Wall Ball Tips from CrossFit Intrepid

1. Elbow position

When you catch and toss the wall ball, try to keep your elbows either straight up and down or angled slightly inward. This position sets you up much better for tossing the ball to a target above your head. If you let your elbows angle outward when you catch and toss the ball, a couple of things can happen. One, when you catch the ball with elbows out it’s much easier to allow the ball to drop lower or out in front of you, moving your center of gravity away from you, making the movement much tougher on your back and making it less efficient. Two, when you toss the ball overhead, your shoulders aren’t in the most effective position to get the most force on the ball. Compare this to the position you would use to shoot a basketball, you don’t see professional basketball players taking a shot with their elbows pointed out.

2. Head and neck position

If you’ve ever done the workout “Karen” (150 wall balls for time) you may notice that your neck can get tired spending all of that time looking up. Some people suggest trying to keep your head and neck in a neutral position for as much of the movement as possible. This part takes practice because you still want to be able to see your target and see the ball to catch it, so you’ll need to figure out at what points you may need to look up a little more and at what points you’re okay just seeing the ball in your periphery. This leads to the next point about your position relative to the wall.

3. Position relative to the wall

In order to keep a more neutral head position and still have the ball in your peripheral view, you may need to step away from the wall a little bit. In general, most people end up standing too close to the wall which makes it harder to toss the ball at an angle so that it can bounce off the wall and come back to you. If you’re too close to the wall, you may miss the wall and the ball will fall straight down in front of you, or if you do hit the wall, it may end up falling on top of you or a little too close to your face. One day, it might be a good idea to take some time to find your “sweet spot.” Try gradually moving away from the wall until you no longer feel like you’re craning your neck, but you’re also not catching the ball too far in front of you and hurting your back.

4. Glute activation

This last tip is tied to pretty much every movement in CrossFit, especially ones where you squat…keep your glutes active. Active glutes will help you to stay under control at the bottom of your squat and soften the blow as the ball lands in your hands. Keeping your glutes active will also help you to drive the ball upwards as you stand out of the squat so that your shoulders and arms aren’t doing all of the work to make that ball hit the target.

Warmup
Jump Rope 5 Minutes

15 Minutes for QUALITY (no more than 5 sets)
10 Goblet Squats
10 Push-ups
10 Kettlebell Swings
10 Butterfly Sit-ups

Conditioning
AMRAP 12 Minutes
25 Wall Ball Shots
15 Pull-ups