Rotational medicine ball throw
Cricket, hockey, boxing and MMA are all rotational sports, and none of them are measured by anything you do in a straight line. This test is the cheap, honest measure of the power they actually run on.
The rotational medicine ball throw measures the trunk and hip power behind a drag flick, a strike, a throw or a punch. Three each side, best distance.
Test both sides. Rotational athletes are asymmetrical by trade, and the gap is worth knowing.
The point of the test
Rotational trunk and hip power, and the asymmetry between sides.
Why it is in the Train Smart battery: Rotational power — the drag flick, the strike, the throw.
How to run it
Side-on to a wall, 3kg ball, throw across the body. Three each side, record the best.
- What you need
- A 3kg medicine ball · A wall · A tape measure
What is a good score?
We are not going to publish a precise-looking table for this test. Reported ranges vary too much with protocol, equipment, level, age and sex for a single table to be honest, and most of the tables in circulation for it are uncited copies of each other.
The comparison that actually changes your training is against your own last score. That is not a consolation prize — it is what the monitoring literature supports, and it is what Train Smart does: re-test every four weeks under the same conditions and let the trend, not the percentile, drive the program. The papers behind that are here.
What people get wrong
Most of the variation between two tests is protocol, not fitness. These are the faults that make one score incomparable to the last.
- Only testing the dominant side.
- Rotational athletes are asymmetrical by trade. The gap is worth knowing.
- Throwing with the arms.
- It is a hip and trunk action. If the arms are doing the work, the technique needs coaching before the number means anything.
How to actually move the number
Rotational power is trained with rotational work — throws, chops and hip-driven med-ball variations — and with the anti-rotation strength that lets the trunk transmit force rather than leak it. The cricket and hockey programs load a side plank under weight for exactly that reason.
The movements that build a rotational medicine ball throw
Testing tells you where you are; these are what change it. Each one carries the coaching cues, the sets and reps Train Smart prescribes it at, and ranked alternatives — and in the app the weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Why it is programmed |
|---|---|
| Romanian Deadlift | Posterior chain for driving legs |
| Weighted Chin-Up | Contested marking + tackle strength |
| Weighted Dead Hang | Decompresses the spine and loads the shoulder at full overhead range — the cheapest overhead flexibility work there is |
| Cable External Rotation — end-range hold | The rotator cuff loaded where it actually fails — at the end of the range, decelerating the arm after the ball has gone |
| Jefferson Curl (light KB) | Loads spinal flexion and hamstring length together, then holds there — the range you land and bend in, owned rather than avoided |
| DB Pullover — stretch hold | Lat length and thoracic extension held at end range — overhead room for reaching, marking and throwing |
| Seated DB Shoulder Press | Overhead strength for contests, marks and intercepts |
| Farmer Carry | Grip and a braced trunk under a load that is genuinely heavy |
More: shoulder exercises · back exercises
Know your number. Now train for it.
Train Smart re-tests you every four weeks on your sport’s own battery — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces automatically.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
- Install itFree to download on iPhone and Android.
- Tell it how you playYour sport, your season, the nights you train and the kit you have. No account needed.
- See your week, then start freeYour program is built before you pay anything. Start the free month to unlock it, and cancel any time in your store settings.