”¬J j_0à 3iç-ô㥠Ž[æ#¥‘ðÀ È@ qŠ‘PŽý»š6óÿצ‚[ÛŠE'<¥!PÀíNWÈ ”gqç°¤¨Æå ZPW¨¥8¢àð:`\¹1LBäs·=vŽ@ÇÔEôýiHÃ~ H¥FÈ98ê1ÅLn"“h B‘õ"ž±}M8®3Í)õô c‚ GJ^ÔÜöÅc'Ú€†GøQM' »P#ÿÙnbsp; You just have <�U>to expect a miracle!<�/U><�/P> <�P>Last January I called Coach Ane to talk about the season. He said, "Greg, you just can't believe these kids. Our season ended before Thanksgiving. I told the kids to take some time off to let the bumps and bruises heal and that we would start the BFS program in early January. After eight days, I heard a knock on my door. Two of my leaders came in and said they wanted to start the program today. I asked them how many others felt the same way. They opened the door and the whole team was standing there."<�/P> <�P>How can America fail to be great with youth like that? Thanks to Coach Ane, his staff and especially his players for being Upper Limit and Playing their Song.<�/P>especially those designed to work the abdominal and lower back muscles. <�br>Remember how boring sit-ups are? One partner exercise especially popular at the Academy was partner sit-ups with a medicine ball. As shown above, the athletes lock their ankles together and toss the ball back and forth, performing a sit-up as they throw it. Because the ball is moving rapidly, when the athletes catch it the abdominals get a much tougher workout than if the athletes simply held the ball on their chests.<�br>One exercise that was especially tough was a series of push-ups with one or both hands resting on a medicine ball, as demonstrated on page 56. This exercise emphasizes many of the smaller muscles of the shoulder that stabilize the joint, and it s much tougher than it sounds. In fact, the Air Force Academy tried to incorporate these types of push-ups during a toughness training ritual called Recognition Week that every cadet must endure. However, after the cadets had performed dozens of these push-ups, we received a call from the supervising officer to stop them because the cadets upper bodies were too exhausted to continue the remainder of their physical tasks!<�br><�br>Power Training<�br><�br>What the medicine ball is especially good for is power development. Power can be defined as work performed over time. Medicine balls take the strength developed from high-tension lifts such as the squat and teach the body and mind to use that strength faster. In sports, you have only a fraction of a second to return that tennis serve or to break that tackle. This is exactly why athletes who excel in the weight room often may be outplayed by physically weaker opponents who can apply a given level of strength more quickly.<�br>For most athletes, especially beginning-level and most high school athletes, power cleans and push jerks can produce significant improvements in power. And with limited amounts of time available to most of these athletes, the basic BFS system is perfect. However, athletes who have extra time or who are at especially high levels of ability may be ready for more sport-specific power movements using medicine balls.<�br>For example, a volleyball player will want to achieve maximal jumping ability. If the player does a series of squats using a barbell, the weight slows down, achieving zero velocity at the end of the movement. This is necessary for safety purposes. But in jumping, there is an increase in velocity, with peak forces occurring near the end of the movement. This difference in velocity curves may not mean much to a 12-flat sprinter trying to lower their time to 11.9, but such training details mean a lot to a 10.4 sprinter trying to lower their time to 10.39. <�br><�br>Testing<�br><�br>In addition to their use in developing power, medicine balls are a great tool to determine if an athlete needs to concentrate more on increasing strength or power. A great test, and one that is used extensively in Europe, is to have an athlete throw various weights of medicine balls overhead and backwards for di