Alan's 2013 Season Log

[Alan H]

Well, this is day two of diclofanax, which seems to really be helping with both hips and wrist. I'm taking it easy, half the regular dose for just 4 days instead of the usual 8. I did not throw this weekend, but I did fix up one of our 56 pound weights, make a *rather* floppy 16 pound sheaf - sorta... and set 8 grommets in the foot of my original sail for my skerry.

[Alan H]

Day three of diclofanax... I think I'll take it out to six days instead of four. It seems to be helping.

I had to work latish last night and was kind of frustrated so I stopped by the field and threw some LWFD. I hit on the issues that have been plagueing me. If I drive the ball with my hips in the back, wait, wait wait to reverse my feet, land the first rotation with my feet closer together and ....this is insane.... DON'T "drive to the board", just sort of "let it happen", the weight goes 50 feet right down the pipe. If I drive to the board, I foul out the left side. If I do all the above and just pull a bit harder into the delivery, once I get to the front of the trig, I'll throw 52-53.

Ta-daaaa. Back on track. Now I just need to do this about 200x to ingrain it.

[Alan H]

Good throwing session tonight with Ryan. It's been essentially a month, now since anybody but Ryan came to practice. That's sad, but it is, what it is.

Started out with sheaf. I did some "pop it off the ground" drills and then threw my saggy 16 bag at 24 feet a few times. Ryan got it dialed in and cleared 18, 5x with the 20 pound sheaf.

Then caber... worked on running a bit harder and popping early. I turned The Whomper about 5-6 times, then tried the 19 foot long, 70 pound pencil, twice. I managed to get about a 70 degree on it. I CAN turn this stick, it's going to take work, but that work will pay off at Pleasanton.

The HWFD... the throws feel pretty good but they're not flyin'. I was hoping for semi-regular 35's by now and I'm throwing 32. Must keep knees bent. stay DOWN. I threw the 56 twice for kicks, managed a 24 footer and a 25 footer. Not bad for the old man. Then we did some LWFD, maybe 10-12 and I really worked on staying DOWN. That's clearly the ticket, needs more reps. I did a couple of single spins and to my shock, put the first one out at about 48-49 feet. whoooaaah. I did three "fast ones" two-turns and really launched one of them, maybe 54 feet. Big throws are in the tank, I just need to refine it.

After 3 hours, we called it a night.

[Alan H]

Day five of Diclofanax. I think I'll take it for one more day.

OK, last throwing session before a two-week throwing break was last night. Bethany finally came out to practice, which was nice. We started with hammer, and I discovered that I was out of gas from yesterdays throws... this is why we're switching to T-Th after July 1st. Anyway, I warmed up with 3 x 10 windes with the 16 pound, then threw about 4-5 all around 78-80. *meh*... the sheaf, where I discovered a tiny change in technique that may give me the 1 more foot I need to get 26...NICE. I used it to pop-and-block the 20 pound sheaf easily over 20 feet, might have had 21.

Then a few LWFD, not terribly serious here, and finished up with caber. I turned the Whomper 4x then did two mighty attempts on the 19-footer. The second one was good, got it up to about 80-85 degrees. I'll get this thing before Pleasanton.

Now for two weeks off from throwing....I'll get in some gym time and do some core blaster pulls and jumps with the 50 lb sandbag.

[Alan H]

Went for a long row on Saturday. I took Joan out for my early birthday and we rowed around Redwood creek for about 4 hours. 45 minutes of that was into a stiff head-crosswind and was a good workout. My back felt it!

[Alan H]

I'm thinking that I was *seriously* overtrained. Man, do I feel a lot better after a week off.

[Alan H]

Today I did a wild and crazy thing. I spent about $25 at Allan Steel and Orchard Supply and I now have, from some extra steel chain-link-fence posts that I had lying around.....a pair of WOB uprights that go up to 14 feet. They will come down to Shaffer field the next time I'm down there, and STAY there, so Marty and the G-man and Garry....and me when I'm down there... can practice WOB. I think that 14 feet will keep us all busy!

PS: you have to find/scrounge a crossbar, Marty. I bet there's some 6-foot long piece of pipe lying around at Shaffer Field that will suffice.

NOTE: we'll need this for Ardenwood, but it breaks down into 6-7 foot sections so it easily fits into a truck bed or folded-down truck/rear seat. I have one more piece of fence pipe, 6 1/2 feet long. If I cut it in half, that makes 2, 3+ foot long sections to add on to the 14 feet we already have, which means that this setup can go to 17 feet. Sometime down the road I'll pay another visit to Allan Steel and get the sleeves to join these bits onto what we have already and we're stylin'.

[o1d_dude]

If you purchase chain link fence "top rail" tubing, you would have a 20' WOB setup. Only problem is that the 20' lengths are one-piece. I bought four 10' long top rails so that the rig can break down. Make sure you buy two end pieces from which you can hang the top pulleys to raise and lower the fixed bar. Probably ought to buy two cleats to lash the ropes.

I also recommend two PVC pipe "trolleys" to keep the crossbar reasonably close to the uprights.

Plain old iron barbed wire fence post driven into the ground and the whole thing is as permanent or portable as you want. For portable, invest $20 in a slide hammer and another $20 for a fence post jack.

Guy wires? Dunno. Maybe if you want them but we never used them up at Frank's until the standards went up over 25' for sheaf in the last couple of years.

EDIT: Don't use any form of metallic tubing for your crossbar. It will bend on the first hit. Use PVC sprinkler pipe and keep a good supply of it on hand. It breaks but is cheap to replace.

Mark with tape or paint VISIBLY the different heights.

[Alan H]

The ones we have for CHAC practice go up to about 15 and they don't really need guy wires. With double posts driven well into the ground ( a fence post jack would be a GREAT idea, BTW) and solidly wrapped with duct tape, I don't think this thing is going anywhere for the season. It's significantly lighter than the 18 foot set I use for Ardenwood.

[o1d_dude]

All Frank and I used were single T-bar fence posts. They lasted at least 15 years that I know of...and they're still there! LOL!

If you're stringing crowd control fencing on T-bar posts, you definitely need a fence post jack. You can pop these suckers out in less than10 seconds a whack. Cutting the cable ties takes a lot longer though.

Here's a link to the Harbor Freight T-bar jack we use... T-post puller

I see the price is now $24.95 but worth it.