Why hold a Medicine Ball during Jumps or Plyos?

Dan Pfaff explains how holding a medicine ball during plyometrics helps coaches identify movement compensations by removing arm counterbalance.

This week, Coach Pfaff spent two hours with coaches from London to Toronto to Austin in our Coaching Eye Live Session breaking down what actually matters when you’re looking for movement red flags. 🌍 The theme was simple: Stop chasing symptoms. Find the driver. 🎯 Here’s what kept coming up. 1. The arm is rarely the problem. 🦾 Wild arm swing, hand rotation, flailing? Look at the ground. Look at the pelvis. Look at what the athlete is trying to counterbalance. “Arm swing is always a counterbalance puzzle.” 2. Severe restrictions don’t respond to cues. 🔧 If the ilium is locked or the tib-fib is jammed, no amount of clever constraint work fixes it. Address the hardware first. Then layer coaching. 3. Warm-ups are about function, not fear. 🔥 Cold weather doesn’t demand panic volume. Meet day doesn’t require doubling the routine. Most athletes over-warm up because they’re nervous. “Never do anything radically different from what you’re doing in training.” 4. In jumps, protect horizontal velocity. ➡️ Blocking takeoffs. Early vertical rise. Locked knees. Those are deceleration patterns disguised as power. “Long jump is two to one. Two horizontal to one vertical.” 5. Frequency is often a developmental crutch. ⚙️ Young or underpowered athletes spin their wheels and survive. As they mature, that same strategy becomes the ceiling. “The solution that worked for you at ten can be the enemy at twenty.” 6. Capacity follows efficiency. 📈 More reps done poorly don’t build resilience. Better sequencing. Better joint cooperation. Better timing. That’s what expands work capacity. “Efficiency has a huge influence on capacity.” 7. Earn the right to get complex. 🧠 Master the rudiment series, for example. Then add cognitive load. — Movement red flags aren’t always dramatic. ⚠️ They’re often subtle patterns that accumulate cost over time. The better your eye, the earlier you see them. 👁️ If you want to develop a clearer process for seeing movement, making sense of complexity, and connecting observation to action, the next Coaching Eye cohort begins May 2026. 👀 Interested in being part of Coach Pfaff's next group? 👉 Head here to learn more and register loom.ly/qtcqnio