Mark's Training Log: I may be weak, but at least I'm slow.

**TeleMark** · 29th April 14, 03:10 PM

Can you clarify "stepping off in the weights with your left foot..."? I probably need to put the two videos side by side to see it. I can tell that I'm hitting the trig completely closed down. Is it a pivot on the left and "throw" the right into position?

**o1d_dude** · 29th April 14, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by TeleMark

Can you clarify "stepping off in the weights with your left foot..."? I probably need to put the two videos side by side to see it. I can tell that I'm hitting the trig completely closed down. Is it a pivot on the left and "throw" the right into position?

It means that you're making your first step with your left foot. Your first step should be with your right foot which helps you ease into the rotation to the left. Stepping off with the left prevents you from rotating and getting your hips open.

**o1d_dude** · 29th April 14, 11:56 PM

BTW, your hammers don't look half bad but you're short arming at the top of the arc.

Think of your arms as ropes. Their sole purpose is keep the hammer from flying away. In order for your arms to remain long at the top, you will need to lean your head back or otherwise move out of the way. This will add radius to your winds which translates into distance on the ground.

"What do we want?"
"RADIUS!"
"What do we kill for?"
"RADIUS!"

Here's a slo-mo videoclip of an 88' throw with the heavy hammer.

The thrower is still pulling in a little at the top of the arc, tho.

Here's another one. This is Canadian heavy Sean Langford aka "FrozenKilt" or "Sean" on NASGA in stop-mo with instructions.

Have fun. Throw far. In that order.

**TeleMark** · 30th April 14, 08:49 PM

Awesome! I threw with Sean at the Phoenix games this year. He's a monster, and a heck of a nice guy, too. My wife and I spent quite a bit of time chatting with Sean and his wife at our final event (sheaf). He crushed Masters 40-49.

And I'm having a blast. I've got nowhere to go but up!

**TeleMark** · 16th May 14, 11:20 AM

Home games time! Last weekend was Prescott Highland Games. Generally I was pleased and had a few bests:

HWD: 22'5"
LWD: 36'11"
HH: 53'9"
LH: 60'4"
WOB: 12'
OS: 24'11"
BS: 21'7"

My LWFD was about a 5' improvement, and my heavy hammer was over 10'. WOB was a PR and I nailed it first attempt. My first toss at 13 had the height but my angle was wrong. I'm thrilled with all of these. Granted, Prescott's field has a gentle downhill slope so people tend to PR, but I'm feeling a lot more confident about my weights. Last year at Tucson I'm pretty sure people were taking bets about which direction my heavy weight would go. Now I'm much smoother with the implement. Still a long way to go, but I'm finally feeling like progress is occurring.

The thing I'm most disappointed with is my light hammer. There are advantages and disadvantages to a sloped hill. With the slope, the ground in front of the hammer is about 2-3" higher at the low point of the head. In LH, on my first throw I laid back too much and tumbled over the trig. My second was very tentative since I wanted to get a score on the board. On my last I tried to really get it out there and struck the ground on my final turn. I'm pretty sure I should have had a 75' or so throw. I still need time with a caber. I had one decent pick, but managed about a 20.

The other side is that our club had about 6 new throwers at the games, and they all had a blast. A lady thrower I train with took 3rd overall in women's (and 1st and 2nd are both very strong, very experienced throwers). She got a lot of great tips from her group. A C class who has come to a few practices was first in his class, and won every event except for caber. If he threw in B he would have been 3rd or 4th out of 10. He is strong as hell, and has zero technique. He's already itching to get out and start really training technique. I think he's figuring he has a chance to win his next event throwing with the B guys.