For someone who's "ramping back" I'm still working pretty hard.

[Alan H]

My offseason weight training was focused on Hang cleans and box jumps, rather than big squats and deadlifts. That made for much less strain on the joints and I got through the offseason without any significant injury, or even a squeezed vertebral disk. I took all of the second half of October off, and all of November as well. Throwing practice started mid-March.

I've held myself to two-days-a-week practice with just one weekend jaunt down to Shaffer Field in the past six weeks. Still, today after two Games on back-to-back weekends and last nights hammer practice, I am SORE.

I'm making a mess of cabers for the Southern California group and did my usual Athletic Director gig at the Season Opener. That was a big success.

Throwing numbers are in there with 'the usual". This past weekend I managed a 14 foot weight over bar, thereby proving that I can do it in Nor Cal, not just with the So Cal weight. I managed to put a 16 pound hammer throw over 80 feet at Ardenwood, and have some good 22 pound hammer tosses. Weights seem to be "off" the most.

Last night at practice I had an AHA! moment after doing 100 hammer winds, three sets of hammer-walk drills and three sets of 10 winds with my feet really close together. Can you say "core workout"? I dished up what might be my biggest 16 pound hammer throws EVER. Now the challenge is to make that same sort of result happen with 1/3rd of the warmup in a Games situation.

I will be at three So Cal Games this year because I'm signed on to be one of the West region representative for the Scottish Games League. I kind of got roped into this, but it's fine. They guys putting it together are good guys, I'm happy to help. So anyway, I seem to be traveling southwards a lot, still...just not northwards.

https://youtu.be/79Sox9EPOOw

https://youtu.be/4MRtLs6RGDs

I turned this caber once...just missed this time.

https://youtu.be/l6T7eVPrPY4

[Alan H]

Since I'm taking an extended break from Facebook, which removes me from logging in the Contrarian group there, and I no longer participate at all at NASGA, I guess I'll turn this into my log for a while.

Week of April 26-31

Tuesday throws...HAMMER. get big. Four of us were at practice.
3 x 35 winds, focusing on relaxing and drawing big circles. Make the hips and gut move the ball. On the last set, getting out to winds #20+ I really tried to "go someplace I've never gone before" in terms of relaxation. It worked. I got there.
4 x 10, hammer-walk drills down a line on the field...get the feel of loading and unloading the feet.
3 x 10 super-narrow-stance winds. focus on countering the ball. If your feet are 8 inches apart, you HAVE to counter the ball with your body correctly. On the last set I tried, again to relax to a level I've never done before...and I did it.

Then about 6 throws, maybe 8. Something *clicked* and I launched two of my best throws ever on throws 3-4. These might have been knocking on the door of 90 feet. I was *Extremely* relaxed. We all got a laugh when the gloves departed my hand with a loud noise and sailed through the air, stuck to the handle on throw #1.

I learned something that day. At Dixon 2014, Ventura 2014, Ardenwood 2015 and Woodland 2015, I tried to "throw harder" on my last throw in light hammer. What was the result? I lost 3-6 feet of distance over the 2nd throw. Obviously, "throw harder" doesn't work. So now, instead of "throw harder" I'm going to relax more.

Then we finished up with Lance and myself doing about 8 caber throws each: 1.) DRIVE the stick, run with it, HARD 2.) pop EARLY.

==============

Wednesday (yesterday)

weights drills.... did about 4 sets of long-wire drills with Lances' 14 pound wire hammer.
Then about 3 sets of "burn the grass"..."short handle drills" with the 28 pounder on a short handle. This wore me out.
Then did a couple of sets of first turn drills...dump the weight.

Then we threw about 5-6 light weight. My best throw of the night was when I focused on keeping my knees tight. That one went 46-47. All the rest were 42-44.

Yours Truly is seriously fatigued and is doing exactly *Nothing* today (thursday).

======================

Friday will be
row machine warmup - 5 minutes
hang cleans, probably to front squats. I'll do "more reps", and FAST probably do 3 x 3 x 175
box jumps
and then a MESS of stretching and foam roller. I'm learning how terribly important this is.

[Martin Roy]

Glad you're back.

[Elizabeth]

I personally m glad you are going to be in So Cal for the games. Reading about making the cabers was very interesting.

[Alan H]

We went for a long hike and road trip on Saturday. The hike was about 5 hours worth at Grant County Park, in the hills above San Jose on the east side. You're up about 2700 feet. Anyway, it was a GREAT hike...saw lots of butterflies, frogs in the cattle ponds, lots of widlflowers. However, the wind came up after lunch and my allergies went on overdrive. Two decongestant/antihistamine pills did next to nothing.

That night I took some more and I spend Sunday with all the oomph of a snail. Wow, the mileage, allergies and pills kicked my hiney!

[Alan H]

It's been a good week, though generally speaking distances were not stellar...with one exception.

Tuesday is now Hammer Day for the month, which will end the week before Costa Mesa, as "Hammer Day" is absolutely brutal on core muscles. My goal is to go to Costa Mesa and throw "into the next dimension" of relaxation. The hope is, as always, that the tape will reflect the new skill level. However, if it doesn't, I will still know that I took my hammer throwing up a notch.

TUESDAY:

Stones - started with the toeboard drills and then standing throws with the 16 stone. The truth remains, I throw just as far, standing as I do with all the funny-business footwork. I dropped a few out at 32 feet, which was nice. That kind of wore me out so when we got to Braemar, I didn't have a lot of juju left, so just did 2-3 and knocked off.

Lance is going back to a glide in the open stone. I'm not sure this is a good idea, honestly.

Then, hammers

3 x 35 hammer winds. The last ten in the last 35 are in "the next dimension"... Bethany said that she saw it!
3 x 10, narrow stance hammer winds. The last 5-6 of the last ten are in "the next dimension". These didn't go quite as well.

Then, throws. We did about 6-8, each. Distances were not stellar. Everything decent that I released was over 70, but best of 78, whereas best last week was well into the 80's. However, I'm starting to settle into a 4-wind rhythm that "gets me to the next dimension". So the next two weeks are devoted to making this habit, so that I don't have to think about it.

WEDNESDAY

WOB... Me, Lance, Brendan... and Meghan showed up again! That was nice. We all rotated in for 3-4 sets of 3 throws. I was miles over 12 but couldn't clear 13. Poop. Lance introduced us to a cool new drill he invented, which I'll share with Marty the next time we're together. Anyway, we did that drill 4-5 times and then threw. It's annoying to not clear 13, but this "13" could be as high as 13' 6", my standards aren't very accurate. However, I'm driving the weight back, well, and sitting on it. At the delivery, I'm on the points of my toes with my calves on the verge of cramping. So I'm triple-extending to beat the band. I'm fully extended up, reaching for the bar. So all of that is good. I actually did a set of three with the 56 pounder and handily cleared 10 feet...not by a lot, but cleared it clean, all three times. That was nice. I think that throwing the 56 a bit is good, it's physically demanding. I just don't want to be doing it within two weeks of a Game Day.

Then we did some long-wire drills. I think I need to trim my wire/chain. It's almost 4 feet long. I should shorten it by eight inches. After 3-4 runs down the field with that, I threw the 21 pound masters womens weight-short handle twice, just focusing on 1.) wait in the back and 2.) make this the prettiest, most technically perfect throw that I can.

meh. The first one was good. The second one started great and ended awful.

Then some HWFD. I actually dished up some monster tosses, for me, right out the gate...33, 34 feet. The more I thought about it and practiced doing this or that, the worse it got. sheesh. It took a while for Lance to get it together but he put one HUGE one out to 44 feet. Watch out, Ken Lowther.... here comes Lance Creed.

We shut it down at 7:20 and I dashed off to jazz group practice.

[Alan H]

Prepped five cabers over the weekend, while I had a horrendous head cold...which I still have, BTW.

[Alan H]

Still dealing with the congestion. It's been five days, now for my sinuses and over a month for my right inner ear. I'm not liking this.

We did hammers and weights last night. This month, every Tuesday starts out with 100 hammers winds. Last night I did 35-50-35, so more than 100. Then Brandon and I threw. I'd seen a video on FB yesterday of Jake Sullivan with the 14 pound hammer and he did something that, combined with a memory I have of watching Dan McKim on video a few weeks ago, had me implement a subtle change. I'm also winding 4x now, not 3x. Well, it must have worked 'cause I dished up a mess of throws well over 80- feet. I know where the divots were and I set up cones at 80 feet later and my divots were out at 84-86 feet. That's HUGE for me. On one throw, the speed was almost frightening. I commented to Brendan "I don't think I can ever get the hammer head moving faster than that". Upshot is....to throw father don't throw HARDER. My new mantra is Relax more!

Then we did some weights, which were *meh*. I am smooth as all get out, but distances are down 2-3 feet from last year. Well, Brendan left to go to work and that left me on my own with an hour of daylight left. I just threw the 28. I don't know...20 throws? 25? More? Since I'm not practicing 3x a week now, I don't ever have an opportunity to just throw-throw-throw by myself. Howver, that's exactly what I needed. I hit on the idea of setting up more separation in the first turn, and POW...10 throws of something like 13 landed in a 4 x 4 square foot box out at around 46-67 feet. Bingo. Now I have to cement that.

This was a good practice. Tonight is WOB and SHeaf.

[Alan H]

Lance is just killing it in sheaf. He cleared 28 feet about 5x last night. Wow, just wow.

I'm down at 23. I managed to loft it over 23 feet once last night, but only once out of three tries. I'm solid at 20, 21 and 22. I need more practice at this, and it's hard to get it when we have to set up the standards and break them down every time.

The WOB. I didn't care about height too much last night, I just wanted to do 6-9 throws that all felt good, and that was no problem. Everybody says I have 13 every time so that's good.

An observation: practicing with 1 or 2 other people is great. Practicing with 5, which we had last night for a while, is too much down-time between throws.

Anyway, hammer winds and sheaf on Tuesday next week, then nothing on Wednesday and we shall see what Costa Mesa brings.

[Alan H]

I was going to hit the weight room on Friday, but between continuing massive congestion and a big time-crunch project at work, that didn't happen.

This weekend I prepped cabers. The Chieftan has been sanded to remove some of the mildewed parts, and re-coated with exterior polyurethane and renamed "The Francis Brebner". The new womens C class and Masters caber @ 12' 6" and 32 pounds is called the "Good Girl Gone Plaid" caber, which will give GGGP a chuckle when she sees it. All told, the SAAA appears to be getting six new cabers out of this.... seven if you count "Carol's" which is tiny but I'm tired of watching the SAAA's lone Senior master lass not be able to turn a caber.

I'm keeping two of the cedar sticks for the CHAC. One 14 footer that we thought would be good for the womens A class turned out to be a whopping 28 pounds. That's next to useless. I'll cut it down to 13 feet and we'll use it at Ardenwood for the Womens C/Masters class. It's a lot prettier than the piece of eucalyptus we've been using. There's also a 16 footer which when barked is probably going to be about 45 pounds. I'm keeping that. I'll cut it down to 15 +/- feet and it will be the womens A caber for Ardenwood.

I also finally finished up the big redwood log that has been drying at my house since last October. It's 16' 3" and 80 pounds and somewhat top-heavy. It's impressive as all get-out to look at. That will be a good practice caber for me, and good for the Masters at Ardenwood. All I really need for Ardenwood now is an honest A class stick.

If Mitch from Rustic Lumber doesn't have anything new in the yard from his Nevada trip this past weekend, then the caber crunch is over. I'll finish the one remaining cedar caber for the CHAC when I have time.