The Right Leg drives around into the throw, rotating the Right HipWITH LITTLE OR NO PAUSE (even before the left foot is grounded) into the left side block.
This is the key difference between 67m+ and NOT.
These three high level concepts will work well as a tune up before the big meets in May and June. You won’t get bogged down with complex details and “forget how to throw”. They are also foundation concepts that can and should be mastered from the beginning of your throwing career.
Each of these three concepts have many sub parts or details that can be explored and I will list a few of them. Primarily, though, I am looking at them as “Big Picture” movements, positions and rhythm that can be approached with the end result in mind. They are “End Result” concepts. Don’t worry about the details of how to get there, as much as just making the end result happen. There is room for personal style in the throw but these concepts are universally applied by top throwers.
1. See the Horizon to the Target (throw direction)
Slow Down, see the horizon to the target. Let the left side: eyes, arm, knee and foot lead the body to the target.
2. Work a Wide Right Leg from the Back of the circle to the Middle
The Right Leg is your engine for the throw. The wide right leg shortens and accelerates/works ahead of the paused or slowed left side to create torque.
3. Rotational Continuity into the Block with little or no pause. The Right Leg drives forward rotating the right hip into the left side block.
The goal is to minimize or eliminate any pause or delay in turning the right hip into the block or even around past the block! At first, you may have to exaggerate the turn in the air to get the right foot around and into the throw. The right foot should touch down pointing to the back of the circle (12 o’clock). However, where it is pointing on touch down is not as important as making sure that you are getting the right hip to turn ALL THE WAY into the block without a pause or delay. Don’t let the right foot impede the hip rotation by grounding the heel.
The Right Leg is the initiator, not the right foot. You don’t want to “pre-turn” the right foot ahead of the knee.
You can’t make this rotation happen starting from a dead stop, with all your weight on the right foot as the “Wheel Drill” practitioners seem to believe. Logon to The Wilkins Review and click onTraining Resources; Drills and watch The False Wheel Drill October 2009 in for a more complete explanation of why the Wheel Drill teaches incorrect technique.
Work the right thigh forward and bring the foot under the knee to shorten the leg/lever for acceleration. Your skill at doing this will determine how fast you can spin your hips (how far you can throw).
If your right foot is not “back under” the right knee you are probably not shortening enough thus not creating enough rotary momentum.
Although it feels like a linear right leg drive into the throw, it’s the rotary momentum created during the left leg pivot that creates the power.
If you land heavily on the right foot this rotation won’t happen. You must be on balance from left to right andback to front for a quick and timely right foot rotation. Don’t let the right heel touch down and impede the hip rotation.
Check the Bend in the Right Leg on these throws.
Right Leg Continuity into the Block
In this video look for the long to short right leg creating torque and then the immediate transfer from right to left in the power position with upper body being dragged into block. The “walking torque” drill at the start seems simple but must be done like a martial arts movement for maximal rotational speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsfG8EyaLoo
If you can feel the Right Leg Engine work twice, once at the back and again leading the upper body into the delivery, you are making progress. The next step is to feel the right leg work to the middle and without pause, turn into the block. The goal is to “be surprised” at how soon the right hip delivers into the block, not unlike a good javelin throw.
The discus qualification rounds were held during the evening session of the first day of competition (Tuesday, August 12) and the weather was excellent, as was my view of the cage:
Those photographers did not linger very long, and I was able to take some nice vids from my seat, which was in the last row–a testament to the intimate layout at Letzigrund.
Here, by the way, is a link to those vids:
I was especially jacked up about the prospect of seeing two of the all-time greats appearing in this competition, one–Robert Harting–still at his peak, the other–Virgilius Alekna–nearing the end of the road.
I had the pleasure of seeing Alekna compete four times in the old Letzigrund Stadium when he was in his prime. Here is a link to a vid I made of the 2000 competition when he hit 70 meters on four of six throws:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_ez98mpC0
And here is a link to an article I wrote about the 2005 Zurich meeting and a rather humorous encounter I had with Alekna the next day:
Suffice it to say, I am a big fan of that man. He always carried himself with great dignity. After those 70-meter throws he might raise an arm to acknowledge the crowd, but at the same time he’d smile sheepishly, seeming almost embarrassed by the attention.
I’ve always wondered if he felt like murdering Robert Fazekas in 2004. If you recall, Fazekas prevented Alekna from enjoying a well-deserved victory lap celebrating his second Olympic gold. Fazekas defeated Alekna but not the drug testers in Athens, so Alekna received his medal in a delayed ceremony. Fazekas also kept Alekna from collecting a share of that year’s Golden League grand prize money by handing the large Lithuanian his only Golden League loss that season (athletes had to go undefeated to get a piece of the big prize).
But to be honest, it is difficult to imagine Alekna getting really cheesed off about anything. He reminds me of the ancient Roman hero Cincinnatus, who in times of war would set aside his plow, lead the Romans to victory, then quietly return to his fields caring nothing for glory or acclaim.
Harting, on the other hand, is more like Achilles. He carries himself with an undeniable air of superiority. And, like Achilles, he has earned the right to do that by defeating all challengers. In The Iliad, the Trojans are full of piss and vinegar as long as Achilles is away from the battlefield. But the minute he shows up looking to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, they know it is all over for them.
So it is with the world’s best discus throwers. When I ran into Piotr Malachowski, the Polish record holder and this season’s world leader with a throw of 69.28m, in New York last June the first thing I said to him was “It is great to meet you. You are a fantastic thrower!”
His reply?
“Yes, but Harting always beats me.”
What makes Harting an interesting character, though, is that in conversation he is very self-deprecating. I ran into him in that same hotel lobby in New York where I had spoken to Malachowski, and he was extremely gracious. He had just arrived from the airport after a trans-Atlantic flight but he patiently answered my questions, and then answered some more following his win the next day at the Adidas Grand Prix meeting. Here are links to those two interviews:
Anyway, it turned out to be an interesting juxtaposition watching these two great champions, both competing in flight one of the prelims in Zurich. Alekna looked as smooth as he ever did, but simply could not generate the power necessary to reach the 64-meter automatic qualifier mark. The best he could muster was a first-round 59.35m.
Harting, flush with power, qualified easily by hitting 67.01m on his first attempt.
Gerd Kanter also looked sharp in the prelims, throwing 65.79m to go one-and-done.
Malachowski ended up taking all three of his attempts, ultimately reaching 64.98m.
I left the stadium that night thinking that we might see a pretty good battle between those three in the next day’s final.
As mentioned in my last post, I headed over to the Hilton Hotel early the next morning in order to attend a German team press conference. Afterwards, I sat down in the lobby to make some notes and eventually looked up to see a very tall man ambling past the front desk. It was Torsten Schmidt, a 2004 Olympian and, since last November, the coach of Robert Harting.
From what I understand, Germans, unlike Americans, are not comfortable with casual friendliness. My brother-in-law has told me that when a German meets another German he must speak to that person in a formal way until given permission to switch over to a more familiar style of address. In the press conference I had just attended, for example, I noticed that at least one of the German reporters had addressed David Storl as “Herr Storl” even though the reporter was much older than the shot putter.
I was a worried then, that I might cause offense by springing upon the unsuspecting Coach Schmidt and interrupting a heretofore peaceful morning stroll.
But doggonit, a fellow only lives once, and how often do you see the coach of the world’s best discus thrower wandering through a hotel lobby?
So, I pounced.
And it turns out he is a really nice man. I think he spent the first couple of minutes of our conversation wondering who in the hell I was and why in God’s name I was asking him questions, but eventually he understood that I was a fellow discus geek and we had a very nice chat.
He told me that he had retired from competition in 2007, and by 2009 was coaching young throwers at the German training center in Berlin.
I asked him if he felt a lot of pressure going from coaching teenagers to coaching the defending Olympic champion, but he said no because Harting has such a clear idea of what he needs to do to perform well, and that even when his form is a bit off he is strong enough to throw far.
In fact, according to Coach Schmidt, Harting’s entry was flawed on his qualifier, but he was able to muscle it 67 meters.
After a few minutes, I wished Coach Schmidt good luck in that night’s final, and headed off to the stadium to watch the women’s hammer qualifying.
It rained throughout the entire hammer competition, but the sun reappeared as I made my way towards the train station with the idea of heading back to Winterthur to relax for a couple of hours before returning to Letzigrund for the evening session.
On the way, I stopped at a plaza in downtown Zurich stocked full of track-related activities and displays, and dominated by this temporary wooden structure:
The reason that all of the table umbrellas are tied up is that the wind was really whipping, and eventually blew so strong that the start of the evening session was delayed some 90 minutes.
After a nice nap back at my brother-in-law’s apartment, I saw news of the delay on Twitter but wasn’t sure how it would affect the start of the discus final, so I headed over to the Winterthur train station in plenty of time to get back to Letzigrund in case it proceeded on schedule.
And who should I run into on the train platform, but the fine Dutch discus thrower Eric Cadee and his girlfriend Kai Kand, the former heptathlete from Estonia.
I met Eric last June when I retrieved his shoe on Randall’s Island in New York. It was the day before the Diamond League meeting, and I had headed over to Icahn Stadium to see if any of the throwers were practicing. Eric was there with 2012 Olympic silver medalist Ehsan Hadadi, and they wanted to try out the ring but it was entirely filled with water from a morning shower.
I quickly snapped into Coach McQuaid mode, rounded up a broom and some towels, and cleaned up the ring. Eric just wanted to take some easy shoe tosses, and I shagged for him so that he didn’t have to keep walking through the wet grass. He and Ehsan were both very pleasant to talk to, and after they were done practicing I taped a quick interview with each. You can find those interviews here:
Unfortunately, Eric did not throw well in the qualifying in Zurich, so he was on his way to attend the discus final as a spectator.
It was great fun talking to Eric and Kai on the journey to the stadium, and I couldn’t help but fantasize about some day coaching their children. They are smart and friendly and just happen to be world class athletes. Eric and Kai, if you read this just know that the Chicago suburbs have lots of parks and excellent schools.
I mentioned that Malachowski seemed not to be at his best, and Eric said that he (Malachowski) was struggling with his timing and confidence. “I told him, just remember you are the defending European champion. You’ve thrown 71 meters!”
When we arrived at the stadium, the wind was swirling, the temperature was dropping, and the decathlon javelin was just getting underway. This meant that the discus final would not begin for another two hours.
Always one to make the best of a bad situation, I filled the time by eating brats and pretending to be interested in the decathlon.
Finally, the javelin sector lines were removed, the discus sector lines were set out, and the finalists were ushered into the stadium.
I had paid 140 francs for a second row seat hoping to be close to the cage for the final, and I was definitely close:
The problem was that Harting’s presence made the discus a marquee event, and in order to give the folks watching at home a great view…
…they totally blocked mine.
See that giant camera pointed at the stands? That was there to film the reaction of the coaches throughout the competition.
It is probably good that they did not point that camera at me, because while I do not speak German, I do know a universal hand signal that would have expressed my feelings precisely.
Ah well, it was still fun to be that close.
Shortly before they opened the ring for warmups, it began to rain.
The Zurich ring has a good reputation. In New York, Harting told me he really likes throwing at Letzigrund, and Sondra Perkovic has said the same thing.
But there was something about the combination of the misting rain and the cool temperature that made the surface almost unmanageable.
Harting actually fell down performing an imitation.
And I don’t care how confident you are, that has got to shake you up a bit.
Throughout the competition, Harting took frequent strolls across the track to check in with Torsten.
Most of the competitors did the same. Here is Martin Wierig conversing with his coach, world record holder Jurgen Schult:
Here is Robert Urbanek with his coach:
Malachowski had several animated conversations with the Olympic shot champion, Tomasz Majewski.
Malachowski had told me that he and Majewski were best friends, and they acted like it. I do not speak Polish, but based on their gestures and facial expressions it seemed like their interactions went something like this:
“Throw farther, you idiot!”
“I can’t! The ring is a mess!”
“I don’t care! Just find a way!”
That photo above was taken after the competition though, and you can see that Majewski was genuinely pained when his friend was unable to defend his title.
Harting opened with 63.94m, followed by a foul when the discus slipped out of his hand, followed by one of those throws that he always seems to come up with: 66.07m in round three.
He passed in round four, hoping that the rain might let up a bit and let him extend his lead…
…then fouled both of his final attempts. On his sixth throw, his right foot landed on the rubberized surface surrounding the ring and I thought he was going to do the splits.
Kanter, who had spent time between throws performing imitations on the track right in front of me…
…finished second with a 64.75m toss, followed by a very happy Robert Urbanik…
…whose second round toss of 63.81m held up for the bronze.
You will notice that Harting is shirtless here, and that he is surrounded by a bunch of photographers.
After his final throw, the whole stadium was ready to see him rip his shirt off–his usual mode of celebration following a big win.
Harting, though, decided to have some fun with those expectations and performed a couple of fake shirt rips…
…before peeling it off and pretending to take a nap on the track.
His was not the only ecstatic celebration of the night, as French decathlete Florian Geffrouais seemed at one point about to jump on me:
One last observation regarding the men’s discus. The Germans are huge! Harting is a big man. Wierig is bigger. Fellow finalist Daniel Jasinski is even bigger. And Jasinski’s coach is the biggest dude I’ve ever seen!
Do you see Majewski there talking to Malachowski? The guy in the red jacket next to Tomasz is Jasinski’s coach, and he…is…bigger…than…Majewski! Bet he doesn’t have any trouble getting his athletes to listen to him.
So, a couple of days later, Saturday morning to be exact, I headed back to the Hilton for another German press conference. This one mainly concerned the women’s hammer, which I will post about later, but afterwards I walked out into the lobby and who should meander by but Torsten Schmidt.
The poor guy must have wondered what he had to do to make it through the lobby without some idiot American jumping out from behind a potted plant.
But we had another really nice conversation! He said that prior to the competition the discus throwers had been told three times in the holding area that they would be taken to the ring in “10 minutes.” Somehow, ten minutes stretched into an hour and then nearly two hours before they were actually brought out for warmups.
Then, as mentioned above, it was very difficult to find comfort with the throwing surface.
Most of the throwers also quickly gave up trying to perform imitations between attempts due to the slickness of the rubberized surface around the cage. That is why Kanter came over to the track to work on his steps, apparently finding a dry patch just in front of the stands.
It all added up to a potential disaster for Harting,the prohibitive favorite, and for Torsten who must have felt the weight of expectations as well.
One thing that I was struck by throughout my week in Zurich was how much it meant for these athletes to medal at this meet. Obviously, the Olympics and World Championships are a bigger deal, but based on the reactions of the winners and losers, I’d say not by much.
I got the sense, especially from the Germans, that they felt great pride in representing their country. Each time I passed through the Hilton lobby, I noticed several German athletes watching the live feed from the stadium and cheering loudly when their compatriots performed well.
So it could not have been easy for Torsten to have watched Harting bite the dust during an imitation and then struggle mightily to find a semblance of rhythm.
“So,” I finally asked, “what did you say to help get him through it?”
“We decided that he needed to keep more bend in his knees so he could keep his balance. Fortunately, that was enough.”
Just then, Harting showed up. He looked at Torsten and then at me and then his eyes widened and he exclaimed, “You again!”
I held out my hand.
“Hello, Robert. Dan McQuaid. Congratulations on your victory!”
As we shook, he looked again at Torsten and said, “This guy is always hanging around asking questions!”
“Yes,” I replied. “Your coach is telling me all of your secrets.”
“Secrets?” he shot back. “There is no such thing as secrets!”
“Secrets,” he continued, tapping a long finger against his temple, “are only doubts!”
And with that he turned and strode confidently away looking fit and ready to storm the walls of Troy.
Okay, I know that’s hard to read, but I couldn’t cut and paste the damn thing without the margins going all goofy. Basically, what you’ve got there is a list of the 40 throws of 65m or better that have been produced by American women. By no means does Gia dominate that list. Suzy Powell has the most throws over 65m with ten, followed by Gia with nine. Stephanie Brown-Trafton has the farthest throw on the list (67.74m) followed by Powell (67.67m) and then Gia (67.59m). However, take a look at…
Exhibit B: Throws over 65m in International Competition
67.59m Gia (Glasgow)
66.29m Gia (Zagreb)
65.77m Gia (Oslo)
65.59m Gia (Paris)
65.38m Powell (Rethimno)
65.10m Aretha Thurmond (Monaco)
This list, she does dominate. And why, you may ask, is that a big deal?
That is a big deal because the throws on this list were taken inside of stadiums overseas.
I’m not going to condemn anyone for seeking out windy climates in an effort to break a record or achieve an “A” standard. But throwing bombs on the California coast has zero relevance when it comes time to go up against the best of the best at the Olympics or the World Championships, which are held…inside of stadiums overseas.
In order to contend for a medal, a female discus thrower must set aside the distractions of travel and the lack of those lovely ocean breezes and throw at least 65 meters.
Among American discus throwers, Gia has become the best at doing just that.
There are those who would argue that Stephanie Brown-Trafton should be considered the best ever after winning gold at the 2008 Olympics. I am a big fan of Stephanie, who is on the comeback trail after giving birth nine months ago. Last week, at the Chicagoland Throws meet she told me that she is feeling good and just needs to build up her strength levels in order to return to peak form. But the peak form that got her the gold in Beijing in 2008 with a throw of 64.74m is unlikely to win her a spot on the medal stand in Beijing in 2015 or in Rio in 2016. Sondra Perkovic, the defending World and Olympic champion, has shown a consistent knack for throwing 68-69m at the biggest meets. Australia’s Dani Samuels is having a great year, and there are a handful of others who have recently thrown 65+m in stadiums.
The only American thrower ever who has shown the ability to hang with that crowd is Gia.
Actually, she has done more than hang with them as of late. Last week in Glasgow in this stadium…
…she handed Perkovic her first loss of the season by launching a PR throw of 67.59m.
Gia is now the only thrower to have defeated Perkovic over the last two years. That alone might qualify her as the best.
Part Two : Work a Wide Right Leg from the back to the middle
These three high level concepts will work well as a tune up before the big meets in May and June. You won’t get bogged down with complex details and “forget how to throw”. They are also foundation concepts that can and should be mastered from the beginning of your throwing career.
The three moves are good for advanced and beginning throwers as well. They are easy to grasp and execute. The trick is executing them well in the whole movement of the throw.
Each of these three concepts have many sub parts or details that can be explored and I will list a few of them. Primarily, though, I am looking at these as high level movements, positions and rhythm that can be approached with the end result in mind. Work one idea or all three per throw in training or competition.
1. See the Horizon to the Target (throw direction)
Slow Down, see the horizon to the target. Let the eyes and left arm lead the body to the target.
2. Work a Wide Right Leg from the Back of the circle to the Middle
The Right Leg is your engine for the throw
The wide right leg works/races ahead of the paused or slowed left side to create torque.
Starting too fast in the unwind and first turn with the left side makes the right leg go fast to catch up to the left side. To go fast it works like a hammer thrower’s right leg, short, fast and close to the left knee. This narrow and fast right leg has NO POWER in the middle of the circle. It has a short radius and is trying to catch up to the fast upper body. It never does in this case. It is forced to create a fast to slower rhythm. Longer and slower on the first turn to shorter and faster in the middle is the correct but counter intuitive rhythm for the throw.
“On your mark. Get Set…”
We are only trying to get down to a powerful start position at the back of the circle like a sprinter in the blocks in the “set” position at the start of a race. Think about what position will create the most power for you when facing the throw direction in the single leg support phase. How can you create the most linear AND rotational force with your right leg? How can you best make your hips rotate as fast as possible in the middle of the circle? Feet and knees close together is not a powerful starting position. A wide right leg out the back of the circle with the left thigh vertical (left hip out) providing some unseat to the target just naturally feels powerful. See the photos below.
Also note the upper body posture.
No, he really isn’t throwing here, just finding the position during a competition.
LJ Silvester, the Original, First over 60m, First over 70m.
Throwers start with different timing and different right leg action at the back. LJ Silvester and Wolfgang Schmidt got their right foot off the ground sooner than anyone in relation to the turning of the left side. Their right leg swept forward leading with the inside of the thigh. Others (Lars Reidel below) keep the right foot on the ground longer at the back and lead more with the top of the thigh with a bit of a hitch kick action.
In any case:
1. All who do this effectively will show in the shortened position a right leg with the foot slightly under or behind the knee similar to a sprinter’s leg position.
2. The key is to not turn the left side too fast so the right leg cannot swing wide before shortening and accelerating ahead of the left side, creating torque. When you have that down, don’t forget Point #1 about pausing or slowing the left side somewhere while turning on the left leg to ensure the right leg can get ahead to create torque.
Using the Wide Right Leg DOES NOT require a 600lb squat. It is a position you move through.
14 yr. old non weight trained female with wide right leg.
Whatever you do at the back of the circle you must repeat at the front, whether good or bad. If you want to throw the discus with your right hip ahead of the right shoulder (for right handed throwers) then work the right hip (wide right leg) at the back to the middle of the circle to lead the upper body. If you lead with your head and shoulders at the start you will lead into the throw with your head and shoulders first in the delivery. Good Luck with that one.
Other side notes.
Left Side Drive v Right Leg Engine – Its OK to push with the left leg at the back of the circle. Just maintain the integrity of the throw rhythm. You do want to load the left foot as you turn at the back getting into the “set position”. Getting the left foot down as fast as possible at the front is NOT the goal. Getting the left foot down AT THE RIGHT TIME is the goal.
Keep the right foot close to the ground – yes, if you are hopping up in the middle and destroying your rhythm. But if the right foot is close to the ground all the way, you are losing power by having a shorter right leg radius. Check out the long right leg on Ms “Seventy Meter Sandy” Perkovic below. She’s not skimming the ground with the right foot.
Below are More Long, Wide, and Relatively Slower Right Legs waiting to shorten and accelerate the rotation of the hips and discus/shot put.
These three high level concepts will work well as a tune up focus before the big meets in May and June. You won’t get bogged down with complex details and “forget how to throw”.
They are also concepts that can and should be mastered as part of the foundation of your technique from the beginning of your career.
1. See the Horizon to the Target
2. Work a Wide Right Leg from the Back of the circle to the Middle
3. The Right leg/hip continuously rotate into the left side block from the middle.
The three moves are good for advanced and beginning throwers as well. They are easy to grasp and execute. The trick is executing them well in the whole movement of the throw.
Each of these three concepts have many sub parts or details that can be explored and I will list a few of them. Primarily, though, I am looking at these as high level movements, positions and rhythm that can be approached with the end result in mind. Work one idea or all three per throw in training or competition.
It might be easy to dismiss these concepts as too simple or high level and move on to more detailed trivia. The advanced thrower will find endless subtlety here and increase their power and efficiency.
1. See the Horizon to the Target (throw direction)
If you can’t see the details of the horizon, where the sky meets the earth, then you are turning too fast. Slow Down! Or get on balance so your head is more centered as you turn. Or be more upright with your upper body posture.
Let the left side (eyes, left arm, knee and foot) lead to the target
From 10 o’clock on, (with 12 being straight out the back of the circle) the left side is a single vertical plane. (don’t let the foot/knee get ahead of or lag behind the shoulder/arm/head unit)
At the target or in the next 150 degrees, the left side slows or pauses to let the Right Leg Engine catch up and overtake it creating torque. This slowing point varies from thrower to thrower. If the left side doesn’t slow the right leg will never catch up to create torque.
Try to hold your face at the target until the right leg pulls it around to the back of the circle. This is an important key for throwers having trouble getting torque.
The throwers in this video “see the horizon” and “hold their eyes on the target” for a hot second before the right leg turns them to the back of the circle.
It’s been 20 years now since there was a radical shift in drug testing on the world level. American shot putters adapted to the new conditions by developing a fairly new way of throwing: the rotational technique. The results of this by the numbers are pretty evident. Over the last 20 years, the US has captured 32/75 world medals (42.6% of Olympic, World Indoor and Outdoor) and 81/200 top ten world ranking spots (40.6%). Over the previous 20 years(1975-1994) the US had earned 9/39 medals (23%) and 61/200 world ranking spots. Clearly, as the spin technique became better America’s medal production and top 10 ranking spots made a significant increase. However, our other rotating event– the discus–did not see the same success.
I am a numbers guy and a history guy. I coach by recording numbers and watching the correlations between the numbers and the training program. I also have done extensive research into training systems around the world. The history of the sport can also show you the mistakes that are made so you don’t do repeat them, and yes, I love the history channel.
Here are the discus numbers for three 20-year time periods. From 1955-1974 we held 84/200 world ranking spots (42%) much like the spin shot has been for the last 20 years and 10/15 world medals (66.6%) . Over the next 20 years (1975-1994) those numbers dropped dramatically: 42/200 world ranking spots and 5/24 medals (20.8%). During the next 20 years (1995-present) we earned 22/200 ranking spots and 1/45 world medals (2.2%). These numbers have always bothered me, so I started looking for reasons why.
America produces good high school discus throwers at a much higher rate than we did in the past. Over the past fifteen years, there have been 101 male high school discus throwers in this country who have thrown at least 200 feet. Here is the breakdown:
-3 over 234
-5 over 215
-9 over 210
-25 over 205
-60 over 200
This would indicate that the raw material for good discus throwing at the upper levels exists in the country, and the NCAA system is still the best minor league for track in the world. The big question is, why aren’t we producing more world class discus throwers? In the last 10 years we earned 7/100 world ranking spots and a big goose egg on medals.
This is what I think happened in the last 20 years in the discus in America. When the 200-237 foot high schools throwers tried to step up to the 2k something was missing. We can rotate well, because we have all these spin shot putters so what is it? Is it technique like many say, or is it something else? If it was solely technique, then we wouldn’t have all these high school guys throwing so well. What we need to do is to focus on throwers with a large wingspan and specifically train them with under and overweight implements and special throwing tools at higher volumes. This is how we are getting beat in this event. Americans mostly right now throw the 2k and lighter for our training with a low volume of throws. We need to be throwing heavy discs up to 4k and even heavier devices like the one Perkovic throws that was developed by Jerry Clayton. We need to focus on this area and stick with it. This is a long term approach that pays down the road. When the heavy implement goes further and the light implement goes further than the middle implement, the 2k will go further. Just throwing a 2k or a 2.25k will not get the job done. This is a 10,000 throws a year training regimen that has to be programmed, recorded and monitored for each athlete at the elite levels. The Europeans know if we don’t take that many throws and we don’t throw that heavy as part of the training that we have no chance unless we come up with our own freak of nature. The last part of this is a large amount of discus training has to be centered on non-reverse throwing. This doesn’t mean that I am saying never to use a reverse, but a high amount of throws need to be taken non-reverse for proper leg development. Discus throwers technically need to learn good mechanics working against the ground. This has to be introduced early during a thrower’s high school days as it takes many repetitions to reap the benefits of this approach. This would represent a major philosophy shift in this event, but what we are doing now clearly does not work. When the drugs got scaled back, the Europeans adapted in the discus and we didn’t. We adapted with the rotational shot and they didn’t.
I ask you, is there a better way to ward off the winter blues than to spend an afternoon dissecting great discus technique?
Okay, there probably are better ways, but this one is cheap, fat free, perfectly legal and will help me forget about that three-foot snow drift covering our discus ring. So, here goes.
It seems to me that the key to great discus throwing is finding a reliable way to get from here…
To here…
From here…
To here…
From here…
To here…
Warning: If you can identify the owner of these legs you probably spend way too much time watching throws videos and are in danger of being called a “super dweeb” by your long-suffering wife. Trust me, I have experience in this matter.
Anyway, these pairs of photos illustrate two important stations along the path to a fine throw. The athlete must begin with a balanced windup: right foot flat, left heel up, left big toe in contact with the ground. The second photo in each set depicts the athlete in an excellent position to run the ring: right leg wide, weight balanced on the ball of the left foot, discus trailing behind the right hip.
If you watch these throwers (Frank Casanas, Casey Malone and…..???) on film or in person they make moving through these positions seem perfectly natural, but if you coach young athletes you know how difficult this transition can be. Beginning throwers tend to unwind by pulling with their head and left arm. This causes the discus to jump ahead of the thrower and makes it impossible to get the right leg out wide because the thrower will feel (quite correctly) that he will fall down if he doesn’t get that right foot back on the ground quickly.
It seems that among the best discus throwers there are two approaches to moving from the windup to the balanced, “ready to run the ring” position.
Some throwers try to get their right foot off the ground and sweeping ahead of the discus as soon as possible. When the left foot pivots 90 degrees to the left, they want that right foot up and moving.
Here is an example.
This is Vikas Gowda. As you can see, his left foot has turned 90 degrees and his right toes are leaving the ground.
By the time his left foot has turned to where it is pointing down the right sector line, his right leg is already sweeping past it.
The right leg then continues to sweep out wide with the disc lagging behind.
At this point, he is in great shape to run the ring.
Here is Casey Malone, demonstrating the same “get the right leg moving early” approach.
The other method of transitioning from the wind to the “ready to run the ring” position is to leave the right foot on the ground longer while turning and getting way out over the left foot.
If you can identify the owner of these legs, you are a bigger dork than me even, but you won’t have to worry about your wife getting mad at you because you likely will never have a wife.
As you can see in the middle photo, this thrower keeps his right foot grounded much longer than the throwers in those earlier photos–beginning his right leg sweep only after his left foot turns to point down the right foul line.
Interestingly, this is the approach used by the two current Olympic champions,
Robert Harting…
…and Sondra Perkovic.
I suspect that the advantage of leaving the right foot on the ground longer is twofold. First, it may make it easier to remain on balance while the thrower shifts his/her weight far to the left–a shift that is essential to getting in position to run the ring.
Second, leaving the right grounded while shifting way out over the left leg may create some elastic tension in the right leg that, when released, adds extra impetus to the right leg sweep.
I have experimented with this style the past couple of years, and some of my athletes have become quite comfortable with it. One warning though. If you attempt to teach this method, you must constantly drill your athletes to keep the discus back as they shift out over their left leg because with the right foot staying grounded longer it is very easy to let the disc sneak ahead.
We are due for another snow storm this week, so stay tuned for part two of Harting v. Perkovic.
