Med ball/slam ball/wall ball for high school girls

[Amy Crawford]

I am going to be working with some high school girls this summer, helping them get in better shape for their various activities. None of these girls is what I would consider strong. I'm thinking of making some equipment for them to use as I can't afford to buy a lot of new equipment.

My dilemma is this ... as far as I can understand, filling a standard basketball with sand results in a 22# ball. That's going to be too heavy for a lot of these gals. If I don't put as much sand in and inflate it with air, will it be too wobbly with the sand flying around in there?

Also, what about slam balls? I can theoretically use the same instructions on a smaller (small kick ball) ball and it should work, right?

What type of weights should I shoot for? I'm thinking 8-15#. Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Tim McFarland]

You could use a smaller ball; or use a standard ball but fill it partially with sand and partially with rice or oatmeal to fill up the space. These balls work well as slammers as well, but after a while of that treatment they start to leak and you have to air them up every time, which is not a huge pain in the butt.

Air / sand in the ball would likely make it flop around a lot, but that might not be a bad thing - added instability can be a desired trait in a piece of exercise equipment.

[Enes Kolenovic]

a guy mentioned sawdust in another post. sounds like an excellent idea.

[Keith Stevens]

I have made several filling basketballs, 7,12, 18#, and none of them move/wobble much at all in the air. The only time I really see that is if the ball is spun. With that, they do not bounce much. While doing wall ball, they barely come off the wall, the 7# stays on the wall(this could be form), just make sure that they are in a good position to catch the ball. They do work well for slamball. As mentioned before, they will lose air so keep a pump handy.
Good luck!
Oh, I do think that adding rice sounds like a good idea!

[Amy Crawford]

Thanks guys! Now to find some cheap/free basketballs!!

[Patrick Donnelly]

Re: Amy
I recently did some estimations with the density of stuff you could put in a ball, and found that for a 15# ball, you want to mix about 19 cups of white flour in with about 11 cups of playbox sand. (This will leave the ball with a bit of extra space inside - not packed super-tight.) Going solely with white flour will get you something around 9.5#.

I've also got the amount of lead needed for 30, 40, and 50 pound balls, if you have any girls who are butch...
http://patrickhdonnelly.blogspot.com...dumbbells.html (WFS)