Emperor penguins sighted in hell...

[Alan H]

We practiced sheaf tonight

.........and I remembered all the stuff that James taught me last year. Went 20 with a 14 pound sheaf. Not bad for bluidy well hardly ever doing the event.

[Whidbey78]

I will say congrats, but.........................

I have no idea what you're talking about, but that's about 70%, which is pretty good in any sport. Well, not Russian Roulette, but most others.

Can you explain for us(read: me) smaller, non-caber-tossing, big-rock-chucking, bear-wrestling types? The Pinball Wizard knows not of what thou speaketh.

[Whidbey78]

Just tell me the event and I will research. I'm good at that...and math. What a nerd, huh?

[BoldHighlander]

Just tell me the event and I will research. I'm good at that...and math. What a nerd, huh?

This should help (from my Bellingham Games photo thread)

[BoldHighlander]

.........and I remembered all the stuff that James taught me last year. Went 20 with a 14 pound sheaf. Not bad for bluidy well hardly ever doing the event.

Just curious Alan, do you guys get to pick & choose what events you do at a games?

[Whidbey78]

Just curious Alan, do you guys get to pick & choose what events you do at a games?

Thanks for the pics. I've seen this before but lacked the vocabulary to know what the heck was being said. Get it now. Enlightened more I become.

That's a good question too. Do you get to pick or just compete at the game at hand? Always wondered myself.

[Alan H]

A sheaf is a burlap sack stuffed with straw. Except that these days they're often stuffed with shredded rope or shredded polypropylene rope (if the venue is likely to be wet, as straw absorbs water and gets very heavy). Women throw a 12 lb sheaf, Masters throw a 16 pound, Open Mens and Pro's usually throw a 20, but the 24 pound sheaf is starting to appear because the Pros are starting to heave the 20 about 34-35 feet, and the standards needed to get a crossbar up that high are really unwieldy.

You stab the bag with a sheaf fork, which is basically a two or three tine pitchfork. You wind it up a few times and heave it over the bar. There's a lot of technique to it.

Regarding the events....you do ALL of them, though sometimes a judge will let you take a pass on one event and not be disqualified. For example, pro athlete Craig Smith recently threw at the USA vs. Canada challenge. He'd ripped up some shoulder muscles about 10 days before so he took a pass on the hammer events and they let him keep throwing. I assume the3y scored him in last place in the event.

If they hadn't done that, Craig could have picked up a hammer, walked into the cage, swung the thing around a couple of times with his good arm and let it fly. He probably would have gotten about 60 feet with that, with the light hammer and would have saved his shoulder and technically would have posted a mark.

Sometimes new guys just try to pick up a caber and if they manage to pick it up, they don't take the chance of getting hurt by throwing it, and they basically just drop it again. However, they did *attempt* the event, so that's cool.

Anyway, the rules say you have to at least attempt them all. This was put in place to keep track and field athletes from showing up at Games and just doing one or two events and walking away with prizes for winning those events. That was deemed not to be in the spirit of the competition or the tradition of the Games.

[BoldHighlander]

Thanks Alan

I thought that the athletes competed in (or "attempted") each event, I just wasn't sure from your original comment. Thanks again for clearing that up.