New guys and gals! kudos, and some totally basic training stuff

[Alan H]

First of all...you're throwing, or prepping to throw. YOU ROCK. Welcome to the insanity! You will have a ton of fun, meet a mess of really great people, sweat like a pig, and earn your beer. Life is good!

Nine Training Tips That Will Get You Pretty Far

1. If you want to throw farther your first couple of seasons, throw MORE. THROWING is the exercise that will pay off the most on Game Day....not weight lifting, not pylometrics or anything else. THROW.

2. Eat, sleep, rest, work. Do all of them, regularly. You can't slack off on the work too much or your throwing will suffer. If you work yourself into a state of near-collapse every time (some Crossfitters like to do this "Oh man I DESTROYED myself!" it's a lot harder to build muscle and strength. So work hard, but rest and sleep and eat.

3. YouTube is your friend. Go watch throwing videos. Seriously.

4. During the first half of the off-season, and if you want to train pretty seriously for this stuff......especially if you can't throw because of snow on the ground or something, your workout is going to focus on getting grunt-stronger. The basic exercises will be these: squats, deadlifts, presses. That's it! Most people backsquat, but if you like to front squat, do some of that, too. I happen to like doing zercher squats to mix it up with my routine of back squats. Deadlifts...do a few light-weight straight-leg deadlifts now and then, too, to mix it up. Presses? Flat Bench, incline bench, overhead press. Make up a routine where you squat, press and deadlift, each exercise, at least once a week.

Or not. It's entirely up to you, how seriously you take this stuff. That's important to understand. Not everybody takes this stuff really seriously. Soooo....what? They suck because they don't work out as hard as you do? Nah.....everybody is different. You figure out YOUR workout plan.

To that core group of exercises, you will add whatever feel right and good to you. Do you like beating on a tire with a sledgehammer? Then do it! Does pushing and pulling a sled tickle your fancy? Great! Rowing machine? Go for it. Circuit training? Great! Abs, always do some abs, both straight contraction and some rotation. Do whatever you need to do to have some fun with this and keep it up all winter. Do you like playing basketball? You'd be amazed at how many top throwers play basketball with their kids or the kids they coach. One outstanding Highland Athlete that lives in New England has a routine with his kids, where he drags the kids on a sled, though the snow in the woods near where he lives.

Me? Go look at my workout log and you'll see what I do. Your goal is to increase overall strength and build 3-rep max lifts in the three core lifts: back squat - deadlift - bench press (incline or flat, you choose).

5. 6-8 weeks before the throwing season starts, you are going to stop working towards a 3-rep maximum lift and starting lifting FAST. Hang cleans. OMG, are you going to do hang cleans. Step up on a plyometics box...JUMP on plymetrics boxes. Do Olympic lifts like snatches and cleans. Lighten the load, bigtime and do fast squats and speed deadlifts. The point here is to move the weight FAST. Oh, and if you like playing basketball or soccer or rugby, keep playing.

6. A month before your first Games, start throwing and throw more than you lift. . If you can throw 2x a week for 90 minutes alone, or 2 hours with a partner, that's great. If you can throw twice and lift (*fast*) once, that's fantastic. If you can throw once a week and that's it, then that's fine....just make it count. If your life is such that you can only squeeze out half-hour sessions, that's fine. Just try to get in 3-4 of them during the week. Try hard to get through at least half of the events every week.

7. Practice with a partner if you possibly can. The best thing is to practice with someone who's better than you are, eh? The next best thing is to practice with someone about the same level, but just practicing with SOMEONE is better than practicing by yourself all the time. Me??? I threw with Tim C about every other week, and alone once a week for the first 2 seasons. Then the next two seasons I threw completely by myself, with occasional sessions with my friend Jim. The last 2 seasons I've been throwing with Bethany and other members of the CHAC. I try to get in one session all by myself every week, and another with one or multiple other throwers.

8. Rest before a Games. If you're young, maybe you only need two days. Us old guys might need a week. Just don't do a blowout lifting or throwing session on Friday and think you'll throw huge on Saturday.

9. Have fun. Enjoy the people, be a good sport, and pull your weight. You're not going to get a Nike endorsement contract out of this, nor a Maybelline contract, so you might as well leave your cutthroat attitude at work. Try hard. Throw far. Bellow in joy when you hit a PR. Pound your buddy on the back when he hits a PR and beats you. Have a few beers together. Laugh. Make rude jokes about the rip in the other guys compression shorts. Talk to everybody...the A class guys, the lasses, the Pro's. yeah, you can talk to the pro's, they're pretty much all really good guys.

See you out there.