My second competition results

**Ryan Nielson** · 26th August 08, 07:50 AM

Alright I'll keep trying.

**Ayin McFye** · 26th August 08, 08:54 AM

Great job Ryan. I wish I had your strength to be able to do so well from the get go. I have to rely a lot more on momentum and torque than strength due to my size. I'm 200lbs but I'm still a pretty scrawny guy compared to most highland athletes. Most of my numbers are drastically lower than yours.

I will be competing in November in Tuscon, but I'm not going out there to necessarily win, I just want to have decent form, to be able to throw decent scores and end up in the middle of the pack somewhere. I just want to have a good time. You have the ability to actually compete and with enough practice, start winning some games.

Here are my average scores

LWD- 34ft
HWD- 21ft
Lgt Hmr-59 ft
Hvy Hmr- 36 ft
Put Stone- 28ft
Braemer- 21ft
Weight over Bar - I have no clue, but it's not very good
Caber- Never thrown
Sheaf- Never thrown

Some of those scores aren't my best, just my average, but I've been throwing for a few months now, and my numbers seem to be drastically slowing down. I haven't seen much improvement lately at all.

So anyways, back to the point, I think you're doing awesome for the C class for sure. Keep up the great work, and good luck at your next games.

**katmills2005** · 26th August 08, 11:37 AM

I've seen lots of guys to far far worse on their second game. Keep practicing, get advice where you can, try to get another athlete to come train with you if possible.

*s* Your scores look pretty good to me.

**Ryan Nielson** · 26th August 08, 12:21 PM

Thanks guys. I train the events with a group of usually about 10-12 of us on saturdays. I've learned some things from them.

**Alan H** · 26th August 08, 01:28 PM

BTW, the two things that will bite you in the butt as you work on extending your hammer radius are:

1. keeping your balance

2. shoulder aches and pains.

Or so I hear tell! It really helps if you use some trick to help you keep your head up, well...it helped me, anyway.

**Alan H** · 26th August 08, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by Ayin McFye

Some of those scores aren't my best, just my average, but I've been throwing for a few months now, and my numbers seem to be drastically slowing down. I haven't seen much improvement lately at all.

I added the bold text.

Two things....me, too. I improved a lot at the beginning of this season and now I'm in a slump and nothing is getting any better.

BUT...when I first started I got better pretty quickly for about two months, and then nothing I did made diddly of difference for the next three months. However, when I came back for the second season...this season...WOW...massive improvement in the first few weeks.

**Ayin McFye** · 26th August 08, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by Alan H

I added the bold text.

Two things....me, too. I improved a lot at the beginning of this season and now I'm in a slump and nothing is getting any better.

BUT...when I first started I got better pretty quickly for about two months, and then nothing I did made diddly of difference for the next three months. However, when I came back for the second season...this season...WOW...massive improvement in the first few weeks.

Thanks for the experienced point of view. It's good to know that it's normal to level out for a while before improving again. No matter what happens I definitely plan to stick with this for at least a year or so to see how it goes. I truly enjoy practicing and the comraderie has already been great.

**Ryan Nielson** · 8th September 08, 10:43 AM

One more thing I learned about this. 7 days out from this competition we hit it way too hard both saturday and sunday I was throwing personal records in everything, then when it came time to compete both me and my brother were below our best. I think we hit it too hard the week before. Next time the last training week out I'm going to lighten the intensity quite a bit and just get lots of more rest.