Discus, with a Side Order of Rice

[Kajsa Bergqvist]

I had to take the entire week off from throwing after the last meet in order to let my back heal up a bit. I normally would have been terribly frustrated by that, but as it turns out the weather was not good and I wouldn’t have been able to throw anyway. I was able to lift weights twice during that period, however. On Tuesday, with a slightly abbreviated routine, and again on Thursday, with pretty much my normal circuit.

I was finally able to throw again during this past weekend, and things went fairly well. At least I proved to myself that my back is healthy. Discus was good, with several throws beyond 135’. Javelin and Hammer were fair, but Shot Put was pretty poor.

My next meet is this Sunday at Rice University. It’s a Senior Olympics event, which means no Hammer and no Weight Throw. I don’t particularly like the concrete surface on the discus ring at Rice because it’s rough (like it’s been hit with a hammer too many times) and since it’s surrounded by trees, it seems like it’s always just a little wet.

However, Rice was where I entered my first Senior’s discus event, when I broke 100’ for the first time. A year later I was at Rice again and threw my second longest competition throw to-date. A year after that (last year), I once again threw my second longest competition throw to-date at Rice, with a throw that turned out to be my best throw of the 2005 season, and only 1” off my PB. For a surface I don’t particularly care for, I seem to do alright there. Maybe something big will happen there for me this week.

Weathered!

[Carolina Kluft]

The Alarm went off at 4:30 am yesterday and I was on the road to Austin for the Thrower’s Meet at 5:05. I was also thinking that I must have lost my mind. The temperature was 69 degrees, skies were cloudy, but dry. Two hours later, and 30 minutes outside of Austin the rain started falling and the temperature dropped to 54 degrees. I checked the flags flying at a car dealership I passed and the winds were whipping them straight out toward the south. This would mean a strong tailwind for the discus throw (bad), and a side wind for javelin (couldn’t help any). It was at this point that I began rethinking my plans for personal records in all my events.

When I arrived, Seth (the meet director) was just shaking his head. “It hasn’t rained here in three months”, he said, “And now this!” I decided I wasn’t going to let a little weather get in my way, so I optimistically began my routine. Hit the bathroom…take off glasses…put in contact lenses…get my stuff out of the trunk - implements, water bottle, towel, notebook for recording measurements…eat a donut…put on throwing shoes.

I ambled over to the shot put area and inspected the newly extended landing area. They put in a nice bed of level, crushed granite all the way out to 60 feet. Sometimes my shot put will roll that far, but that would be about the only benefit I would be getting from all the work they did. Oh well.

All the familiar faces were there, and it was good to see them again. That’s about all you could see of them though, because everyone was wearing hoods and hats and sweats or rain suits. I on the other hand had decided that the 69 degrees weather I had left back home was plenty warm so I only had sweat bottoms and a T-shirt...not good.

I warmed up a little and was concerned that I was throwing about 2 feet less than my normal practice distances. By the time the competition began I was thoroughly soaked, with water dripping off my hair like I had just stepped out of the shower. My towel for cleaning off the shot was completely saturated. This was a problem because after each throw the shot would wind up completely caked with wet crushed granite chips, then after a quick wipe with the towel it would be nice and shiny and very wet and slick.

My first throw in competition was tentative, as I was not use to standing in puddles when beginning my glide, and I produced a very embarrassing 31’-3” effort. The remaining throws went 32’-1”, 32’-11.5”, and 33’-5.5”. My conclusion is that for an 8:00 am start in the cold and wet, and after a 2-1/2 hours car ride, I apparently need longer than normal to warm up. Each of my throws averaged 8” further than the preceding one, and I’m convinced that I could have continued this trend for a couple more throws at least. I’m just not sure how I can warm up sufficiently with about 10 other thrower sharing one ring. I’m definitely going to have to figure this out!

Javelin was a joke. First of all, I suck at javelin…I’ve been about a 100’ foot thrower since I first picked one up about a year ago. But, my last throw in my last practice before the meet was around 117’, so I was encouraged. That optimism went away in a hurry at the meet. Even though I wear spikes, every time I planted my plant foot the spike would dig into the sod, but the sod under my feet would break lose and start sliding forward. It was goo! Several people slipped and fell while throwing, and no one really seemed pleased with their performances. My best?...93’-4”. Ouch!

Ok, time for discus. Time to kick some butt. I got to the ring early and began my warm-ups. My standing throws were sailing pretty far, and even with the conditions I was thinking 130’ was still possible. After all, I had spent a lot of time working on being slow out of the back and on-balance throughout the throw. Both are good things to have when throwing from a wet surface.

I had time for one last practice throw before the competition began. My plan was to “dial it up” a little on this one to get the feel of a full effort. Slipping had not been a problem as yet, and it appeared the concrete surface was rough enough to allow full throws even when wet. What I hadn’t accounted for were the random leaves and grass that had begun to accumulate on the ring during the warm ups. As I threw, I came out of the back ok, but when I landed in the second single-support my foot slipped on a leaf. I knew I was off-balance at that point so I aborted the throw and just released the disc rather than throwing it. It was at about this point that I felt something pop between my shoulder blades. No pain – just a funny sensation.

As I entered the ring for my first competition throw I felt pretty good…a little tight in my upper back…but good. My plan was to post a nice, controlled, legal throw so I could really let loose on the remaining 3 throws. All went well, and my throw sailed out to what appeared was a respectable distance. Then it happened. It felt like someone had stuck an ice pick between my shoulder blades.

Had this been the last meet of the season instead of the first, I might have tried to throw again, but after all, I have another meet in just 2 weeks and I didn’t want to screw up my chances to be healthy in that one. So…I passed on my other 3 throws. And I scratched on the remaining events – Hammer, Weight, and SuperWeight. I REALLY wasn't looking forward to throwing hammer from a wet surface anway.

My one, easy, controlled discus throw wound up being 121’-4.5”, which was good enough for first place. That was nice…and there’s some added consolation for my crappy distances in each of the three events because they all would up being above my season average for last year. I just need to make sure that these marks wind up being my worst performances for this season.

So, after the discus throw I headed back to Houston. Believe it or not, 30 minutes outside of Austin the temperature went back up to 69 degrees, and the skies returned to being cloudy, but dry. Go figure!

Today, the day after, I’m developing a very deep relationship with my heating pad, as my back is still a problem. Everything should be fine in 2 weeks, and I’m only anticipating a short (if any) interruption in my normal training routine between now and then.

Get Up!

[Yelena Isinbayeva]

This post will be a departure from the serious business of throwing heavy objects in order to address a matter of incredible importance – dunking a basketball.

Show me a man who has not fantasized about being able to dunk a basketball while watching an NBA game and I’ll show you a…well, I won’t show you anything, because there isn’t a man who hasn’t fantasized about being able to dunk a basketball. This desire is hard-coded into every man’s DNA. There is a specific region on the Y chromosome known as the “Shaq Sequence” which has been handed down from father to son over the generations since way back when we were living on the African savannah. Now, I’m sure that there have been some unfortunate souls born over the eons with a tragic defect in their genetic code that resulted in no dunking desire, but apparently they have been selected out of the gene pool. (I mean, what self respecting female would chose to reproduce with a non-dunker, with so many rim-rattlers available.)

Not only is the desire to dunk deeply programmed in our psyches, I feel that it is every man’s responsibility to try to dunk if at all possible. We owe it to our heritage and we owe it to our gender, because after all, in this era of equal opportunity for the sexes dunking remains as one of the last virtually all-male pursuits. Sure, there have been scattered instances of female dunking in recent years but they typically are performed by freakishly tall women with no vertical jumping ability, weak half-over-the-rim attempts, or efforts that might not stand up to rigorous gender testing. Having a sound genetic make-up and a strong sense of gender pride, the desire to dunk is as much a part of me personally as is the desire to dominate my television’s remote control.

Not surprisingly, I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t want to be able to dunk. I do however, remember when I first thought it might be a possibility. I was playing 3rd string guard on the Atkins “Tornados” junior high basketball team back in the 9th grade…all 5’ 9” of me. I had some serious “ups” back then. At 5’ 9”, my reach was probably only about 7’ 8”, but I had a standing jump that would allow me to touch the basketball rim, plus maybe an inch on a good day. This would make my standing vertical jump (SVJ) about 28”-29”. With a running start, I could get a couple more inches and actually grab the rim and hang on. But alas, getting up to 10’ 3” is just short of what is needed to slam one home, especially when one can’t palm the ball. I figure 10’ 6” is the minimum needed before one has a realistic shot…10’ 8” would be better still.

Fast forward 40 years, and I am now at my full adult height of 6’ 0” (but probably starting to shrink). My standing reach has increased to 8’ 0”. The 28”-29” SVJ I had back when I was 13 years old would now elevate me to the 10’ 4”-10-5” level…add just a couple of inches as the result of a running start, and dunking would be a…well, a virtual “slam dunk”.

So what are the odds of my being able to develop a 28”-29” SVJ at the age of 53? At first glance I would have to say they are somewhere on the order of leaving Las Vegas with money in your pocket, buying a winning Lotto ticket, or having Keira Knightley ask me to rub suntan lotion on her bare bottom. (I will now take a short break to ponder that last thought.)

OK, I’m back. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Keira Knightley…No, no, no…Dunking! OK, I’ve determined that I need a 28”-29” SVJ, but last weekend my SVJ was a wimpish 18.5”. So that makes the math pretty easy – I just need to add 10” to my SVJ. No prob, right? Wrong!

Although I just knew it would never happen to me, I’m here to tell you from first-hand experience that when you get older, beginning particularly after one’s late 40’s, your “shit” doesn’t work like it use to. “Stuff” in general takes longer to get going, it ain’t as strong as it use to be, and it doesn’t last as long. And if you try to do some of the things you did back in your 20’s…well, you’ll pay the price for days and days, not to mention the humbling “reality check” that leaves a more permanent bruise on your ego. (Don’t get too upset about this last part though, any reality check bruises you suffer in your early 50’s will be more than over-shadowed by those to come in your late 50’s and 60’s.)

The good news about my SVJ is that just 3 months ago it was only 17”. This is undeniable proof that there is improvement “out there” to be had. The question is only whether there’s 10” more improvement to be had. Having acknowledged that athletic potential declines with age, it might be good to know just how much it has declined since I was 13 years old. The surprising answer may be, “not as much as one might think”. The WAVA age-grading tables indicate that a 53 year-old has only about 80% of the potential in the High Jump of someone in their 20’s. But what is the potential of a 13 year-old as compared to someone in their 20’s?

Let’s assume that a 13 year-old has 90% of the jumping potential of someone in their 20’s (it sounds reasonable to me). So, if a 13 year-old can jump 1 “unit”, an athlete in their prime would be able to jump 1.11 “units” (1 / 0.9), and a 53 year-old would have the jumping potential of .89 “units” (1.11 x 80%). Let’s call it 90%. So if all this makes any sense at all, if I was in the same physical shape now as when I was at 13, my SVJ would now be .90 x 28.5”, or 25.5” - 3 inches short of what I need. Assuming I can get back into the shape I was in when I was 13, where is that missing 3 inches going to come from?

The missing 3 inches would be possible to obtain if you assume that I had at least 3 more inches of undeveloped potential back when I was 13. Let’s face it, I wasn’t on any real program to develop my jumping. I did “kid things”…I ran, I played basketball. I did no weight training, plyometrics, etc. If I had those 3 inches I would have had a 31.5” SVJ back then. Certainly that is an impressive number, but it is by no means unheard of. There are many documented cases of much higher SVJs. For instance, there are many examples of dunkers who are significantly under 6 feet tall.

While playing basketball can certainly improve one’s SVJ, it by no means maximizes it. The average SVJ of professional basketball players is much lower than that of volleyball players, or of shot putters and discus throwers. But the highest SVJs can be found in the population of Olympic weight-lifters…believe it or not! A brief internet study has revealed that SVJ is maximized through certainly Olympic-style weight training, plyometric jumps, and the avoidance of aerobic conditioning. I did none of these when I was 13 years old.

So here’s my plan. I will continue with my weight training program (to which I attribute my 1.5” SVJ increase over the last 3 months). I will get my “Power Clean” numbers up to the 200 lb neighborhood, and my squat numbers up over 350 lbs, and I think this should be sufficient to get my SVJ up to at least 28”. Then, on May 11, 2008 (my birthday) I will take a video camera out to my local basketball court and I will video tape myself performing a full-fledged slam dunk at age 55, and just under 6’ tall. I will be king of the world, I will have achieved a life-long dream that I will then be able to check off my list, and no doubt, Keira Knightley will be waiting for me courtside.

It’s good to have dreams.

Goals and Expectations

[World Record Russian hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko ]

It’s hard to believe but the countdown to the first meet is down to just 6 days now. I think I began ticking off the days way back when the 2006 schedule was first posted, and when the “days remaining” were at 117. My, how time flies when you are having fun. A quick check of Saturday’s weather forecast shows an expected high temperature in Austin of 66 degrees (19 C), and lows of 56 degrees (13 C). As I begin with Shot Put at 8:00AM, it appears that I will need to be prepared to be a little chilly. Also important to note is that there is a 40 percent chance of rain. Hmmm, maybe things will improve. Six days out is still pretty “iffy” in the weather forecasting business.

Aside from the possibility of really bad winds and a slippery wet surface, I fully expect to throw personal records in all events. I don’t mean to sound too cocky about this – I actually have some good reasons to feel this way. First, I’ve been practicing a lot since last season, and my technique is much improved in all events, except maybe javelin, where my technique is at least no worse than last year. Second, I’ve been working out with weights very regularly and although I am still no powerhouse, I am a lot stronger than I was last year. Finally, once I’m properly warmed up I’ve been regularly throwing personal records during just about every practice session lately. The determining factor next Saturday will be consistency, and whether I can get off at least one good throw out of the 4 allotted attempts.

Over and above the expectations of PRs are the goals I have set for myself in every event. These goals are in some cases significantly beyond my PRs, but when I set them way back at the end of last season they seemed achievable and necessary to keep me on track to achieve the even more aggressive targets I have for later on in the year. My goals for each event are as follows:

Hammer Throw – 125’ (38.10m), PR +6.08m
Shot Put – 35’ (10.66m), PR + 0.29m
Discus Throw – 130’ (39.62m), PR +0.48m
Javelin Throw – 125’ (38.10m), PR +6.75m
Weight Throw - 42’ (12.80m), PR +0.55m

The Shot Put, Discus and Weight Throw goals are all distances I’ve achieved in practice on more than one occasion. The Hammer Throw mark is one that I’m on the verge of seeing. But the Javelin Throw mark is still just a dream, and certainly has the lowest probability of happening. I would actually be very pleased with anything over 110’ (33.53m) in Javelin, and this would still be 2.18m beyond my PR. Also, 120’ (35.58m) in the Hammer Throw would be ok and would represent a PR +3.56m.

And just for fun I’ve entered the 56# SuperWeight Throw for the first time. Who knows what to expect in this one. I think my goals for SuperWeight will just be to not embarrass or hurt myself. It’s not an event that is contested very often, or one that is entered by very many competitors. (Should this be a warning?) At any rate, the national rankings showed that only 7 marks were submitted in my age group last year, ranging from 11.21m all the way down to 4.42m. I think I’ll pick 6.10m as a target, which would have ranked 4th last year. Who knows though, I may not even be able to pick up the damned thing!

Things Are Looking Up!

[World Champion Swedish High Jumper, Kajsa Bergqvist]

I had an encouraging practice on Sunday after a somewhat discouraging practice just one day before. My discus throws were just average, although the air was dead calm so I really didn’t expect anything spectacular. My target of 135’ at the upcoming meet is still achievable, but I’ll probably need a favorable wind in order to make it happen. Without a wind 130’ would be a more realistic outcome.

I was able to get the shot put out just shy of 35’ on several consecutive throws. Given that the landing area is elevate a good 6”, my 35’ goal for the meet appears to be well within reach.

Javelin continues to frustrate me. I’m trying to make changes here and there in hopes that I will land on the right combination (which is what you’re forced to do when you don’t have a coach) but so far I haven’t struck gold. I ought to be able to break my PR of 102’-10.5”, but I was hoping for 120’-125’ and at this point I just don’t know how I can reasonably expect to make that happen. It’s very puzzling too, because one would think that my body type would be much better suited to javelin throwing than to any of the other throwing events.

The Hammer and Weight Throws were where I saw the biggest improvements in my performance. As illogical as it sounds, “pushing” the hammer is definitely the way to go. How one pushes a weight that is suspended by a flexible wire is beyond me, but it seems to work. Throw after throw with the hammer went just under, and just beyond 100’ until I started pushing it. My distances immediately jumped to just under 120’, which is my goal for the meet. Maybe a few more practice sessions will help put me over 120’.

This practice session was a long one (3 hours) and it came the day after another long one (2 hours), so I was pretty exhausted by the time I got around to trying the Weight Throw. Still, pushing the weight rather than yanking it produced some pretty incredible distances. One throw went over 45’, breaking my old PR by 5 full feet.

The improvements in Hammer and Weight both equated to about a 12% increase in distance, and that is nothing short of amazing. It’s a shame that I haven’t been able to figure out how to get that same boost in Javelin.