Driveline Archive - C2Baseball

What are Plyo Balls and what can they do?

You see them everywhere on baseball fields and at tournaments: Colorful, soft balls that are thrown against walls and nets. These balls are called plyo (or plyocare) balls and it's hard to imagine modern baseball without them. They can be used in many different ways, which can make it difficult to categorize and use them correctly at first.

There's also the old, widespread stigma that all balls heavier than 5 ounces (the weight of a baseball) are the devil for your throwing arm - I was taught this emphatically.

Digression: Without going beyond the scope of this article, I would like to briefly address the question: "Are heavy balls bad/dangerous?". They are no more or less dangerous than a baseball. Just as you can overload your body with a baseball, you can of course overload your body with weighted balls/plyocare balls (just as you can with sprints, bench presses, skiing, jogging, crocheting, etc...) As unromantic as it may sound, the human body was not designed for a 5 ounce ball any more than the 5 ounce ball was designed for the body. It just evolved that way.

Heavier balls also do NOT automatically lead to a higher load on the arm (which is desirable in some situations - compare all other forms of training that are intended to induce physical adaptations). Roughly speaking, the stress caused varies depending on the weight, exercise and, above all, intensity(https://infogram.com/plyo-velo-to-mound-comparison-1h0r6rvkkkz72ek,https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2017/12/plyo-velocity-weighted-balls-replication/ ).

Areas of application for Plyocare Balls:

Warmup

Plyoballs are a great training tool to make the warm-up more effective and efficient. The slightly increased weight of the ball allows the arm to enter into stronger external rotation (layback) even at lower intensities and to mobilize, stabilize and activate the arm in these ranges of motion. At the same time, the exercises and the balls contribute to an improved perception of movement, making higher intensities possible more quickly.

Physical adaptations

Although it is not the main aim of the Plyocare Balls, targeted training with maximum intensity can induce physical adaptations and train sport-specific speed strength.

Technical improvements

Paired with the "constraint drills", i.e. exercises with certain restrictions on the degrees of freedom, the plyoballs can be used to improve throwing technique very effectively. The different weights of the balls create an increased perception of movement. This allows the body to find its own ideal technique within the limits set by the exercises. Good movement patterns are therefore memorized and consolidated.

Armcare

The improved arm fitness and more efficient throwing technique alone protect the arm from injury as a first step. The next step is to use the Plyocare Balls to train shock absorption and arm deceleration. Example arm care routines can be found here, here and here.

Do you find the concept of training with Plyocare Balls interesting and perhaps have already purchased a Driveline Plyocare Ball Set, but don't quite know what to do with it?

No problem, I'll try to explain it to you as simply as possible so that you can get started quickly and make progress! If you want to know more about Plyocare Balls in general, read Plyocare Balls and how they work.

The most important exercises

The exercises are structured in such a way that they

1. start at the end of the delivery and

2. allow more and more degrees of freedom from exercise to exercise.

As a first step, you can perform a general series of drills. Later, when you are more experienced, you can also customize the exercise selection.

Here is a brief introduction to the general series:

Reverse Throws

Youth: 10x green ball

Adult (ca 14): 10x green ball, 10x black ball

Reverse throws strengthen the posterior muscle chain of the upper body. When the ball is released, the hips are parallel to the wall and the shoulder girdle is normal to the wall. This prepares the body for the "Hip to Shoulder Separation".

Pivot Pickoffs

Youth: 10x green ball

Adults (approx. from 14): 10x green ball, 10x black ball

One of the most complex but also most important Plyocare Ball exercises. This exercise focuses very strongly on arm action and the correct timing of upper body rotation, shoulder rotation, arm extension and forearm pronation. The most important points are:

You start with the "wrong" side to the destination
The palm of the hand points towards the ear when lunging
The upper body pulls the arm and hand
The hand remains inside the elbow and should only stretch and pronate relatively late.

Rollins

Youth: 10x blue ball

Adults (approx. from 14): 10x green ball, 10x blue ball

With rollins, a linear component is added to the arm action. The step sequence is the same as for normal throwing. The big difference is that the back foot does not turn, but points continuously towards the target. This means that the hips are always open and you can increasingly feel how the armaction can help to keep the upper body closed against the open hips.

The back foot does not turn, but points towards the target
The upper body remains closed for as long as possible with the support of the arm action
Make sure that the head is above or behind the belly button when first making contact with the ground
The front leg should not give way after landing

Foot up Rocker Throws

1x blue ball, 1x red ball, 1x yellow ball, 1x gray ball

(1-2 sentences)

The Foot up Rockers allow one step more degrees of freedom. In the starting position, the legs are in the same position as with Footplant during a throw. To initiate the throw, the player first pushes the hips forwards and then backwards. As he shifts his weight and hips backwards, he also lifts his front foot a few centimeters off the ground before throwing the ball. In the rocker throw, the player must/can use almost the entire chain to transfer energy to the ball. The main focus in this drill is on sequencing and the lead leg block.

Hips initiate the movement, not the upper body
When the front foot touches down, keep the upper body closed, head above or slightly behind the navel
Front foot blocked after it touches the ground again

Walking Windups

1x blue ball, 1x red ball, 1x yellow ball, 1x gray ball

(1-2 sentences)

The walking windups are the final step and are closest to the actual pitching delivery. The player takes a few steps into the throw. He also lifts his knee as he would for a pitch. The exercise improves the speed of the delivery and helps to learn to sequence the movement at a higher speed.

Move swiftly into the delivery
The stride should pass straight forward after the leg lift at the latest

Incorporate Plyocare Balls into your training

After an extensive general and arm-specific warm-up (e.g. J-Bands, Shoulder Tube, Wrist Weight drills) and before throwing is the best time for the drills in training.

The entire series can be performed up to 3 times a week (always at least one day apart) at approx. 70% intensity. After a familiarization period of 3-4 weeks, 1-2 of these units can also be performed at approx. 90%.

On the other days, the recovery version of the exercises can be performed. These are only reverse throws and pivot pickoffs with 50-60% intensity.

Arm Recovery/Care should be performed at the end of the workout. You can find example routines for this here:

Have fun and be successful!

Keyword: Driveline

Plyo balls and their function