The wall ball debate

At the 6:30 PM workout tonight there was a bit of a debate between Ben and I about the movement of the wall ball. So whats this all about. Well the discussion was to determine the starting and finishing point of the wall ball movement and why these are important to hit. Below are the standards for the wall ball movement, as published by Coach Glassman in the CrossFit Journal Issue 12 August 2003 titled "Functionality & Wall Ball" (for those of you who want to read the entire article, which I heavily suggest) and why these standards are so important to reach. I think as CrossFit trainers and athletes we are all striving to produce/become the fittest athlete we can, and the more education we can share and obtain through each other, through blogs, articles and debates, the better equipped we are to help ourselves and other to further our goals. Post your thought and comments, lets get a blog going and learn some!



"This exercise..." (referring to the wall ball) "is largely a front squat and push-press combination. The functionality of throwing or shooting an object from overhead and standing up is hopefully obvious.
We use a 20-pound Dynamax Medicine Ball and a flat vertical target (originally the wall and hence the name) located about 8-10 feet above the ground.
The movement begins as a front squat and follows through to a push press/shove that sends the ball up and forward to the target from which it rebounds back to the throwers outstretched arms where it is "absorbed" back into the squat. In its entirety the wall-ball is quite simply a throw.
When perfected, each shot looks identical to the one before, and the ball’s contact and departure are gentle and smooth." "The drill can be made as difficult as needed by increasing the weight of the ball, moving back from the target, or raising the target."
"Here are technique fundamentals:
Each rep begins with a rock bottom squat, with feet flat on the floor
Keep the elbows down and in
Keep the ball low to the chest
Don’t let the ball obstruct view of target
Launch with little finger roll and push
Make ascending and descending movements the same
Minimize breathing and ball contact noise
Breath deeply and attempt to synchronize breathing to shot rate
Greg Glassman, CrossFit Journal 8/2003


K, so heres why that is so important...
The purpose of CrossFit is to produce the fittest athlete. Someone who can compete in any event, (endurance races, triathlons, rock climbing, track and field, football and so on) and not only make it through the event/sport but to perform great (not just well). The standards of our movements are specifically put together to maximize your ability to do this. "The cardiorespiratory benefit of mixed modal, high- intensity functional movements, a la CrossFit’s WOD, a better, more useful, broader cardiovascular stimulus than any monostructural activity like biking, swimming, or running—even in combinations.""As an example of high functionality and marked carryover of cardiorespiratory benefit to sport and human performance in general, we offer our "wall-ball" exercise. " "The wall ball drill comprises two highly functional classical weightlifting movements brought together at light loads and extended duration to create a super-potent metabolic conditiong tool with an enormous potential for increasing athletic performance."Greg Glassman.


So another debate will arise, "you can still obtain these benefits if you don't drop into that last squat". Not really. You could still get SOME benefit, but why would you short change yourself. The purpose of this movement is to increase power output. Simply put, power output is: Distance X Weight divided by Time. Therefore if you are decreasing your distance in the movement you are decreasing your power output. These are not movements put together at whim because someone said, "Hey, that sounds like it would really suck" (although I know a lot of you think that ha, ha), these are movements that are focusing on our full range of movement to maximize our power output to increase our 10 factors or fitness (cardiorespiratory endurance, stamina, strength, power, speed, flexibility, agility, accuracy, balance, and coordination).
So with that in mind let's drop our butt into that finishing squat, catch the med ball after every toss, and kick some ass in those others sports we do outside the gym.