Catch and Overhead Throw

How to do it

1. Stand facing a partner or a wall with a medicine ball, feet about shoulder-width apart.
2. Have the partner throw the ball to you high, or throw it against the wall so it comes back overhead.
3. Catch it with both hands overhead, letting the arms bend and the trunk give back slightly as it lands.
4. Without pausing, throw it back forward over the head, driving the trunk forward and whipping the arms.
5. Release in front of the head and follow through.
6. Reset for the next catch.

Common mistakes

• Catching stiffly. The arms and trunk give as the ball lands; a rigid catch stops the ball dead and the throw starts from nothing.
• Letting the catch pull you into a backbend. The give is slight; if the lower back arches deeply on every catch, the ball is too heavy or the catch is too soft.
• Pausing between the catch and the throw. The catch is the loading; the throw comes straight out of it.
• Throwing from the arms. The trunk drives forward and the arms finish.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Lats

Secondary

• Abs
• Pecs
• Shoulders