The finale

Welcome to the last post in the Station Masterclass. Over the last two weeks we’ve walked through the entire race in order: running, SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, and farmers carry + sandbag lunges.

Today: wall balls. Station 8. The last thing between you and the finish.

Wall balls look brutally simple. You squat, throw a medicine ball at a target above your head, catch it, squat, throw again. You do this 100 times (men) or 75 times (women). And when you’re done, the race is over.

It is also the most no-repped station in Hyrox. We’ve watched athletes lose 90 seconds to a no-rep spiral, missing the target, being sent back to redo reps, panic-throwing, missing again. Three of us on the editorial team have seen it happen to ourselves on race day.

Below: how to not be that person.

Wall ball station with the target line visible and a ball mid-flight just above the line — A clean rep clears the line by 10 to 15 cm. Anything closer is a no-rep risk on a tired throw.

The full 8-part series

The final part of the series. Full hub on the Station Masterclass page.

What the station actually is

After Run 8, you arrive at the final station: a row of padded walls with a target line painted at a specific height. You pick up a medicine ball, perform a squat, throw the ball up to the target, catch it on the way down, and repeat.

Rules:

Ball must clearly hit above the target line: if it hits below, it’s a no-rep
You must catch the ball (or let it drop cleanly, check your event’s rules)
Your hips must drop below your knees at the bottom of every squat
You cannot set the ball down and pick it up, ball stays in your hands or goes to the floor in a controlled way

Weights, reps, and target heights

Category	Reps	Ball Weight	Target Height
Men Open	100	6 kg	2.8m / 9ft
Men Pro	100	9 kg	3.0m / 10ft
Women Open	75	4 kg	2.5m / 8ft
Women Pro	75	6 kg	2.8m / 9ft

Approximate times (Men’s Open, 100 reps):

Elite: 3:00–3:30
Competitive: 3:45–4:30
Average: 4:30–6:00
Beginner: 6:00–8:00+

Why wall balls are the final boss

Three reasons wall balls are disproportionately hard:

You’re wrecked. By Station 8, your legs have been through 8 km of running plus 7 stations. The last thing they want to do is squat 100 times while holding a medicine ball.
Wall balls require precision when you have the least of it. Every rep needs to clear the target. Tired athletes throw short, miss, and get no-repped, which extends the station even more.
The finish line is right there. The psychological tension of being so close tempts athletes into unbroken attempts that collapse catastrophically at rep 30 or 40.

The fastest way to finish wall balls isn’t to go as fast as you can. It’s to go steady, hit every rep clean, and never get no-repped.

Technique: the 6 cues that matter

1. Stand close to the wall, about arm’s-length

Distance from the wall is a huge variable that first-timers under-think. Too close and the ball returns to your face. Too far and every throw demands extra force.

Right distance: when you stand with arms overhead holding the ball, your fingertips just about brush the wall. About arm’s length. Your body is close enough that the ball returns to you cleanly without demanding you step forward.

2. Ball position: at the chest, elbows in

The ball sits at your chest in the catch and squat phase. Elbows tucked in, not flared out. This keeps the ball’s centre of mass close to yours, which lets your legs do the work instead of your shoulders.

Beginners often hold the ball out in front, elbows flared. Looks relaxed. Is exhausting.

3. Squat to depth, hips crease below knees

Don’t skip the squat depth. Most events no-rep you if your hip crease doesn’t drop below your knees. Fail this repeatedly and you’re redoing reps, the slowest possible outcome.

Full depth on every rep, from rep 1 to rep 100. Yes, even when you’re exhausted.

4. Drive through the legs, use the ball’s momentum

Wall balls are fundamentally a squat with a throw attached. The throw is mostly about timing, not arm strength:

At the bottom of the squat, explode up through the legs
The ball rides your chest as you stand
Around the top of the standing phase, extend the arms upward in one smooth motion
The ball releases naturally at full arm extension

The arm drive is tiny. Most of the force comes from the leg drive. If your shoulders are the first thing that fail, you’re muscling the throw, use your legs more.

5. Catch soft, drop straight into the next squat

As the ball comes down:

Catch with arms bent, absorbing the weight (not stiff arms)
Let the catch smoothly transition into the squat, you’re already going down
No pause at the top between catch and next squat

Catch-and-immediate-drop turns wall balls into a single fluid motion. Catch-pause-squat turns them into two separate exercises, each of which tires you out.

6. Breathe: inhale down, exhale on the throw

Wall balls force panic breathing unless you deliberately pattern it:

Inhale as you squat down
Hold at the bottom briefly
Exhale forcefully on the way up and throw

One full breath per rep. When your breathing goes, your rep speed goes. Protect the breath.

Pacing: the break strategy

Break strategy is the most important concept on this station. Going unbroken (all 100 in a row) is what the published Pro times are built on, and the Hyrox results database shows that even at the Pro level only the top 5 to 10% of finishers go unbroken. Almost every Open-level athlete should break the set deliberately.

The research on intermittent high-intensity efforts and recovery is consistent on the principle: short, planned rests of 5 to 10 seconds preserve power output far better than the alternative of grinding to failure. Wall balls reward this strategy more than any other Hyrox station.

“Going for unbroken on race day when you’ve never trained 100 unbroken is the most expensive ego play in Hyrox. I’ve seen it cost two minutes.”

The 25-25-25-25 plan (recommended default for most Open athletes)

Do 25 reps continuous
Step back for 8–10 seconds, one deep breath pattern (in-out-in-out)
Do 25 more
Repeat until you hit 100

Why this works: 25 is short enough that your form doesn’t collapse, and 4 mini-breaks of 8 seconds = 32 seconds of strategic rest. But those 32 seconds save you far more than they cost, because the alternative is grinding reps 70–100 at half speed with missed throws.

The 20-20-20-20-20 plan (slightly more conservative)

For first-timers who haven’t done 100 wall balls in training:

5 sets of 20, with 8-second breaks between sets
Safer, slightly slower, much more reliable

The 35-25-20-20 descending plan (advanced)

For athletes who know their first set is their strongest:

35 reps continuous, 10-second break
25 reps, 8-second break
20 reps, 8-second break
20 reps to finish

Works well for people with high aerobic capacity and good technique, the first set is strong because you’re fresh-ish after the run, then smaller sets as fatigue accumulates.

Women’s 75-rep variations

For the 75-rep version, the cleanest split is:

25-25-25 (three sets of 25 with 8-second breaks), reliable for most Open women
20-20-20-15 (slightly more conservative), good default for first-timers
30-25-20 (descending), for experienced athletes

What NOT to do

Don’t go unbroken unless you’ve genuinely done 100 unbroken in training. Most people haven’t. Attempting it on race day when you’re smoked is a great way to miss reps at 60 and collapse to singles.
Don’t break too early (e.g., 10-10-10…). Too many small breaks adds up to more rest than you need and more transitions than you want.
Don’t take a break that’s too long. 8–10 seconds is restorative. 20 seconds is a rest, and by second 15 your heart rate is spiking again when you restart.

The 5 biggest wall ball mistakes

1. Shallow squats. Getting no-repped is the fastest way to lose time. Full depth, every rep.

2. Throwing short. Miss the target, redo the rep. Over-throw slightly if you’re unsure, a tall-and-slightly-long throw beats a barely-tall throw by a mile.

3. Going unbroken on a wing and a prayer. If you haven’t trained 100 unbroken, don’t try it on race day. Break strategically.

4. Standing too far from the wall. Forces more arm drive, wastes energy, creates missed reps. Fix: arm’s-length test before rep 1.

5. Forgetting to breathe. Panic breathing at rep 40 = technique collapse = missed reps. Lock in the rhythm from rep 1.

How to train wall balls

Wall balls are the most trainable station because:

You can practise anywhere with a ball and a wall (plenty of gym walls work)
The technique is the same as race day, every rep
The specific metabolic demand is easy to replicate

Weekly programming

One dedicated wall ball session per week, 6–10 weeks out. Plus incidental wall balls in metcons. See our station training drills.

Three drills that transfer

Drill A, Race-weight, race-reps:

100 wall balls at race weight (or 75 for women)
Target: under 6 minutes
Note your break points, this gives you your race-day break strategy
Do this at least 3 times before race day

The only way to genuinely know how your 100 wall balls will go is to do them. Multiple times.

Drill B, Brick (the most race-specific):

1 km run at race pace
50 wall balls continuous
Rest 3 minutes. Repeat 2 times.

Trains the compromised state at the end of the race. Your first set of 50 will reveal exactly how your run-to-wall-balls transition feels.

Drill C, The Ascending Ladder:

10 wall balls, 30 seconds rest
15 wall balls, 30 seconds rest
20 wall balls, 45 seconds rest
25 wall balls, 45 seconds rest
30 wall balls, no rest, finish

Total: 100 reps. Teaches pacing across progressively harder sets. A great “tune-up” session in race week.

Race-day rep scheme

Approach. Finish Run 8 at whatever pace you have left. You’ll likely be walking or jogging the final 200m. That’s fine.
Set up (5 seconds). Pick up the ball. Test your distance, arms overhead, fingertips brushing the wall. One big breath.
Reps 1–25. Start controlled. Don’t sprint the first set even though you feel okay. Breathe on every rep. Land soft, drop straight into next squat.
Break 1 (8 seconds). Step back, ball to floor, hands on knees, two deep breaths. Pick up ball.
Reps 26–50. Same tempo. Fight the urge to rush.
Break 2 (8 seconds). Identical routine.
Reps 51–75. Your mental peak of suffering. Stay with the breath. Count down: “25 to go.”
Break 3 (10 seconds). A slightly longer breath. You’ve earned it.
Reps 76–100. The finish is in sight. Keep the same form. Do not speed up, rep speed is locked now.
Rep 100. Drop the ball. Stand up. Look at the finish line. Start jogging.

The finish line is typically 20–30m past the wall ball cage. Cross it any way you can. Arms up is traditional.

The mental game

100 reps is a lot. It’s also not.

You will hit rep 30 and think you can’t do another 70. You can.
You will hit rep 60 and think the set will never end. It will.
You will hit rep 90 and suddenly the finish feels real. That’s when you know.

Three anchors:

“This is the last thing.” Once you’re done with wall balls, the race is over. No more stations. No more suffering.
“Every rep is a step closer to the finisher patch.” Literally true.
“If I stop, everyone passes me.” Wall balls are where races get stolen in the final metres. Keep moving.

Gear notes

Shoes: Same stable, slightly grippy shoe you’ve been using all race. A soft cushioned runner is less ideal here, you want stability for the squats. See shoes guide.
Shorts: Anything that allows full squat depth without binding at the hips.
Tops: A shirt that doesn’t ride up (the ball tends to catch on loose hems during the squat).
Chalk on the ball: Some events have a chalk pan near the wall balls. Worth a quick dip before your first rep, sweaty hands + sweaty ball = dropped catches.

For post-race fuelling (yes, you need to think about this before you cross the line), see our gel strategy guide, the first 20 minutes after the finish matter for recovery.

The series, complete

That’s it. Eight parts, eight pieces of the Hyrox race, every technique cue you need to walk to the start line knowing you’ve prepared for every segment.

If you’ve read all 8 parts, you now know more about Hyrox race execution than most first-timers learn in their first year of racing. The only thing left to do is race.

A quick recap of the series:

If you haven’t already, pair this series with our race week protocol and pacing strategy guides to lock in your race plan from 12 weeks out through the finish line.

Go race. Enjoy it. And if you beat your goal time, come back and tell us, we read every email.

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