Highland games training - be a warrior!

[Alan H]

Well, guys, I bought a practice caber on the way home. yup! I stopped by the lumber yard that I usually go to an told 'em what a caber was. Two guys were very interested, and said...pressure-treated, doug fir 6 x 6, 14 footers. OK, so We went out into the yard and the foreman found one that was straight enough, but twisted..if that makes sense. He says he'll never sell it to anyone that wants to build anything, so he sold it to me for twenty bucks. I just weighed it, it's eighty pounds exactly. That's probably a bit heavy for us amateurs, at least for practice.. I'll be rounding it off and smoothing it down which will probably take fifteen percent off of that...65-68 pounds which is probably about right. It's a bit short, but for a practice caber, we can't beat the price.

Besides, it fits in the back of my truck....sorta.

I found my old 16 pound shot, so we're good to go, there.
I'll even bring along an old rubber discus, just for hollers.

[Yaish]

Alan, if you want that practice caber to last take a little time and treat it. Soak it in wood glue where ever the grain is open and let it dry. Some plastic packing tape (the kind that does not stretch) wrapped tight around the heavy end will help too.

Also, make sure if you start to lose control you "dump" the caber quickly and properly. Dumping it flat puts a lot less strain on it than having one end slam down, then the other. (also way safer for you)
Try to throw on soft ground too, not anything hardpacked. Grass = good, baseball infield = bad.

[Alan H]

Does a caber...or any of the weights for that matter...really trash a football field?

[clancelt]

Does a caber...or any of the weights for that matter...really trash a football field?

Short answer, yes. I find the weights rip the field up the most. The area we practice in now look like the surface of the moon.

[Yaish]

One of the guys I compete with came up with the idea of chain weights. I made a set and now use them, and they work perfectly.

They dont tear up the grass at all, you can technically even throw them on asphalt or concrete without damage to the surface (but you will mess up the weight).

I'm running out the door right now, but I'll post details (and pictures if I can) on how to make them later.

[bunchdescendant]

OK All-

This is starting to get me excited to compete.

Alan-when and where? Let me know so we can get to hurting ourselves!!

"No pain, no gain!"

Ray

EDIT

Just noticed-this is my 100th post! Neat!!

[Alan H]

I went by the local big garden supply place after church today and got two nice, reasonably round 16 pound river cobbles. I had to haul about twenty of them across the yard to the hand scale to get two that were close to 16 pounds, but it was worth it. The price?

.....four dollars and 75 cents. A bunch of the guys at the Center we're really interested, we may see some of them at Games next summer.

When we get good at this foolishness I'll go back and get a 22 pounder for a Braemer stone.

Chain weights, Yaish? I can see that...a mess of half inch chain, all linked together would add up to 28 pounds pretty fast.

[Alan H]

OK All-

This is starting to get me excited to compete.

Alan-when and where? Let me know so we can get to hurting ourselves!!

"No pain, no gain!"

Ray

EDIT

Just noticed-this is my 100th post! Neat!!

Tim C is talking to Bill about when he can come over to get us started on the technique. I think we can use the throwing field at one of the high schools I substitute at...will be double-checking tomorrow.

So for this month I'm swimming when I can, working out with my 15 and 25 pound dumbells, doing squat-jumps holding on to both the 25 pounders, and masses of sit-ups. I figure that's a reasonable start.

I'll probably go down to Orchard Supply hardware and get a 50 pound bag of sand in a beefy polypro bag. I can tape that sucker up bigtime with duct tape and hoist that around and throw it like a caber, and it'll cost me all of about six bucks. It also won't chew up the lawn.