PLYOMETRICS WITH MED BALL THROWS

Plyometrics are one of those elements of training that's crucial for sprinters and jumpers. What the ultimate goal of plyos are is to decrease the amount of time that it takes for the muscle to lengthen and then shorten, but also increase the amount of elastic energy that we can store and release during that period of time. That's what the goal of plyos are. Sprinting, in and of itself, is a plyometric activity.

Goal of plyos:

• Decrease time spent on the ground
• Increase ability to store and release elastic energy

The important thing to remember with plyos is that it has to be eccentric-concentric. You can't start in one position and drive out. What we're trying to teach athletes to do in large part with plyos is get triple extension to get the foot down into the ground and get to the point where we are driving through and locking through the hips. That's what we're trying to teach as coaches. So whether we're using medicine ball throws, multi-throws, hopping and bounding drills..., regardless of the method we use, we're trying to teach that skill. The triple extension is crucial. We're doing it in the weight room, with our plyos, with our speed work coming out of blocks, in our jumps... That is what we are trying to teach primarily because hip extension is the most powerful force that the human body can create. And because kids are not that coordinated, what we're going to try to do is to increase the ability to be explosive through the hips. There's basically two ways that you can do it.

Triple extension ➔ Extension of ankle, knee and hip

The first that we'll cover is through the use of medicine ball throws or multi-throws. Coach Latif Thomas uses these exercises especially early if he has younger athletes who he doesn't think have the physical ability, the coordination or strength and power to handle bounding and hopping plyos. They'll do medicine ball throws. This is a good opportunity, for example, if you coach in a cold weather environment in the winter time, you're training in high school hallways and you have concrete floors. Of course, you're not going to have your sprinters doing single leg plyos or alternate leg bounds down a concrete hallway. That would be crazy. So instead, if you have gym time, you can use these medicine ball throws, either throw them the length of the gym or throw them against the wall. That's going to help you get that triple extension.

Another thing that coach Latif Thomas has been experimenting with is using medicine ball throws as the primary means of developing strength and power for his 400, 800 types and his non-jumping sprinters. Oftentimes if we have non-jumping sprinters, these bounding plyos may not be the best way or the best means of developing the skill of triple extension. So from a coordination standpoint, we will scale back the intensity by using medicine ball throws and have those athletes do that, and then have the sprinter jumper types do more of the hopping and bounding drills.

Two ways to use plyos:

• Medicine ball throws
• Hopping, jumping and bounding exercises

The important thing to remember and the fundamental thing coach Latif Thomas thinks with medicine ball throws is that you have to cue your athletes and explain and teach them that they're trying to use their legs to move the medicine ball and their arms are just a guide. What you'll see early on when you start having your sprinters do medicine ball throws is that they will throw the weight with their arms, whether they're doing overhead back or between legs front. Whatever it happens to be, they're going to throw the ball with their arms as opposed to using their legs. It's the same problem that we see with athletes doing cleans in the weight room improperly. They're using their upper body and trying to heave and throw the weight with their arms as opposed to using their legs to move the weight in a clean. Same thing happens with medicine ball throws. You'll see athletes doing an overhead back. They'll come back this way and throw the medicine ball with their weight. Instead, we want to drive through the hips and have a good flow of energy and momentum, and guide the ball with our arms and throw the ball with our legs. From a coordination standpoint or a skill development standpoint, that's the first problem that you're going to see. Be sure to remind kids when cueing that.

* Throw with legs, guide with arms

Of course, you also want to see athletes get extension through the hips, which can be difficult depending on the exercise that they're doing or if they add some of the more complicated components, like hopping forward or throwing the medicine ball back. They can double hop. You can do whatever you want, but you have to focus on making sure athletes get extension through the hips. Medicine ball throws are a good exercise to use in order to help develop this skill. Like any plyos, you're going to do these after your speed work, probably before your weight room in order to develop the speed and power.

Bibliographic references:

• CompleteTrack. (2016). Plyometrics with Latif Thomas [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/WW-qlyigc6s?si=FsOu2MItDbsGPsMI