Top 5 S&C Exercises for Dodgeball
Welcome to the final instalment of our return to play series. We’re joined again by Alex Harrison who is going to run us through his top 5 strength and conditioning exercises that all dodgeball players should be doing. You can catch part one & part two of the mini-series here.
These exercises are all unilateral exercises, which means that you are loading the weight onto one side. This also means that the rest of your body has to work hard to balance the overload.
We recommend doing each of these exercises at a controlled pace, doing 3-5 sets of 12 reps.
The weight will differ depending on your current strength level. Choose a weight and do one set of 12, if at the end of the set you feel you can carry on for another 5-10 reps, the weight is too light. If you struggle to get to the end of the set and maintain good form, the weight is too heavy. Try and find a happy medium where it is getting quite tough at the end of the set but you are able to maintain good form.
Single Arm Rows
The throwing motion puts a lot of strain on your pectoral muscles and can cause these to become overpowering. This can lead to rounded shoulders, a decrease in your range of motion and potential injury. This exercise works the middle section of your trapezius muscles which is used to pull your scapula back. This will rebalance the muscles around your shoulder causing an increase in your range of motion and reducing the risk of shoulder injuries.
Reverse Flys
This exercise again works on your trapezius muscles. For dodgeball this will help protect your shoulder from injury by controlling the deceleration of your throwing motion. It will also enable you to reset quicker after your throw to make you less vulnerable to post standing counters.
Single Arm Lat Pull
The latissimus dorsi is a muscle that often gets overlooked, but it is a major muscle in throwing, for power and stability. But you want to use it through its full range of motion, so the muscle doesn't restrict your throwing action and dominate the rest of the shoulder. Which is why this exercise is perfect as it strengthens and lengthens the muscle.
Single Leg Deadlift
As we throw, a huge amount of force is put on our plant leg, the majority of this force is taken up by the hamstring. This exercise simply strengthens your hamstring to be able to withstand more force.
Reverse Lunge
As we mentioned in the last exercise, a lot of force is put through your plant leg. This controlled movement helps stabilize your ankle, knee and hip and will allow you to put more force through your leg. In turn, this will lead to more of that force being transferred up into your throwing action.
There you have it, the top 5 S&C exercises all dodgeball players should be including in their training.