half of the question was really just explaining my experience with rotational drills/movements. I understand that your reasoning for throwing from the knees is to emphasize the use of the hips, however it’s my experience with rotational movements done from the knees that the performer of the movement uses/emphasizes the contributions of the upper body and not the lower body/hips when performing an approximation or early regression of the desired movement from the knees. It’s my experience that in order to emphasize the lower body during a rotational movement it is easier to de-emphasize or eliminate the upper body/hips during the approximation or early regression of that movement.
When I do this movement or other rotational movements from the knees it feels as if the emphasis is on everything above the waist and it does not feel as if I am using my hips as much as I would if my feet were on the ground. I was wondering if you had noticed this with any of your trainees and if so what cues do you use to address it? I hope that I am explaining myself better.