Prescott was an AMAZING game for me, I set a total of five Personal Records and won the entire event!
First let me say that the Prescott Highland Games are easily one of the most beautiful venues I have ever thrown in. In fact, I would say it is the single most beautiful venue I have ever thrown in as these photo's can attest.
Unfortunately something I could not get a picture of was an F-16 doing a training flight overhead while a hawk also cruised on the thermals looking for lunch. Due to the angles and the distance, the hawk and the 'fighting falcon' appeared to be almost the same size and on the same heading for a while, that was awesome.
And on with the athletics...
First up was the Braemar Stone. Now thanks to a sloping field I expected to throw well, but since they also use a 24.5 lb stone (vs. 22lb) you need all the slope you can get. Still, Throwing a 31' 5.75" stone is something to be proud of! My previous best was only 30' .5", and that was only done a month ago. Before that I had not been able to break the 30' mark.
We then moved on to the Open Stone, where once again I set a Personal Record. I've been practicing a new technique called the "glide" and it really paid off. Again the sloped field helped, but it was the technique that accounted for the throw more than anything.
My new record was 37'7", up from a previous best of only 34' even. What's even better is that every single throw was better than my previous best of 34'. The glide is here to stay!!
A little better look at the technique, without anyone walking across the view.
After Stones we moved over the Weight Throw trig, starting out on Heavy Weight for Distance. For those that don't remember this is a 56 lb weight on a chain thrown with a single hand. Unfortunately this was NOT a PR, but it was still a pretty good throw. I tossed a 22'8" out there, only the second time ever attempting a double spin in competition.
It was good form, I just need to speed it up quite a bit. If I get my speed up while maintaining good form I think I can get 30 ft one day.
Of course I almost rolled my ankle, fortunately I was wearing my boots and not the cleats I intended to wear. My cleats have no ankle support and likely I would have at least sprained, if not broken my ankle. You can see a little stutter step with the left foot at the end after I rolled it.
The Light Weight for Distance however WAS a new PR, with a throw of 46' 9". The double spin technique is definitely working, bettering my previous best of only 44' even.
We took a lunch after the weights, but came back strong in the Hammer Cage. Here too I had a banner day, setting PR's in both light and heavy hammer.
My Heavy Hammer was very nice, setting a new PR of 68'7". My previous best was only 65' and change. I did foul my second throw as you can see, but my third throw was actually 68' 6", which would have also been a PR. Even more exciting that was with only two winds on the hammer not three, so there is yet more to give in future competitions.
foul throw, stepped on trig
My Light Hammers hit an even better mark, because not only did I set a PR, but also I finally surpassed the throw of a friend of mine who I have been chasing all year.
Last year in Tucson I threw a big 85' light hammer and I have never thrown close to it since. In fact, other than Tucson I never broke 80' again, so I was getting discouraged. However this year at Prescott I actually threw two 83's and a PR 87'10". I took some extra throws for winning the event and had 84's and 85's from there as well, so my hammers are finally where I want them! New goal for this year - 90 ft!!
83ft
Monster 87'10"
After Hammers came Weight Over Bar, again a 56lb weight tossed over a standing bar. Nothing spectacular here, I cleared 11 ft but missed my attempt at 12.
Clearing 10
Clearing 11
And what we have all been waiting for, CABER!!!!!
This is "MacBeth", a 17'6" and 78lb beauty. Flipped on the first attempt, for a 1:30 score (out of possible 12:00 as perfect)
It was a super tight field this year. I won, but it was actually a tie after the final event. The way the Games are scored is that for every event, you get a number value equal to your place. For example a 1st place nets you one point, a 5th place nets you 5 points. At the end of the day all the scores are added and the lowest score wins.
Well after caber I was tied with another guy, each with 20 points. Ties are usually settled by seeing who has more 1st place finishes, but in this case we each had three. Ok, second place finishes. We each had three. Alright, lets go to third place. Each had two.
Deadlock.
Finally as a tie breaker an event was chosen, this happened to be caber. Since I won that event with a 1:30 to his no turn I took the whole event!! WooHoo!! Competition drives me ever upward, so this was a great Game.
Here I am getting the award from Mike Susmark, Athletic Director (and heck of a thrower) of the Prescott Games.
Last edited by Yaish; 20th May 08 at 03:58 PM.
Reason: fixed some bad numbers
Slightly OT here, but the lake in the photos, Watson Lake, was featured in the movie Billy Jack -- you'll also see other Prescott landmarks like the Palace Bar, the Yavapai Co. Courthouse, Thumb Butte and the Rough Rider Statue.
Wow...those Braemar throws are HUGE! I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm nowhere even close to that. You're TEN FEET beyond what I'm doing! Wanna come up and do some coaching? And the Open Stone at 37 +.....NICE. You look good; really effortless, though I know perfectly well that it's not.
Man....that is just beautiful.
In the 56 WFD, managing to double spin at ALL is an accomplishment. The difference between doing a double spin with 42 pounds and 56 is a whole, whole lot, so good on ya.
I'm chasin' ya on the hammers!!! Now I'm gunning for 85 feet on the light hammer!
You're right, that's a beautiful venue, there in Prescott. I had no idea.
You're going to speed up that light WFD double spin, for sure. Slow in the back, fast up front....There's lots of room for you to grow there, and I bet you'll be into the 50's soon.
WOOO-Hooo! A*great* day!
AND....we sure added a lot of great video to this sub-forum this week!
I bet I could get you at least three or more feet in the stones Alan, in fact I am working on an improved Stone tutorial to post here. Hopefully I'll have it up later this week, but I am going out of town on business so I have no idea how that will go.
The double spin is something I have been practicing for the last two months or so, but I really just did it the first time this weekend. I tried it a couple throws in Bakersfield but didn't have the technique down at all.
Now I have the footwork, I just need to stay low and get faster! Slow first spin, then explode to the trig like you said. It's just doing that while getting everything ELSE right that is the pain.
Alan, your hammers looked great, I'm not at all surprised you are right behind me. Heck, if it weren't for some great throws this weekend you'd have been ahead of me! You've actually got the technique down even better than I do, so once you speed it up a bit you'll see some tremendous throws.
My goals for the year.... Hmm... maybe we need a new thread...
I bet I could get you at least three or more feet in the stones Alan, in fact I am working on an improved Stone tutorial to post here. Hopefully I'll have it up later this week, but I am going out of town on business so I have no idea how that will go.
Yes, yes! I need all the help I can get! I'm gonna get some video of me with stones and slap them up here (and as NASGA, I finally joined) and solicit comments.
You know what made a huge difference in my double spins was realizing that last year I was eating up too much of the trig in my first spin. The video from Livermore actually wasn't all that great, I still ate up too much in the first spin, but it's miles ahead of last year. The idea is to set up in the corner like we all do, and then spin and put your right foot pretty much exactly where your left foot was. That leaves you with 6+ feet of trig to power through for the second spin....
...but you know all that. What turned the corner for me in the double spin was doing foot drills with no weight in the weight room. I just drilled doing quick spins/foot reversals until i was balanced. Then I moved on to linking one spin with the second one, with a pause in the middle to see if I was balanced. Of course that pause in the middle is a really bad habit, so now my foot drills will be to link them without the pause.
I'm just blown away by your braemar toss. That is just sweet. Jeez....
Wow Yaish those videos are great, you and Alan have really set a high bar that I am going to shoot for. I know I won't come close to your numbers at first but it deffinately gives me a number to shoot for. Can't wait for the stone throw tutorial looking forward to studying that one. One dumb question if I may when they measure the stones and hammers is it from where they hit the ground or from where they roll to?
And the Open Stone at 37 +.....NICE. You look good; really effortless, though I know perfectly well that it's not.
Originally Posted by Yaish
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