New guys and gals! kudos, and some totally basic training stuff

[Alan H]

First of all...you're throwing, or prepping to throw. YOU ROCK. Welcome to the insanity! You will have a ton of fun, meet a mess of really great people, sweat like a pig, and earn your beer. Life is good!

Nine Training Tips That Will Get You Pretty Far

1. If you want to throw farther your first couple of seasons, throw MORE. THROWING is the exercise that will pay off the most on Game Day....not weight lifting, not pylometrics or anything else. THROW.

2. Eat, sleep, rest, work. Do all of them, regularly. You can't slack off on the work too much or your throwing will suffer. If you work yourself into a state of near-collapse every time (some Crossfitters like to do this "Oh man I DESTROYED myself!" it's a lot harder to build muscle and strength. So work hard, but rest and sleep and eat.

3. YouTube is your friend. Go watch throwing videos. Seriously.

4. During the first half of the off-season, and if you want to train pretty seriously for this stuff......especially if you can't throw because of snow on the ground or something, your workout is going to focus on getting grunt-stronger. The basic exercises will be these: squats, deadlifts, presses. That's it! Most people backsquat, but if you like to front squat, do some of that, too. I happen to like doing zercher squats to mix it up with my routine of back squats. Deadlifts...do a few light-weight straight-leg deadlifts now and then, too, to mix it up. Presses? Flat Bench, incline bench, overhead press. Make up a routine where you squat, press and deadlift, each exercise, at least once a week.

Or not. It's entirely up to you, how seriously you take this stuff. That's important to understand. Not everybody takes this stuff really seriously. Soooo....what? They suck because they don't work out as hard as you do? Nah.....everybody is different. You figure out YOUR workout plan.

To that core group of exercises, you will add whatever feel right and good to you. Do you like beating on a tire with a sledgehammer? Then do it! Does pushing and pulling a sled tickle your fancy? Great! Rowing machine? Go for it. Circuit training? Great! Abs, always do some abs, both straight contraction and some rotation. Do whatever you need to do to have some fun with this and keep it up all winter. Do you like playing basketball? You'd be amazed at how many top throwers play basketball with their kids or the kids they coach. One outstanding Highland Athlete that lives in New England has a routine with his kids, where he drags the kids on a sled, though the snow in the woods near where he lives.

Me? Go look at my workout log and you'll see what I do. Your goal is to increase overall strength and build 3-rep max lifts in the three core lifts: back squat - deadlift - bench press (incline or flat, you choose).

5. 6-8 weeks before the throwing season starts, you are going to stop working towards a 3-rep maximum lift and starting lifting FAST. Hang cleans. OMG, are you going to do hang cleans. Step up on a plyometics box...JUMP on plymetrics boxes. Do Olympic lifts like snatches and cleans. Lighten the load, bigtime and do fast squats and speed deadlifts. The point here is to move the weight FAST. Oh, and if you like playing basketball or soccer or rugby, keep playing.

6. A month before your first Games, start throwing and throw more than you lift. . If you can throw 2x a week for 90 minutes alone, or 2 hours with a partner, that's great. If you can throw twice and lift (*fast*) once, that's fantastic. If you can throw once a week and that's it, then that's fine....just make it count. If your life is such that you can only squeeze out half-hour sessions, that's fine. Just try to get in 3-4 of them during the week. Try hard to get through at least half of the events every week.

7. Practice with a partner if you possibly can. The best thing is to practice with someone who's better than you are, eh? The next best thing is to practice with someone about the same level, but just practicing with SOMEONE is better than practicing by yourself all the time. Me??? I threw with Tim C about every other week, and alone once a week for the first 2 seasons. Then the next two seasons I threw completely by myself, with occasional sessions with my friend Jim. The last 2 seasons I've been throwing with Bethany and other members of the CHAC. I try to get in one session all by myself every week, and another with one or multiple other throwers.

8. Rest before a Games. If you're young, maybe you only need two days. Us old guys might need a week. Just don't do a blowout lifting or throwing session on Friday and think you'll throw huge on Saturday.

9. Have fun. Enjoy the people, be a good sport, and pull your weight. You're not going to get a Nike endorsement contract out of this, nor a Maybelline contract, so you might as well leave your cutthroat attitude at work. Try hard. Throw far. Bellow in joy when you hit a PR. Pound your buddy on the back when he hits a PR and beats you. Have a few beers together. Laugh. Make rude jokes about the rip in the other guys compression shorts. Talk to everybody...the A class guys, the lasses, the Pro's. yeah, you can talk to the pro's, they're pretty much all really good guys.

See you out there.

[Alan H]

I work really hard at this. I mean, there are LOTS of Masters who don't work nearly this hard and they still throw and have a blast and the chicks think they're cool, too. So you'll find your own way, but this is generally what my last two years have looked like.

~~~


Early October: season ends 1st or 2nd week of October.

October-November: Take 5-6 weeks off. Eat. Relax. Make a kilt. I don't go to the gym, or if I do, I just do some easy rowing machine, or maybe go swimming instead. I don't throw. Let my joints heal up. I'm not 25 years old any more, I need some down-time.


December Dec. 1st -> Back to it.... squat, deadlift, press.... start easy. I figure that the first three weeks are just to sort of get back into it. Winter break-> no gym access for the last two weeks of December, so I often do outside stuff that doesn't take a lot of equipment, like throw shotput, run intervals on the football field, stone carrys (have a 165 pound rock that I haul around the neighborhood) and beat on a small stack of tires that I have, with a 12 pound sledge.

January - February...get serious about that 3-rep max in deadlift, squat and bench press. I might try to do a powerlifting competition at the end of February this year. I also try to do 3-4 All-comers track meets during the winter; throw some shotput and discus, just 'cause I love throwing discus.

March: Speed lifting for 3 weeks, 3x a week. Lots of hang cleans, speed deadlifts, dumbell snatches. Box jumps....gotta do more of those. Explosive is good. I also try to work rotational strength with Russian twists and landmines.

Last week of March-First week of April....we start throwing. For about 2 weeks I throw 2x a week and lift fast 2x a week. Those are hard weeks.

April .... throw lots, but have to schedule in rest because my first two Games are in April, Ardenwood and Woodland. I try to get in about 6 throwing workouts before the first Games. I don't lift at all, or hardly at all in April.

May - June - July - August.. This is "The Season" where I throw at one Games per month and maybe two.. I try to throw 2x a week in May to mid-August. I "kind of" try to lift once a week, but may or may not actually do it. I tend to throw more at the beginning of the season and then ease off a little bit when late July rolls around. I might throw 3x a week in May and early June. We always go backpacking in Mid-August, so that's a forced break, and it's good for me. Pleasanton is the BIG SHOW, it's the biggest Games of my season, so I try to really rest for at least a week and really more like 9 days before that one....Labor Day weekend in September. I try to peak for Pleasanton. I succeeded this year, but miserably failed at doing that the previous 3 years!

September... resting up to Pleasanton and then start the tail end of the season. The Big Show is over, so let's relax and have fun. I throw more PR's when I'm relaxed, anyway! I still get out to throw/practice/coach twice a week but the intensity is less.

....and then it's October, again.

[LitTrog]

Thanks for taking the time to start threads like this one, Alan. Makes the whole thing less daunting when you break it up into bits--and your enthusiasm and energy are catching.

The 'have fun' part. That's what I like, and that's what I'll remain focused on. After my first season, I'll figure out how nutso serious I want to get.

[RogerWS76]

So should I NOT return Mayballine's call? ith:

[Alan H]

So should I NOT return Mayballine's call? ith:

Nah, no point...kineticat has that one sewn up.

-> eyeshadow model, par excellance.

[Alan H]

That's what I did. I mean...how'd I get started?

Well the Nor Cal Rabble was meeting at a local Brewery (this is already got potential) the last Friday of the month to hang out, drink beer and dance to the bands that played. One Friday in February, six years ago Tim C walks up to me after we'd both had a few and says... "Hey, you want to throw at the Woodland Games for s&g's?" Of course, I said "sure".

So Tims brother, Bill brought some gear over the next weekend and we met at the high school with some of Tims friend who play shinty and threw the stuff around. I found a rock. I got some weights for free off of craigslist, and put together something more or less like a weight out of old plates and plumbing parts from the hardware store. I got a cracked 12 foot long 6 x 6 from the lumber store I'd just spent a mint at, buying lumber for our back deck. After sanding down the corners and belt-sanding the bottom smooth, we had a caber, more or less.

We threw once a week at the park...most weeks. Not all weeks. But most weeks. We went to Woodland and threw in the C class with a mess of kids most of which were half my age. I was 49 years old. Of the 16 guys who did all the events that year, Tim C was 7th and I was 9th. I figured, that was pretty good for an old guy. I did three more Games that year and had fun...two more in the C class and one in the Masters. I never touched a barbell, went to the gym or did anything but throw and watch video.

The next year I sailed my boat to Hawaii and my focus was elsewhere so I only did 4 Games total, maybe 3 and practiced once a week and didn't lift weights at all. I was throwing at the middle-to-bottom of the 50's Masters class, but I had fun. I also started formulating "throwing goals". This was 2008.

My next season, I didn't have the boat, so I focused more on throwing. I started getting better, to the point where I was kind of mid-pack in our 50's group. The winter between my 3rd and 4th season, I went to the gym semi-regularly for most of the winter and I definitely started the season stronger than before. I started throwing a little better...got some PR's, started placing in the top 3 in some of the individual events, and started getting into it. I won my first Masters class. I threw in Washington for the first time, and Jay Lyttle and Steve Elliott took me to school!... but it was fun! I got an invitation to throw at Pleasanton this year, but had a DISASTROUS year....something going on with my knees, and got absolutely *whupped* by Mike Baab, Frank Henry, Al Stagner and Kel Mulrey.

The off season between year 4-5 I was absolutely religious about weight training all winter. Not that I did it RIGHT, but I was *extremely* conscientious. I started season #5 the strongest I have ever been since High School. I set some more PR's, threw even a bit better and started placing top 3 fairly often in our local Games. I also went to a couple of out-of-the area Games like Enumclaw, WA and Costa Mesa in So Cal. This was the year that I fulfilled one of my goals...to get on the podium at Pleasanton at least once. I finished 3rd in the overall and 3rd in the weight over bar. Pleasanton conflicted with the Masters World Champs in 2011 so a lot of the guys who'd likely win, were in Calgary, so I figured that was the year, if there ever was gonna be one.

The winter between 2012 and 2013 I lifted very hard, if not quite as religiously as the winter between 2011 and 2012. I lifted "smarter" that's for sure, I'd learned a lot from reading at NASGA. This year I threw at more Games than ever, in fact maybe one or two more than I really ought to. I finally equalled my freak LWFD Pr that I set at Monterey in 2010 by throwing the LWFD over 50 feet. I set an open stone PR that's pretty darned respectable in this class...and stones are my weakest event. And heck, I actually got up on the Pleasanton podium again, and this time I won a big flippin' trophy. How cool is that?

This coming winter I plan to lift hard and smart again. I hope/plan to go to Scotland for a couple of weeks next summer, so I will be throwing in the B class...not the Masters at Woodland and Costa Mesa and probably Santa Cruz, too. Gotta get my mitts on that 56 pounder. Then off to Scotland and 4 Games over there...back in time for Pleasanton, then Fresno/Dixon and Ventura and that's that.

I think that after the 2013 season I will back off to about 6-7 Games a season and not work quite so hard...probably coach more. This year I did 11 and that's a lot. I'm guessing: Ardenwood, but act as AD, no throw. 1.) Woodland 2.) Bakersfield? 3.) Costa Mesa 4.) Santa Cruz ... judge at Monterey ... party at the Duke Kahanamoku H'island Games.... 5.) Pleasanton 6.) Dixon or Fresno 7.) Ventura.


I'm writing a lot about "me" but I hope that this gives folks some perspective when they think about their own involvement.

[SonofAlba]

Thanks Alan H. This is all very interesting to me. I am going to get myself a 6x6 and play around with it. I really enjoyed getting the overview of your experience in Highland Athletics...it seems like you have approached many seasons in many different ways, depending on the year.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think of Sorinex's Ballistica http://store.sorinex.com/The_Ballistica_p/bal-1.htm as a training tool? I don't know if you have used one of these or not, but maybe you have an opinion or heard something about it one way or the other... Thanks!

[Alan H]

The Ballistica is a great tool. It's basically a chain hammer with a ring handle. It's also $99.

We have a chain hammer, too. Here's how I made it...

Scrap steel warehouse, I found a 12 pound old sledgehammer head..bought it for $5.
two shackles... $1.50 each. Both are a little bit bigger than the hole in the sledgehammer head.
Piece of light-to-medium chain, 48-50 inches long...'bout $4
One Galvanized 1-inch plumbing riser, 10 inches long....about $1.95

Total cost, about $15

A.) Thread the chain through the sledgehammer head. Put one shackle on the end so that the sledgehead won't fall off.

B.) thread the other end of the chain through the plumbing riser. Stick a shackle on the end of the chain so that it won't slip through the riser. The riser is now your handle. The sledgehammer is your weight.

Go wind it around your head about a million times, in sets of 5-10 to build core strength. Don't throw it, just wind it. Is 12 pounds too light? OK, so add a 5 pound plate, and when that's easy, add another one. That'll tire you out. Heh.

[SonofAlba]

Hey Alan H, thanks for your reply! Yeah, that was what my intuition was. I think I will try to build something akin to what you have described. The description of the Ballistica claims that the parts bought separately for the unit would cost 700$... maybe that's true but it sounds outrageous to me. At any rate I think that I could put something together that would be a constructive training tool (especially given that I am an absolute beginner) and leave me some money for kilt (food might be a good idea too) needs. The only advantage that I could think for purchasing the Ballistica would be that it would more accurately replicate weight in ratio to length etc. that you would encounter during games. Even this seems a bit unlikely to me. After all, mostly I just want to throw stuff...why get too fancy?

[Alan H]

Hey Alan H, thanks for your reply! Yeah, that was what my intuition was. I think I will try to build something akin to what you have described. The description of the Ballistica claims that the parts bought separately for the unit would cost 700$... maybe that's true but it sounds outrageous to me. At any rate I think that I could put something together that would be a constructive training tool (especially given that I am an absolute beginner) and leave me some money for kilt (food might be a good idea too) needs. The only advantage that I could think for purchasing the Ballistica would be that it would more accurately replicate weight in ratio to length etc. that you would encounter during games. Even this seems a bit unlikely to me. After all, mostly I just want to throw stuff...why get too fancy?

I bet anything that if you go down to the hardware store...a nice big one....and look around the plumbing section, you can dream up ways to make gear on the cheap. Just add 2.5, 5 or 10 pound weight plates, which usually can be gotten for pennies on the dollar off of Craigslist.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some Sorinex, but I want to spend my money carefully and wisely.