Strength: Medicine Ball Pushups
This advanced pushup variation is excellent for developing explosiveness because of its plyometric nature, involving a pre-stretch then a rapid contraction of the muscles.
Execution
Have your players assume a pushup position, with one hand on a medicine ball and the other on the ground. Your students push upwards explosively into the air, and simultaneously shove the medicine ball sideways. They must time it so the ball rolls under their opposite hand just as that hand descends on top of it.
They then lower themselves, pushup-style, and launch upwards again, passing the ball back to the other hand. Continue for as many pushups as they can perform explosively.
Advantages
The exercise requires great explosiveness, since the hands must be pushed off the ground higher than the height of the medicine ball. Coordination and timing are required to roll the ball from hand to hand while pushing off the ground.
Proprioception (sense of the body in space) is developed since the body must balance on the medball and the angles of the arms are different when they push off.
Finally, having one hand on the medball increases the range of motion of the pushup, allowing the body to be lowered farther towards the ground.
Dick Moss, Editor, Physical Education Digest. From a discussion with Brent Gauvreau, who was a hockey player with the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes organization.
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