Medicine Ball Rotational Throw: The David Donatucci Method

Based on Episode 123 of the Just Fly Performance Podcast, a conversation between host Joel Smith and performance trainer David Donatucci of the Florida Institute of Performance.

The medicine ball rotational throw is one of the few training tools that lets an athlete swing at full speed, release, and get instant feedback on how well force traveled from the ground to the hands. That is why David Donatucci, owner of the Florida Institute of Performance and a specialist in golf, baseball, and tennis, has built decades of rotational power work around it. His core message is that the throw only pays off when it matches the sport it is meant to feed. The angle you push the ball, the leg you load, and the speed you hit all change depending on whether the athlete swings a driver, a bat, or a racket, and getting those details right is what separates real transfer from just heaving a ball at a wall.

Key Takeaways

• Rotation runs on a sequence. Hips move first, then torso, then arms, then the implement, with the highest velocity at contact. Donatucci trains the links that connect it: hamstrings, hip stability, abdominal stability, and scapular stability.
• Emulate the sport, do not copy it. The medicine ball rotational throw should feel like the swing, not replicate it exactly, because the ball is heavier and held in two hands.
• Match the launch angle to the sport. Roughly 30 to 40 degrees for a baseball hitter, flat and horizontal for tennis and golf, downward for pitchers.
• The front leg is a brake. A planted front foot creates a braking system that reverses the hips and drives the rotation, the same action that produces a hard swing.
• Measure it. Donatucci aims for about 10 meters per second, progresses ball weight as speed climbs, and treats a clean knuckleball release (little spin) as the sign the mechanics are right.

Why rotational power depends on the sequence

Golf, baseball, and tennis look like different sports, but Donatucci treats their swings as variations on one movement. The lower half starts with a small linear shift, the hips rotate, the torso follows as the hips slow, and the arms and the implement come last, peaking in speed at contact. Coaches call it the kinematic sequence, and it is the spine of everything he programs.

The sequence of golf, baseball, tennis, on down rotational sports are really similar. The hip motion, then followed by the torso motion, then followed by the arms, then followed by the implement, is always a good sequence.

Because the power lives in that hand-off between links, he trains the links themselves rather than chasing one big number in the weight room.

For me, it’s hamstring strength being a priority. Hip stability, abdominal stability, and shoulder or scapular stability being the main focus that connects all of the rotational aspects.

For a coach, the application is to stop treating rotation as a single trunk exercise. Build the hamstrings and the stability that let the hips lead, and the medicine ball rotational throw becomes a way to rehearse the whole chain firing in order.

The medicine ball rotational throw: emulate the sport, do not copy it

The most common mistake Donatucci sees is coaches trying to make the throw look exactly like the swing. The ball weighs more than a bat or a racket and sits in two hands, so an exact copy is impossible and not the point. He wants the lower body and torso to behave the way they do in the sport while the throw stays a throw.

I use the term a lot, emulate what they do with their club or the bat or the racket, as opposed to trying to replicate it exactly the same way.

That framing matters because it tells you what to coach and what to ignore. You are not fixing the athlete’s grip on the ball to mirror a bat. You are checking that they load, separate, and reverse the way their sport demands, then letting the arms deliver. Tennis is his clearest example: he lets players set up in an open or closed stance like a forehand, drive the hips, and let the hands follow, so the lower half works as if it is swinging the racket.

I really try and get more of the lower half, the torso and the hips, to work as if they’re swinging the implement, as opposed to being exactly the same way they swing that.

Match the launch angle to the sport

Donatucci borrows from track and field, programming his throws as shot put and discus variations, and he adjusts the release angle to the demands of each sport. A med ball shot put throw, ball at the shoulder and pushed out in front, becomes the base. Where it goes changes with the athlete.

If we push the ball up a little bit higher, more of like a 30 to 40 degree angle, and kind of aim higher for that, that’s gonna simulate more of what we’re trying to get in a baseball swing.

He splits the sports plainly: baseball hitters want an upward push to match launch angle, while golf and tennis stay flat and horizontal, and pitchers work a downward angle.

Golfers are always trying to say, look, you want to throw this ball like you’re hitting a four-iron, so kind of be like a low-line drive. Tennis is kind of the same way. I want to keep that horizontal to the ground as much as possible. And baseball is really the only one from a hitting standpoint that I want to create more of an upward push through the ball.

For separation, he uses a discus-style throw: back to the wall, load the back leg, step toward the wall while keeping the chest turned away from it.

I’m going to keep my chest facing the opposite direction of the wall that I’m throwing at. So now I’m going to create that separation that the athletes need to get, in my opinion, to really create more of that whip, more of that torque.

The payoff can be immediate. He describes a hitting coach who was stuck with one player, brought him back to the med ball shot put throw as a feel drill, and sent him back to the tee.

He brought him back, did the medicine ball shot put throw and said, this is how you want to feel. The kid went back and improved his bat speed three to four miles an hour.

Donatucci is honest that a jump like that may not stick on its own, which is exactly why the throw belongs in the warmup as a repeated primer rather than a one-time trick.

How the front leg block builds the throw

Ask most coaches about rotational power and they talk about the back leg pushing. Donatucci spends just as much attention on the front leg, because it is what turns that push into rotation. After the initial load onto the back side, the front foot has to plant and fight back.

That front leg, that front foot needs to almost plant in the ground, create a braking system, and work in the opposite direction.

He describes two forces working against each other, and the collision is where the speed comes from.

You’ve got two opposing forces working within one another, and that’s where that front leg works as a braking mechanism.

To teach the feel, especially for golfers who like to hang back, he puts a six-inch box under the front foot so the athlete has to drive up and post onto that leg. He also uses a band looped around the front thigh and anchored behind, forcing the athlete to push into the front side to create rotation. Both drills solve the same problem: getting an athlete to stop staying on the back leg and actually load, then unload, the front one. The lesson for coaches is that the front leg block is trainable, and it is often the missing piece when a swing feels powerful but the ball does not go anywhere.

Golf versus baseball versus tennis: reading weight transfer

The reason one throw cannot fit every athlete is that rotational sports handle weight transfer differently. Donatucci reads it at the back foot.

A lot of baseball players have a lot of weight after the rotation on their back foot. Where in golf, it’s almost coming completely up and onto the front side.

The baseball hitter keeps some weight back and creates a shoulder angle for launch, and the head stays relatively still for accuracy. The golfer posts hard onto the front side and finishes with the hips facing the target. Those differences drive his coaching cues. Golfers, who tend to hang back, get the six-inch box to feel the front-side drive; baseball players who slide too far forward lose the head position that keeps them on the ball. Tennis sits between the two, with a bigger hip rotation and very little linear shift. Matching the drill to the pattern, rather than prescribing one generic hip toss, is the whole job. It is also why he warns against copying a vertical jump number straight across.

I have a lot of guys who hit the ball really far that really don’t jump very high.

A big vertical correlates with power, but only the athlete who can express it as a fast change of direction turns it into a longer drive or a harder hit.

Measuring the throw: velocity, ball weight, and the knuckleball test

For most of his career, Donatucci says, there was no good answer to how heavy a medicine ball should be or how hard a throw actually was. Newer velocity tools, like the ballistic ball he references, changed that by reading speed, force, and power output. His working target is about 10 meters per second, and he progresses ball weight as an athlete’s speed climbs.

You may start an athlete off on a three-kilogram ball and have them throw it and they’re getting 10 meters, maybe 12 meters per second. Now they’re getting 13, and then you’ve got to get the four-kilogram ball, and try and get those speeds up.

He treats the ball’s flight as its own diagnostic. A clean throw flies like a knuckleball with little spin; a ball that spins tells him something upstream broke down.

I always say you want to throw like a knuckleball, and if you can throw it ten meters per second and five kilos, you’re doing yourself pretty good.

When the ball spins, his first suspect is a ball that is simply too heavy for that athlete right now.

The ball’s probably too heavy for them and they’re really trying to muscle it more than they are trying to fluidly throw it. And again, it’s that ego that we have, that I want to try and make it as heavy as possible.

The practical takeaway is to pick the ball weight that keeps speed near the target and the flight clean, and to let the number, not the athlete’s ego, decide when to go heavier.

Coaching the back leg and a clean release

Loading the back side is not optional, because there is nothing to unload without it. Donatucci often isolates it with a single leg quarter squat with torso rotation before he ever asks for a throw.

They have to load on that back side. You can’t unload something if you haven’t loaded it already.

When the release still comes out spinning, the cause is usually the arms taking over or the dominant hand running past the other one. His fix is a cue aimed at the front hand.

I’ll say, smack me in the face with your left hand. That helps them get that torso to rotate a little bit more fluidly and allows the ball to travel more of that knuckleball pattern as opposed to a lot of spinning.

For athletes who need to keep momentum moving forward, like golfers, he borrows a picture from the game itself.

I called the Gary Player drill, one time when Gary Player would swing and hit balls, he would hit the ball, and they would just continue and walk down the fairway.

He pairs the throws with resisted lateral bounds and skater jumps so the athlete feels the same load-and-drive off the back leg without a ball in hand, then goes back to the throw. Cycling between the two ties the pattern together and helps it transfer to the sport.

Frequently asked questions

How do you use a medicine ball rotational throw to increase bat speed?
Donatucci uses a med ball shot put throw pushed at roughly a 30 to 40 degree angle to match a hitter’s launch angle, coaching the athlete to load the back leg, plant and brake with the front leg, and release with a clean, low-spin flight. He describes a hitter who added three to four miles per hour of bat speed after using the throw as a feel drill, though he cautions the gain needs repeating in the warmup to stick.

How can medicine ball throws help increase club head speed?
For golfers he emphasizes getting onto the front leg, often with a six-inch box under the front foot, so the athlete posts up and drives through the front side instead of hanging back. He keeps the throw flat, like hitting a four-iron, and uses the Gary Player idea of walking forward through the finish to keep momentum moving toward the target.

What are the best medicine ball exercises for golf?
His staples are the shot put throw and a discus-style rotational throw that builds separation between the hips and the chest, both cued to finish onto the front leg. He adds a front-leg box or band drill to teach the block, and single leg quarter squats with torso rotation to train loading the back side.

How heavy should a medicine ball be for rotational throws?
Donatucci sizes the ball by speed rather than by feel. He wants throws around 10 meters per second, often starting an athlete near three kilograms and moving up to four or five as speed improves. If the ball spins instead of flying like a knuckleball, he takes it as a sign the ball is too heavy for that athlete right now.

About the authors

David Donatucci is a performance trainer and the owner of the Florida Institute of Performance. He began his career at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in sports medicine, directed the International Performance Institute at IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida, and served as the first Director of Fitness for the PGA of America. He works with golfers, baseball players, tennis players, and figure skaters, with a focus on rotational athletes. [VERIFY current role and titles before publishing.]

Joel Smith is the host of the Just Fly Performance Podcast and the founder of Just Fly Sports, a former collegiate strength and track and field coach who focuses on speed, power, and athletic development. Listen to the full episode with David Donatucci on Just Fly Sports.