The medicine ball is a versatile training tool that baseball players can use to increase power, velocity and bat speed. Designed for both hitting and throwing, these medicine ball drills will improve a baseball player’s ability to create force from the ground and transfer that force directly into a throw or a swing. An athlete’s body needs to get used to feeling this energy transfer in order to better apply their rotational strength in a game setting. As you improve with these medicine ball drills, your body will understand the exercises better and provide your brain with the necessary feedback and information to feel like your movements are synced up and on time.
Timing is of extremely high importance in baseball. If you can feel good rhythm when you throw a medicine ball, you will be able to move forward in your training and feel that same rhythm when you throw or hit in a baseball game. Use these med ball exercises to build strength and power from the ground up, as you elevate your strength training.
Strength Through Stability
Med Ball Pelvic Matrix
How To: While laying on your back, tuck your ribs down and keep your entire back firmly on the ground. Then, squeeze a medicine ball between your knees and cross your ankles. The three patterns in the matrix are front to back, circles, and figure 8’s. Be sure to maintain strength in your core so your low back does not come off the ground.
The Pro’s Perspective: The Med Ball Pelvic Matrix provides proximal strength and stability. This allows for greater distal mobility. The pelvis’s relationship with the thorax helps create energy up the kinetic chain. This results in higher velocities and cleaner mechanics when you throw.
-Josh Reidt, Reidt Fitness Systems
BOSU Single Leg Med Ball Slam
How To: While stabilizing on one leg on a BOSU, lift the medicine ball overhead. Then, engage your anterior chain by tilting your pelvis posteriorly and tightening your abdominals. Initiate movement by hinging at your hip into hip flexion. From this position, transfer energy to the medicine ball through your trunk and upper extremities. Maintain balance and stability at the end position in single limb stance to ensure proper deceleration patterns.
The Pro’s Perspective: This single leg exercise challenges both trunk acceleration power and deceleration patterns. The component of utilizing an unstable surface to highlight single limb stance stability adds to the challenge. Stability in single limb stance is essential as an overhead athlete. This stability ensures efficient energy transfer from the ground to the ball at ball release. This exercise primarily works on power production in the sagittal plane, but also challenges stabilizing muscles in the frontal and transverse planes.
–Nathan Kindstrand, PT, DPT, OCS, ATC, CSCS, Tustin Physical Therapy Specialists
Med Ball Heiden Jumps
How To: Hug a medicine ball at your chest as you load into your hip and explode out with a lateral jump. Maintain your posture and balance as you stick the landing.
The Pro’s Perspective: Creating power in the frontal plane is a must for rotational athletes. Most athletes struggle to load their hips properly causing the body to drift into the knee. Med ball heidens help teach eccentric loading of the back hip which is crucial to power development and force transferring in the frontal plane. Use between sets of deadlifts (4-6 reps).
-Josh Reidt, Reidt Fitness Systems
Half-Kneeling Med Ball Single Leg Slam
How To: In a half-kneeling position, raise the ball overhead and slam it down in front of your lead foot. Rise up as you slam and focus on stabilizing in that front leg.
The Pro’s Perspective: This drill teaches the lead leg to create a stable landing base for the trunk to accelerate and rotate against, allowing for a clean energy transfer of force from the ground up at release.
-Josh Reidt, Reidt Fitness Systems
Pure Power
Med Ball Stomp + Step Overhead Toss
How To: Setup square to a wall. Holding the medicine ball, extend upwards while rising to the balls of your feet. Aggressively accelerate the ball into the ground. For ‘Step Ovehead Toss’ start square to the wall and hold the medicine ball evenly at chest height. As you step, rise the medicine ball overhead and when your foot hits the ground, complete the overhead toss as fast as possible. Make sure your plant leg does not yield as you land with a stiff leg and extend through the ground.
The Pro’s Perspective: This exercise trains acceleration in global flexion and a firm front side. A pitcher in baseball is generally going from global extension to flexion . Therefore, this drill helps train this aspect at relative high speeds as well as effective front side landing mechanics. Many elite pitchers do an exceptional job of landing and extending through the stride leg on release and drills like this give your body the information to take that feeling from your workout program to the game.
-Ronnie Lopez, CSCS, USAW-L2, USATF, DEUCE Athletics
Rotational Med Ball Shot Put w/ Counter Movement
How To: Keeping the medicine ball close to your chest, load into your back hip by laterally jumping towards your rear leg. Rotate your pelvis and trunk away from the wall under control. Using a stable foot/ankle/hip/trunk rotate out of your back hip quickly by pushing into the ground and rotating into your front hip while transferring force into the medicine ball. Allow your front foot to rotate and finish over your front side.
The Pro’s Perspective: The Rotational Medicine Ball Shot Put with Counter Movement emphasizes hip loading, force transfer and thoracic rotation delivering the arm. It requires coordinated dynamic loading of the trunk and pelvis with increased demand into the back hip, a stable foot/ankle complex and rotational trunk/hip/foot/ankle power to produce force into the med ball.
–Nathan Kindstrand, PT, DPT, OCS, ATC, CSCS, Tustin Physical Therapy Specialists
Receive and Release Rotational Scoop Toss
How To: This exercise is done with a coach. Setup 90º to the wall while the coach is set up in front and to the side of you, at about a 45º angle. The coach will toss the medicine ball towards your back hip. As you anticipate the ball, begin your stride towards the wall. Make sure your hips are traveling forward as your hands move back to receive the ball (THIS IS KEY!) Complete the scoop toss by firing the ball into the wall.
The Pro’s Perspective: The goal of this drill is to make use of the eccentric preloading to generate more force on the toss along with hip/shoulder disassociation training. This is key to generating rotational power. A MUST drill for ALL baseball players, hitters, and pitchers alike. A good prescription is 3 sets of 5, on each side, with a 4-6 pound medicine ball. Make sure you have enough rest in between sets to put some speed on the ball, and consequentially, force into the wall.
-Ronnie Lopez, CSCS, USAW-L2, USATF, DEUCE Athletics
Progression of 3 Medicine Ball Exercises For A Baseball Player
From The Pro: These three drills are a great way for baseball players to get used to transferring linear power from the ground up before progressing to more athletic throws that require additional strength and stability. Training linear power is important for core strength as well as for maintaining balance and feel from the lower to upper body. As you transfer energy from the upper to lower body while maintaining spinal congruency, you can improve arm speed and coordination. For this workout progression, proper technique is key to moving forward. You want to maintain positions that allow you to transfer and create power, in order to emphasize acceleration and not deceleration. Check your posture and always strive to be SMOOTH and FAST.
Tall Kneeling Med Ball Overhead Slam
How to: Kneel on both knees while holding a 2-10 pound medicine ball (heavier initially for less speed). Squeeze your glutes and reach the ball up overhead. Exhale fully and pull the ribcage down. While maintaining upright posture, accelerate the ball to and through the ground, letting your arms swing.
The Pro’s Perspective: This slam is done to generate and transfer straight line power from the ground up. This is my favorite power exercise because someone new can feel it and some one advanced can own it. Straight line power and the ability to coordinate and accelerate are huge factors to build up before beginning to add rotation to medicine ball exercises!
-Garrett Nelson, Victory Athletics
Split Stance Rollover Med Ball Slam
How To: Split your legs front to back while holding a 2-8 pound medicine ball (heavier initially for less speed). Squeeze your glutes as you turn your torso and arms away from the front leg. Exhale fully and pull the ribcage down. While maintaining upright posture, accelerate the ball up to overhead, and simultaneously rotate your torso and arms towards your front leg as you throw the ball down to the ground as hard as you can.
The Pro’s Perspective: This slam is done to generate and transfer straight line power with a rotational component from the ground up. This drill begins to create additional rotational power in a baseball specific position and will get your body used to transferring power from side to side, while keeping hips in alignment. Once you can accelerate, add some complexity to your power work. By adding difficult positions, these drills reinforce getting into, out of, and developing power in, each of them. The added rotational component without adding more movement is great for challenging yourself.
-Garrett Nelson, Victory Athletics
Figure 8 Med Ball Shot Put Throw
How To: Setup perpendicular to a wall while holding a 2-6 pound medicine ball (heavier initially for less speed). Squeeze your glutes to maintain tension as you turn your torso and arms away from the front leg. Bring the ball up to your back shoulder with your arm behind it in a shot put position as you exhale fully and pull the ribcage down. Shift your weight back and forth to feel each foot, while also letting your arms create a “figure 8” with the ball. Push off the back foot to the front leg aggressively. While maintaining upright posture, accelerate the ball straight ahead, rotating your torso and arms towards your front leg as you throw the ball as hard as you can.
The Pro’s Perspective: Rotational power is critical for baseball players and we need to be able to accelerate in multiple positions. This drill begins to create additional rotational power in a baseball specific position and will get your body used to transferring power from side to side, while keeping hips in alignment. Shot put throws are a staple in any power development program and work for hitting and throwing. They are infinitely customizable if you THROW THE BALL AS HARD AS YOU CAN each and every time. If you do that, good things will happen!
-Garrett Nelson, Victory Athletics
Conclusion
These drills for baseball players are designed to provide athletes with the initial resources to move forward in their training. At The Pro’s List, we want to share exercises and videos that allow athletes to see how the professionals are training. If you want to throw like a pro, you should train like one. Learning how to use a medicine ball properly is a great way to get your body used to the patterns you need to make throws and take swings in a game. Find the best coaches that are sport-specific, know how to train your body, and will work to optimize your performance.
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