This week Wendy Spies finally made it to practice. Wendy is tiny, about 5' 3" and maybe 110 pounds but she's also the womens Masters 30-39 Olympic Lifting world champion. The woman has some serious KABOOM.

Tuesday was hammer winds for starters... I did 70, nonstop, which busted my gut a good one. Then did 30 more and then about 6-8 throws. Two of them "clicked" and were around 83 feet. The rest, *meh*. The timing is not quite automatic yet. MOAR REPS. We'll see how it goes at Costa Mesa. I can feel that there's a PR in there, somewhere. New guy, just out for 5 workouts, Joshua did a mess of throws and is having a hard time getting settled in hammer winds. I only had the 16 pound hammer, which is mighty heavy for Wendy. so nothing special, there.

Then weights.... I gave Wendy the 21 pound Masters womens weight. That's her "heavy" weight, which is hard to start with. She's seriously struggling with the footwork. Joshua is putting single turn throws out into the high 40's with the 28 pounder. It's nice to be 22 years old, 300 pounds and strong as a bull. Lance dropped one in at 60+, most were mid 50's. I am stuck between 44 and 46 feet with the 28. I'm seriously stuck and I don't know what to do about it. In the HWFD, Lance is consistant at 39+ with a best of about 44. I threw 4x, all were over 30 feet (any day over 30 feet is a good day) and best of about 32. That one was sweet, right down the pipe. Anyway, after Costa Mesa, weights become more of a priority.

Then Wendy and I did some stones. Her *pop* will serve her well when she figures out how to control it. I need to have her throw at half strength for a while. We threw a 12 pound rock that we grabbed off of the field, and I dropped a mess of those out at 39-40 feet, standing. WOW. The key to this was picking a point on the ground behind me and keeping my eyes on it as long as possible. I then got a huge *punch* on the rock and the thing took off.

Yesterday was a smorgasbord... I wasn't going to throw much at all, resting for Costa Mesa. Joshua and I coached Wendy into clearing 12 feet with sheaf, so that's good. Then we did some WOB. He straight-ahead explosiveness is awesome, she's clearing 12 feet easily and might have 13 in her with some practice. I threw the 56 2x for giggles...clean over 10 feet both times. Joshua is clean over 11, would love to see 12. He'll get more practice when he goes home to Arizona, Lance has hooked him up with two practice groups near his house.

Then hammer. I didn't touch a hammer...REST... but I had the 12 pounder in there for Wendy. She's starting to figure it out. I had Josh do some grip-and-rips after watching him flail around with multiple winds and get nowhere....whoah. WHOAH.... the kid ripped 3-4 out to the high 80's, best of about 87-88 feet. That will do him just fine in C class! Then stones. I stood a few with the open stone, again trying to keep my eyes on a point on the ground behind me, as long as possible. POW...31-32 feet standing. That's great. Wendy is struggling, we need to go half-crank on stones for a couple of workouts. Stones are going to be Joshua's nemesis, he has some elbow flexibility issues which means that he can't tuck the rock in properly.

Finally...caber. I had the little eucalyptus stick out for Wendy. She managed to get the pick down, well and is shocked at how much physical work goes into caber. She'll turn that stick in another 1-2 workouts. Then we put up the heavy, short eucalyptus caber for me and I did six throws, focusing on stop_BOOM. Don't wait. Just stop and IMMEDIATELY pop the caber. I turned it a mess of times, but that's irrelevant, it's short. I worked up a sweat and my hips feel it.

Now, rest until Sunday.