Practice makes perfect, right?

OK, so yesterday I had a chance to go to the Park and throw. I didn't think I was going to, so I didn't tell anybody else but 4:30 came and Joan wasn't back from her concert and I'd hit a "waiting point" in the project I was working on. So I loaded my "practice caber #1" into the back of the pickup truck and headed for the park..

I actually spent two hours throwing, working on A.) unleashing a lot more power on the stones, but not fouling out over the trig...B.) balance, arm extension and follow-through on the 28 pound WFD, and C.) Caber. So, here's the thing about caber. Yesterday, my first caber toss stank. I was looking at the ground the whole time. I stopped at the end of my run up, planted my feet and whooops, too late already. I didn't even get the stick up to 75 deg. *grumble*

So I did it again, focusing on looking up, and throwing the caber straight up at the end of the run-up...no stop. Just go-go-go-go THROW. The thing is, I wind up with my feet planted anyway, even if I don't try to do that. I subsequently turned the practice stick 5 times in a row, and 7 times out of 8 that afternoon, not counting the first one. I mean, most of the time the caber *bounced* as it went over. I see TimC do that, but I never get it to *bounce*. Yesterday I did.

I've turned it 4x in a row before, but never this much. OK, here's the point of this post.

LAST time I was out with TimC I couldn't turn this exact same caber to save my life. The time before that I was alone and I turned it 4x out of 5. So I'm in this never-never zone where I "know" what I need to do to turn it, but I haven't got it ingrained in my body "memory" yet. That's one reason why I tossed it so much yesterday. I was on a tear, was doing well, so I wanted to to it a LOT so that my body learned what to do. BTW, I am SORE today!

I'm doing the same thing with the 28 lb for distance. I "know" what I need my feet to do, and mostly they do it, but I have to *think* about it. If I push the envelope and throw hard, I tend to mess up. So the goal before Woodland (I have 3 weeks, which means about 4-5 more practice sessions) is to ingrain that motion, especially my feet into my body memory.