12-Week ACFT Train-Up Plan on TrainHeroic!
Hey, before you go any further, if you’re someone that needs help, I got you. My ACFT Train-Up Plan is now only $75. If you’re looking for an ACFT specific train-up program to follow, to get coaching, feedback, questions answered, exercise modifications as needed and to train virally with others I got you. Plus I have been training soldiers for over a decade and have way more than a weekend cert.
Of all the individual events on the Army Combat Fitness Test, the Standing Power Throw (SPT) requires the most amount of skill/”athleticism”/whole body coordination of any of the 6 events. None of the other events come close to requiring this level of coordination. Push-ups, nope, just a little up and down over and over again. 2-Mile Run, get out of here, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Deadlift, no chance, “I picks it up, I puts it down”. Sprint-Drag-Carry, no, it’s just a lot of moving pieces. Leg Tuck, nah. Every other event in the ACFT is just about putting in the time to get stronger, get faster and increase your endurance. There is no real skill involved in those other tests, just a whole lot of grit and toughness. You might be able to argue the LTK has a little skill involved with it, but that event comes down to the stronger person grabbing the bar and pulling themselves up over and over again.
I have worked in-person with over 100+ soldiers on the SPT since it first was announced, and what I found was that the Soldiers that grew up playing team sports or non-cardio based individual sports seemed to be the ones that picked up how to throw the ball farther the fastest. In short, the more athletic soldier performed better. But, just because you didn’t grow up playing sports or you were a swimmer, doesn’t mean you’re a lost cause on this event. A couple of little technique adjustments can easily add another few meters to your throw and that’s what I’m here to help you with. Just remember, it’s not “Practice makes perfect.” It’s “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect”. Just repeatedly throwing a ball overhead isn’t the best strategy to maximize your potential on this event.
I’m going to break down the 4 key Components that I believe everyone can work on to help them throw that little 10 lb ball farther. As always if you have questions please just comment below, I reply to all of them.
The Power Jump isn’t terrible, but how it is instructed in all honesty is garbage and I instantly am turned off by it. If you were going to be jumping out of cakes for a living then yes, by all means, this is a good exercise to perform to perfect you being crammed in a cake and nailing the surprise. But if you are actually trying to train smarter and actually do a movement that is better and gives you more carry-over to the test try the Medball Granny Toss. It is virtually identical to the SPT except you will be throwing the MB straight up for max height. This is a great drill to work on the timing of the movement, your preparatory movements, the coordination of all the moving pieces and your Triple Extension (I’ll go into that later).
“Now your back’s gonna hurt, ’cause you just pulled landscaping duty.”
The next exercise is the Overhead Push Press, also know as a Push Press in EVERY DAMN WEIGHT ROOM in AMERICA. Why does the Army insist on naming things like this? But I do love the Push Press. It’s another movement that can help train the whole kinetic chain working as one and hammer home triple extension. How you want to do it is simple, bend slightly at the knees only, keeping the torso vertical and the weight more balanced towards your heels. Then you will transition immediately at the bottom of the dip (no pause) and push with the legs against the ground to accelerate the barbell/DBs/KBs upward. As you finish the extension of the lower body (triple extension), begin pushing against the bar/DBs/KBs with the arms, keeping the knees and hips extended (straight) and immediately dropping back to flat feet. If your heels don’t leave the ground then you aren’t pushing hard enough with your legs. In their video, her timing is off a little and she starts to push with her arms too early and is minimizing her legs power output. I took a photo, look at her R arm, she is already pushing with her arms before she has finished her leg drive. Like all of this stuff, a little practice on the fundamentals pays off big time.
“Harness in the good energy, block out the bad.”
Which brings us to the Tuck Jump. So I don’t have anything against the Tuck Jump, but for the SPT and training for the ACFT, I don’t believe this is the best use of a movement or of your time. Why not use a Vertical Jump or a Box Jump (if taught properly)? What is the point of the tuck when training for this test? If I were you, just swap the tuck jump for Vertical Jumps or Box Jumps. But not the CrossFit style of ass to your heels box jumps.
The nice thing with Vertical Jumps is they require no equipment. So if you don’t have a box these should be your go to plyometric. But if you do have a box, Box Jumps are great when performed properly. Below is variation of a box jump that I like to utilize with my athletes to teach them to use their legs more. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Granted there is no arm swing with this variation, but it is a great way for you to work on maximizing your legs to their full capacity! And again, practice that whole Triple Extension thing.
“It’s all in the hips!”
It’s funny, when I started to write this blog I thought it was going to be a pretty quick critique and I’d be done. If you’re still here I appreciate it! And I’ll try not to blabber too much longer. I know your poop is almost over.
4 Key Components to the Standing Power Throw:
GRIP
When it comes to gripping the ball, you want to get your hands as far under the ball as possible. I know your hands “allegedly” are supposed to be on the sides of the ball. Or at least I’ve heard some people say that. But I’ve been through the manual, I’ve been through the website, I’ve talked to those who went to the training and all it says is grip the ball. The only rule is both hands need to be on the ball. So unless the grader specifically tells you that you cannot cup your hands underneath that ball, JUST DO IT. And if they say that you can’t, ask to see it in the regs where it specifically says it isn’t allowed.
If you feel more comfortable throwing the ball with your hands on the side of the ball, go for it, it’s your world. But in my professional opinion, you’ll be sacrificing a lot of distance by holding the ball on the sides. Granted, everyone will be different with their ideal hand placement, but this is one area I am 100% positive on, the further you can have your hands under the ball the further you’ll be able to throw it. If you are a female soldier, you have smaller hands than your male counterpart, so you must give yourself every advantage you can. For all you small bird-handed males out there that goes for you too. No point in being a tough guy now with those tiny hands. If you have banana hands like Tony Robbins, throw two balls at the same time.
Do your best to wrap your hands as far under the ball as possible. The ball has a higher tendency to slip out of your hands if you are side gripping it. Just don’t cup your hands over one another. I coach soldiers to get the outer edges of the tips of their pinkies to touch under the ball to start with, or close to that. And then let them play around with it to find the grip/hand placement that works best for them. Once they find what works best, then I tell them to stick with it and practice that grip every throw. There is no time limit so make sure your hands are where you want them before your attempts. You only have 2, got to make them count.
Still confused on what I mean? Easy way to see what I’m looking for is, hold your hands up in front of your face, palms facing you. Touch the tips of your pinks together. Notice the point/arrow/open triangle that your hands now form? Imagine the ball sitting right in your palms now. From here it is up to you to find the position that allows you to fire the ball the farthest. Which most likely will be close to this one.
I look at it like this, when Olympic Weightlifting, every non-weirdo hook grips the bar. The reason for that is it allows them to increase the strength/hold of their grip around the barbell. It’s basically locked in. This allows them to generate more force with their legs and not worry about losing grip of the bar. It’s the same thing as holding the outside of the ball (no hook grip) vs getting your hands underneath (hook grip) the ball. If that analogy is hard to grasp here is an article on The Hook Grip for a better understanding.
ARMS
The SPT isn’t just an upper-body movement. I repeat, this isn’t just an upper-body movement. A lot of the soldiers I worked with initially would just try to throw the ball with nothing but their arms and back. Don’t get me wrong, that’s one way to do it. But it certainly is not the best way. However, your arms are a big part of this event, so pay attention. The vast majority of your distance is going to come out of your legs, core and your ability to transfer all of the energy from your lower body up through your core and out through your arms into the ball.
When you do the preparatory movements, hinging at the hips, bringing the ball down between legs, etc, it’s ok to let your arms bend, but when it comes time to launch that ball make sure they are straight. This is where timing comes into this event. You want to be releasing the ball at a 45-degree angle. This angle allows for maximal horizontal distance and minimizes excess vertical distance. If you let the ball go too early, it will travel too vertical and not horizontal enough, and if you let it go too late, it won’t get vertical enough and be heading straight into the ground.
Soldiers that tend to throw it into the ground, typically have a bend in their arms and usually were side grippers. If you find yourself doing that, try to focus on keeping your arms as straight as possible for as long as possible. The reason for this is you want to increase your anatomical advantage. Whether you are short or tall or just plain old average, you want to maximize every inch your body has to offer. Picture a catapult. See photo.
Now the catapult was designed to throw things far distances and up over walls in medieval times. The bigger the catapult, the longer the swing arm, the farther the item would fly. Sidebar: Notice the object being thrown is sitting in a bowl at the end of the arm and not being pinched between two hands…get your hands under the ball. That’s what I want you to think about, using your arms like they are a catapult to toss that 10 lb ball into the stratosphere. Which leads me into the next component.
If you tend to be someone who throws the ball straight up into the air every time, I noticed that those people typically are mistiming when to release the ball (too early) and/or they are losing grip on the ball. Either or can be detrimental. This is where I suggest getting in perfect practice reps. Like I said early, perfect practice makes perfect. I’d recommend starting by working on the release of the ball at slower speeds first and using a lighter ball. Get the timing down, get the grip down, get the launch angle down, then once you have practiced it to the point that you can’t do it badly then work on putting more effort/speed into it. This is where the skill component comes in. Like any skill, you are going to move slower at first and over time you will work to engrain the movement patter to the point that you can now move fast and not have to think about it. It’s like learning any instrument, especially the guitar. It starts out slow and clunky and next thing you know you’re a poor man’s mediocre version of Tom Morello.
LEGS
Use them. All of them. Both of them. Every ounce of power you can get out of those legs use it! Your legs are like a spring, or better yet…a catapult! See what I did there? You want to put your lower body in a position to ever-so-briefly store energy and then release it to launch the ball just like a catapult or like pushing a spring down. If we all had long-ass arms like an orangutan we probably wouldn’t need to use our legs, but fortunately for us, we are built more proportionately than our orangutan brethren. But if you can tie your shoes without bending over you don’t need to keep reading, you’ll be fine. But share this with your short armed friends.
This is a full-body event and your legs are the driving force behind every meter you get. Maybe nature cursed you with short little stubby arms and tiny hands, but that doesn’t mean you can’t max this test with those powerful legs of yours. It’s just going to take a little more work on your part. But it is doable.
The people that I found that were able to throw the ball the farthest were my more explosive tactical athletes. Which happened to coincide with those that played sports. This finding didn’t shock me. The other people that could throw the ball the farthest were the ones who were (drum roll)… the strongest. It’s not exactly rocket science people. Stronger people tend to be more explosive. If you train with me, my goal is always to get everyone to move better while getting stronger and minimizing injuries along the way. Hence everyday is leg day!
Can you get better by just throwing the ball over and over and over and over? Sure. But you’ll hit a plateau rather quickly once you find the rhythm and the timing of it. That’s where getting stronger and maximizing your leg’s power output will help the most. I won’t go back into a sales pitch again, but you need to be squatting, deadlifting, plyometrics, and using other whole-body movements like medball (MB) throws. Or if you are coordinated enough some power cleans and/or power snatches, which are great for Triple Extension. The training that you should be doing for the Deadlift will carry over into this event by getting your legs nice and strong and if you are doing some squats too, back or front, you’ll be well on your way to get the most out of your legs!
Coordination:
Outside of grip, coordinating the whole-body to work as one to accomplish the task of throwing the ball the farthest is the 2nd most important piece to the puzzle. Coordination you could argue is the key to unleashing monster distances in this event. Without it, you won’t be maximizing your body’s potential to launch that ball into orbit. Internally our body has two types of muscular coordination that both play a huge role in anything we physically do. Intermuscular and Intramuscular Coordination. It’s how our muscles learn what the hell we’re trying to get them to do. This is how we get good at Triple Extension!
Intermuscular coordination is the first phase of any “NEW” training your body is trying to adapt to. We’ve all seen the person or we were the person, that was underneath a barbell or were picking one up off the floor and our entire body was shaking. That was our nervous system trying to get our agonists and antagonists muscle groups to work as one to move the bar. The shaking and rattling under a bar will dissipate and the bar will start to move more efficiently over time. Some soldier’s muscles will learn faster than others, but nonetheless, this learning needs to happen and is always happening. Granted for this test we are doing something more dynamic and not heavily loaded with the MB throw, but our body is still learning to get everything to work together. I’ve had people fall down the first time they attempted to throw the ball; I’ve had others launch the ball in the opposite direction. It’s a new thing; you’re allowed to suck at first. But stick with it your body will figure it out.
“It’s a new thing; you’re allowed to suck at first.”
Once you have figured the movement out, think big picture, your Intramuscular Coordination will start to be the driving force for more distance. This is where the skill acquisition, efficiency, and intensity with which your body can recruit individual muscle fibers comes into play. The SPT is a very specific movement pattern, Without your body being able to fine-tune your movement, you will be affecting your ability to generate more force and limit your explosiveness. Which is what this test is really measuring. The good thing is our body is always working to find the most efficient way to turn on and turn off individual motor units to improve our Intramuscular Coordination. It never stops, and though it might not be as visible with something like a MB throw it is still happening.
**FYI: In the Video my hands are on the sides of the ball because before I filmed it I was told your hands couldn’t touch. I know my feet slide too, so my suggestion is stand a little away from the line.**
You’ll need to get reps into practice the SPT, so my suggestion is to start with a lighter ball if available to you and work up over time to the 10 lb or a little heavier. Once a week should be more than enough to get you the reps. Try to get in 8-12 throws every week or two. And not in rapid-fire succession. This is a whole-body explosive max effort movement, so you want to rest accordingly. Keep your sets and reps on the lower side, 4-6 sets x 2-3 reps, resting between sets long enough to recover to hit far distances relative to you.
There you have it, 4 Components to improving at the ACFT Standing Power Throw. As I said, you can just go out and throw the ball over and over, day after day and probably get better at it. But you will hit the plateau fast with this one. Remember, there are other ways to train than just throwing a ball daily. Lift some weights, get stronger, get more explosive, improve your coordination and become a more well rounded Tactical Athlete. Or just join the TEAM already and all of the guesswork is gone!!!
If you want to take all the guesswork out of your daily training regiment, or if you’re looking for an ACFT Train-Up plan to follow, the easiest and smartest thing you can do is join one of our Online Training Teams for less than a $1 a day or buy access to our 12-Week ACFT Train-Up Plan. Learn more at the link below.
For those of you that caught the Happy Gilmore references above good for you. We are officially friends now. Just don’t be clingy. Here is a little humor before you go about the rest of your day.
Need Help? Just ask…Seriously.
I hope this can help some of you out there. If you have questions let me know geoff@gpshumanperformance.com
Geoffrey Steinbacher is a former Strength & Conditioning Coach within the THOR3 (Tactical Human Optimization Rapid Rehabilitation & Reconditioning) Program at Ft. Bragg. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) from the National Strength and Conditioning Association, as well as a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) from the National Athletic Trainers Association. He is also an Advanced Sports Performance Coach (USAW-L2) and Head Club Coach with USA-Weightlifting, and a Catalyst Athletics Certified Weightlifting Coach (CACWC-L1). Furthermore, Geoff has a BS in Athletic Training from SUNY Cortland and an MS in Exercise Science from Syracuse University.
ACFT Handbook Description/Standards:
Standing Power Throw (SPT)
Measures upper and lower body explosive power, flexibility, and dynamic balance. Explosive power contributes to tasks requiring quick explosive movements to maneuver equipment and personnel. These tasks include executing a buddy drag to pull an injured person to a safe location, throwing equipment onto or over an obstacle, throwing a hand grenade, assisting a buddy to climb up a wall, lifting and loading equipment, and employing progressive levels of force in man-to-man contact.
Starting Position
The Soldiers will face away from the start line, grasp the medicine ball (10 pounds) with both hands at hip level and stand with both heels at (but not on or over) the start line. Grasp the ball firmly and as far around the sides of the ball as possible. Towels or rags will be provided to remove excess moisture/debris from the medicine ball.
The Soldiers will receive 1 practice/warm-up throw to allow Soldiers to warm-up and the lane grader to move to an approximate landing point. Throw 1 is not measured or recorded.
Record Throws
As directed by the grader, the Soldier in lane one executes throw one. Soldiers are permitted several preparatory movements flexing at the trunk, knees, and hips while lowering the ball between their legs. When directed by the grader, the Soldier in lane two executes throw one.
Soldiers will have two record attempts on the Standing Power Throw. Soldiers in lanes one and two will alternately execute record throw one and two. As directed by the grader, the Soldier in lane one executes the first record attempt. Soldiers are permitted several preparatory movements flexing at the trunk, knees, and hips while lowering the ball between their legs. When directed by the grader, the Soldier in lane two executes first record attempt. A record attempt will not count if a Soldier steps on or beyond the start line or falls to the ground.
If a Soldier faults on the first record throw, they will receive a raw score of 0.0 meters. If a Soldier faults on the second record throw, they will receive a raw score of 0.0 meters. This Soldier will be allowed one additional attempt to score on the SPT. If the Soldier faults on all three record throws, they will receive a raw score of 0.0 meters for the SPT. If a Soldier has a valid score on either record the first and second throw, they will not be allowed a third attempt.
Once the Soldier has attempted two record throws, they will move onto the SPT lane to retrieve the medicine balls for the next Soldiers, and then return to the back of the line.
Although Soldiers are required to execute two record throws and both record throws are recorded, only the longer of the two throws will count as the record score. The start line grader will circle the best score.
To prevent injuries the grader should ensure the:
- Medicine ball is free of debris and dry before each attempt.
- Lane grader and ball retriever are ready to receive the throw.
- Start line grader is ready when the ball retriever rolls the ball back to the start line.
Grading Tips:
- A record attempt will not count if a Soldier steps on or over the start line during a throw. This is a fault and the throw will be repeated.
- Two faults in a row will count as a record attempt and the Soldier will receive a “0” for that record attempt.
