That Sound? Rubber Hitting Road.

[Kinetikat]

Ow. Ow, ow, ow, OWWWW!
Can you tell I started serious gym training today? Now my shoulders aren't talking to me.
I committed today to supporting three different charities over the course of the season. So there's no way I'm going to wander on to the field like an idiot and not be strong enough to throw!
Ditto wandering on half-fit and half-fat looking like a bread pudding in a kilt.
And again wandering on hoping for the best vis-a-vis experience with real throwing gear.
The realities of building my new Princess Fiona-like physique are biting down somewhat!

Did some intensive ringing around today to settle roughly which Games I'll be attending; the second one I called (a guy called John Robertson) mentioned Stephen Aitken from Middlesbrough, who doesn't throw much if at all these days, but still trains. So I looked him up, got his mobile number, and now I'm going down to Thornaby next week to train with him and his guys! He was incredibly helpful, and basically will help me train up for the Games as much as I want or can take between now and my first Games in May.
How awesome is that? I can't wait for next week now.
In the meantime, I have shot put coaching tomorrow night, gym with Sadistic Eddie on Wednesday, gym again Friday...
This is going to HURT. But it's so going to be worth it!

[cessna152towser]

Best of luck with the training.
Looking forward to reading on here about your progress.

[eclarkhb]

Good Luck!! Sounds like fun!

[Alan H]

You're training with Steven Aitkin ?

Oh. My. God.

Steven threw as recently as 2010, he's hardly "out of practice". He's one of the best throwers in Scotland, certainly in the top six or seven of the past decade.


Article from IronMind...
-----------------------------------------


2010 Cornhill Highland Games 

by Francis Brebner

The first Games in the 2010 Glenfiddich Grampian Games series got off to a great start this Saturday with the Cornhill Highland Games.

A total of seven athletes made up the field, with big names like Craig Sinclair, Steve Aitken, Bruce Robb, David Dowson, Stuart Anderson, John MacLeod, and Bruce Aitken, who was making a comeback after a break of a few years from the sport.

In the 16-lb. light hammer, B. Aitken pulled out a nice throw of 133’ 6” for the win over Sinclair, who placed second with 129’ 11”. In third place was S. Aitken with 124’ 7” and in fourth, Robb with 119’ 8”.

Going into the 22-lb. heavy hammer, it was a very close competition between B. Aitkin and Sinclair, who duelled with some very impressive throws, with B. Aitken snatching the win over Sinclair with 120’ 10”. Sinclair was left in second place at 119’ 2”. In third place was S. Aitken at 110’ 4” and again in fourth, Robb at 108’ 9”.

Moving on to the 17-lb. shot, England’s Dowson took the win over Robb with a put of 48’ 1”. Robb was a very close second with 47’ 2”, followed by S. Aitken in third place at 45’ 3”and B. Aitken in fourth at 43’ 2”.

In the 24-lb. heavy stone, it was a very tight group, with Dowson coming out on top once again with a winning throw of 36’ 6”. Robb garnered second place at 35’ 8”, and S. Aitken took third spot with a put of 34’ 8”, just nudging out brother B. Aitken, who had to settle for fourth place at 34’.

The following event, the weight for distance, was a little heavier than usual at 30 lb. and was short at only 15 ft. long. It was dominated by Sinclair with a top throw of 79’ 6” that obliterated the ground record of 75’ 8”, which had been held by Robb since 2008. Robb was second at 72’ 8”and third equal were the Aitken brothers at 64’ 10”.

In the caber event, which was 18 ft. and 150 lb., Robb and S. Aitken tied with 12:00 tosses. In third place was Sinclair with 80 degrees and in fourth, B. Aitken with 70 degrees.

The last event, the 56-lb. weight over the bar, was won by Robb with a height of 14’6’ with both Sinclair and S. Aitken tying at 14’ and B. Aitken taking fourth place with 13’.

Overall

1. Bruce Robb, 32.5 points
2. Bruce Aitken and Steve Aitken (tie), 27.5
3. Craig Sinclair, 26.5

[Alan H]

Also 2010

-------------------------------------------

Larry Brock won the Aboyne Highland Games in Scotland and Francis Brebner has reported on the action for IronMind®.


The Aboyne Highland Games by Francis Brebner

It was a great day of competition at the Aboyne Highland Games this weekend, in the heart of Royal Deeside in the north of Scotland.

More than 12,000 spectators turned out for the Games, which is part of the Glenffidich Championships League. Scotland's Bruce Robb, Steve Aitken, Bruce Aitken, Alistair Gunn, Murray Gunn, and Craig Sinclair shared top billing along with the international competitors, USA's Larry Brock, Australia's Aaron Neighbour, and Poland's Darius Slowik.

In the opening event, the 22-lb. open stone, Scotland's big Bruce Robb, with a putt of 43' 5", won the event, with Bruce Aitken in second at 40' and Australia's Aaron Neighbour in the third spot on 39'.

In the second event in the competition, the 16-lb. open stone, Robb again took a first place win, with a putt of 50' 5"; in second place was Bruce Aitken at 50' and third was Brock at 49' 10".

Going into the 56-lb. weight for distance, all eyes were on Brock, but to everyone's surprise, Robb took the win over Brock with a throw of 44' 5"; in second was Brock at 43' 10" and in third, Bruce Aitken at 37' 7".

In the 28-lb. weight for distance, Brock dominated his mastered event with a clutch throw of 81' 8" for a first-place win, with Robb having to settle for second at 78' 5" and Bruce Aitken in third at 76' 5".

The 24-lb. hammer was an excellent competition between the top three, with Bruce Aitken finally taking the win with a throw of 114' 5", with Brock in second at 108' and Bruce Aitken's brother, Steve Aitken, squeezing into third at 99' 9".


Once again in the 16-lb. hammer, it was Aitken with a throw of 134' 8" who marginally took the win over Brock, who placed second with 133' 6"; Steve Aiken was third with 124' 4".

Up until the hammers, Bruce Robb had been leading the competition, but he lost valuable points in the hammer events. In the caber, which was 21 ft. long and 145 lb., Robb reasserted himself with a toss of 2:30 to win the event, leaving both Brock and Aitken tied for second place with 85-degree attempts.

Now in the last event, the 56-lb. weight over the bar, this is where Robb needed the win if he stood any chance of taking the competition and going ahead of Brock. It was not to be as Brock nailed a winning throw of 15' 6", with Australia's Neighbour in second at 15' on countback, and Robb also at 15' for third.

The overall was placings were: Larry Brock, first; Bruce Robb, second; and Bruce Aitken, third.

Larry Brock said that he had a great time competing at Aboyne Games: "I was very happy with winning both the Aboyne and Glenffidich Championship Games, which is one in a series of Games leading to the great Royal Braemar Gathering, which is the final for the Glenffidich League."

"Now, I am looking forward to competing at the Bridge of Allan," Brock added, where he will be competing for the British Championships in the 56-lb. weight-for-distance and weight-over-the-bar titles.

Brock said, "I am feeling good at this point with my throwing; we will just have to see what happens on the day of competition for the British Championships events."

[Kinetikat]

LOL Trust me not to realise who I was talking about!
In that case, I am even more fortunate than I thought I was!

Think the second article was about his younger brother Bruce Aitken, BTW.

[Kinetikat]

aaaan now I've read through it again, they're both in there! Oh, my brain... where did I leave it...?

[biblemonkey]

Work hard or don't work at all! Good on ya for finding the passion.

[Kinetikat]

I'll be posting on here, and also publishing a blog (probably starting tomorrow) following my progress, all in the interest of publicising the charity aspect of the thing.
I'll post a link when the blog is up - title to be "Throwing My Weights Around".

[Alan H]

I want to encourage you to go look at the database at NASGA and look up what kind of distances the top USA women are throwing.

14 pound weight for distance.

As an aside, you may need to make one of these yourself, as I expect that most of the Games Committee's over there won't have one of these.

Our local Amazon that I work out with, Bethany Owen, throws the 14'er about 55 feet. I think she will go past 60 this year. Another friend, name of Heather, who is a very good thrower and got an invitation to the Womens World Championships because a couple of ladies who ranked higher, couldn't go, very occasionally throws over 70 feet. Anything that is well into the 60-foot range is very good. Once you get past 70 feet, you're talking "top ten" throwers. Kate Burton has the world record at 89 feet.

Bethany is a "upper-middle" A class womens thrower. She's ranked about 20th overall on NASGA. Heather is ranked about 14th, I think. Adriane Wilson (Blewitt) is #1, Kate Burton is #2. I think that Beth Burton is probably about #6 and Kristy Scott is probably about #4. Kristina Sisseck is probably #5. We have some OUTRAGEOUSLY strong womens throwers here on the West Coast of the USA.... Shannon Popp, you won't find her listed on NASGA because she primarily throws at Track Meets, and she only does Highland Games sanctioned by the SAAA, and their organizers never put data into the NASGA database. She's better than Heather, probably right about equal with Beth.

28 pound weight for distance

Many of the better women throw in the mid-30's. That's where Bethany is. Ditto for Heather. I know two women here in California who throw over 40 feet. One, who I suspect is probably ranked #3 in the world in this event, Beth Burton, threw 46 feet at the Womens Worlds. Adriane Wilson (Blewitt) has the world record at 52 feet +. That's about how far *I* throw on a very good day, and a LOT of Masters men don't throw the 28 pounder, 46 feet!

Open Stone

This is very hard to quantify because there is little standardization in the womens Open Stone. Rocks can range from 9-13 pounds. If you can put a 10 pound stone well into the 30-foot range, that's good. Heather and Bethany do this. Both of them wish they threw farther, though. To be in the top lasses, you'll need to go over 40 feet. Adriane Wilson (Blewitt) has the world record with a 54 foot put, but she's almost an Olympic caliber shotputter. Kristina Sisseck throws in the low 40's and she was an NCAA Div. 2 collegiate shotputter.

Braemar Stone

Again, this is hard to quantify because of the lack of standardization. Normally, the womens Braemar stone over here is the 16 pounder but lasses throw anything from 13-17. If you practice with a 16 pound stone, you're going to want to see distances around 23-27 feet. World class will be starting to get up towards 30.

12 pound hammer

Bethany throws just shy of 70 feet. GGGP here on X Marks launched a 41-footer in practice this week (she told me!). GGGP is a small lass, fit and athletic but not a powerlifter or collegiate shotputter-type. Heather throws high 70's, sometimes 80. Heather was an average collegiate wire hammer thrower a few years ago. Kristy Scott, who just took third place in the Womens Worlds throws mid to high 80's. Kristy is a World-Class powerlifter. Kate Burton is the best womens hammer thrower and she breaks 100 feet pretty often. Kate was the NCAA Div. 2 hammer champion about 4-5 years ago. There's video on YouTube of her throwing collegiate wire hammer 200+ feet, and that is damn good.

16 pound hammer

Bethany throws right about 50-55 feet. I'm not sure what Heather throws, or Beth. I know that both Adriane and Kate throw roughly what I do, and that's about 80 feet.

I'm a 300 pound top-20 Masters thrower, and the very best 2-3 women throw about even with me in most of the events.

Weight over bar

In the USA the women throw a 28 pound weight. You may have to make one of these, since the 28 pounder that the Games you're going to will probably only have a 28'er set up for distance throws.

Bethany's PR is 15 feet. Ditto for Heather and Kristina and Beth. More typical for them is 14 feet, 13 on a bad day. I think that GGGP cleared 10 feet at the Queen Mary Games in February, which is actually pretty darned good for someone her size and weight, and throwing in only her second Games. Adriane and Kate and Kristy had a HUGE weight over bar battle at the Pleasanton Championships last year, topping out at 17 feet. Kristy just set a "standing technique" (not spinning, you can't spin in Scotland so you can ignore that) of NINETEEN feet.

I can't throw the 28'er nineteen feet over the bar. Then again, Kristy holds several womens Powerlifting world records for her size. She squatting 490 pounds and deadlifting over 500. Not all the ladies do that, though...not by any means. Kristy's cumulative powerlifting total...three events, bench press, squat, deadlift is almost 1400 pounds. If I were to do a powerlifting meet I would be delighted if my total broke 1,000 pounds.

56 pound weight over bar. (or 42 pounds)

I know that Kate Mason-Grammer has cleared 9 feet with the 56 pounder, and Kate is a darned good A class womens thrower. I know that Bethany in our group can clear 10 feet with the 42 pound Masters weight. I've seen her do it.

The Glenfiddich Junior series in Scotland has the lads throw 42 pound weights instead of 56, you **might** be able to convince the Judges to let you throw 42 instead of 56. I personally think that there's little point in having you throw the 56 pounder, except for giggles. If you compete with the ladies over here, you'll throw 28 pounds. It's worth your while to make a 28 pound competition weight to practice with.

I think that Kristy is probably able to throw the 42 pounder over 14 feet, though I don't know that for sure.

Caber

A typical A-class womens caber here in the USA is 13-15 feet and around 50 pounds. That's how big the new one that I just cut for the Ardenwood Games, is. Then again, Bethany and Kristina are going to be at my Games and they are among the best womens caber throwers. A beginners womens caber would probably be 12-13 feet and about 35 pounds. That's what my "lassie" caber is...the one I give to the new-ish, or smaller women throwers to work with. If I were running a Games that GGGP were throwing at, that's the caber I'd give her.

In comparison, I've seen video of Adriane Wilson (Blewitt) turning a 17 foot, 70 pound caber. She doesn't do that every day, though.


I hope this has been helpful.