{"id":3669,"date":"2023-06-19T21:11:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T02:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2023-06-19T21:12:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T02:12:34","slug":"the-monday-morning-meathead-june-19th-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/?p=3669","title":{"rendered":"The Monday Morning Meathead: June 19th Edition."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been traveling a lot and also contemplating how to make progress on a ten-year plan to paint our house, which is now entering it’s thirteenth year. The plan, I mean. But, I’m ready to commit to a weekly piece on the throws which, as is the case with this inaugural edition, may not appear until Monday evening each week. But “Monday Evening Meathead” doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This photo of, from left to right, a person unknown, Kristjan \u010ceh, the great Estonian raconteur Raul Rebane, Robert Urbanek, and Daniel St\u00e5hl at the recent Heino Lipp Memorial meeting is courtesy of Robert’s Instagram page from which I stole it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Big Man is Back<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IN 2019, a year during which Daniel St\u00e5hl<\/a> was nearly unbeatable, he averaged a best throw of 70.15m in his first six competitions, if we forgive him a No Mark at the Paavo Nurmi Games, which we will. At the end of that season, he was World champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, on the way to Olympic gold, he averaged 68.23m in his first six comps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, as Daniel turned thirty years old and had to deal with the emergence of Kristjan \u010ceh<\/a> (expected) and Mykolas Alekna<\/a> (not so much) as full-fledged phenoms, that number fell to 67.45m. Unfortunately, those first six meets were a harbinger of things to come as Daniel finished fourth at the 2022 Worlds and fifth at the European Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will his first six comps of 2023 be a harbinger as well? If so, it might be tough to keep Daniel off the podium in Budapest as his average so far this year is 69.68m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What accounts for this revival? \u201cHe\u2019s having fun again,\u201d says his former coach V\u00e9steinn Hafsteinsson. \u201cLast year, it was hard for him getting beat by Kristjan. Now, he\u2019s over it, and he just wants to do his best to irritate the young guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, like real estate, throwing well can sometimes be a matter of location.  Four of Daniel\u2019s first six comps were held in places where he is very comfortable. Two were in Sweden. One took place in Finland, where his mother was born and, according to V\u00e9steinn, \u201cFourteen thousand people show up to cheer for him.\u201d His most recent outing was the Heino Lipp Memorial<\/a> in Estonia where Daniel also loves to throw at least in part because, according to his manager  Hans \u00dc\u00fcrike, Estonians appreciate his sense of humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also appreciate fine discus throwing, and there was plenty to go around at the Heino Lipp. Daniel tossed an SB of 71.45m, the fifth year in a row he\u2019s breached 71 meters\u2026and he finished second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristjan won with a new PB of 71.86m, making Daniel\u2019s 71.45m the farthest second-place throw in history. Finishing third was Fedrick Dacres<\/a>, who has been on his own revival tour in 2023. He tossed 66.12m and did not come within five meters of the top two spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been an exciting season so far for discus fans, with five guys (Daniel, Kristjan, Mykolas, Alex Rose<\/a>, and Lukas Wei\u00dferhaiding)<\/a> already over 70 meters, and having Daniel back to his old laughing, dancing, bomb-throwing self bodes well for the summer ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And don\u2019t get me wrong when I refer to \u201clocation\u201d as having contributed to Daniel\u2019s hot start. As far as V\u00e9steinn knows, none of Daniel\u2019s comps this year have featured especially favorable wind conditions. In fact, on June 11th, he hit 70.93m in a pronounced tailwind in Sollentuna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

V\u00e9steinn, now the Head of Elite Sports in his native Iceland, has always marveled at the Big Guy\u2019s propensity to throw well in any conditions. \u201cWhen I was competing,\u201d he said recently, \u201cI hated throwing in a tailwind. But guys like Daniel, and Virgilius Alekna when he was at his best, throw the same no matter what. I used to wonder why Daniel didn\u2019t throw 75 meters when I got him into meets in California, but the wind never seemed to help him much. I guess that\u2019s why he doesn\u2019t have the world record and Virgilius doesn\u2019t have the World Record. But they have Olympic gold, and that\u2019s something, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Daniel, now training with Staffan J\u00f6nsson in Malm\u00f6, Sweden, seems determined to have a say in who wins the next one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo courtesy of me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stand by Me<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been a high school throws coach for thirty years, and I\u2019m still trying to figure out the ideal way to interact with my athletes during competitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been rare occasions when one of my kids has made a lousy throw and come to me for advice and I\u2019ve said exactly the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cGet off your left!\u201d or \u201cRun away from the disc!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve followed my suggestion and crushed their next attempt and I\u2019ve walked away wondering if I am in fact the Greatest Coach Ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, though, my mid-comp suggestions seem to do more harm than good and I walk away wondering why I didn\u2019t just keep my mouth shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade ago, I came across a book by Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist and currently the president of Dartmouth College, titled Choke: What The Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To.<\/em> In it, she explains the impediments that keep us humans from performing at our best when we want to the most. After reading Choke, <\/em>I decided that the best thing I could do for my throwers during meets was\u2013as I\u2019d suspected\u2013to leave them alone. Any spontaneous bits of advice I might throw at them, no matter how well-intentioned, were likely to get them thinking rather than flowing and thus make it more difficult to produce an optimal throw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, around the time Choke<\/em> came out\u2013again, we\u2019re talking maybe ten years ago\u2013I had the opportunity to attend the NCAA Championships, and I noticed that most throwers there spoke with their coaches between every attempt. I saw this again when I traveled to New York for the 2013 Adidas Grand Prix meet and watched Sandra Perkovi\u0107 interact with her coach, Edis Elkasevi\u0107. As with the NCAA throwers, Sandra checked in with Edis after every throw. Once, she had to just about steamroll an official who tried to prevent her from crossing the track to reach Edis. The official wisely backed down, and Sandra ended up throwing 68.48m that day. Later in the season, she won a World title to go with the Olympic gold she\u2019d captured in 2012, so it seemed like she had a pretty good idea of how to \u201cget it right\u201d when it counted most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This confused me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, Sian Beilock presented a compelling case against giving an athlete technical advice during a comp. On the other hand, Sandra Perkovi\u0107 was ready to truck an official if she had to in order to confer with her coach between attempts. So, was there an ideal way to interact with athletes as they competed? Should I leave mine alone? Or should I talk to them between every attempt? And if I do, is there a certain kind of advice or way of delivering advice that works best?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought about these questions again last month at the 2023 USATF LA Grand Prix<\/a>. As you may have heard, that Ryan Crouser<\/a> fella had a pretty good day in LA. He came in wanting to break Randy Barnes<\/a>\u2019 Ducky Drake Stadium record of 23.12m, set in 1990, which had also been the World Record until Ryan went 23.37m at the 2021 Olympic Trials, and he ended up doing much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan had been experimenting with his technique a bit over the past few months, and he was certainly not attempting to peak in May with the World Championships three months away, but remarkably, he\u2019s at a level where knocking off Barnes\u2019 stadium record seemed like a reasonable early-season goal in spite of the fact that only three humans\u2013Ryan, Barnes, and Joe Kovacs<\/a>\u2013had ever thrown that far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As warmups for the shot played out on a beautiful LA afternoon at the Ducky, I noticed that Mitch Crouser, Ryan\u2019s father and coach, was present, and that Ryan ambled over to speak with him regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really wanted to eavesdrop on their conversation to get some insight into how Mitch interacted with Ryan during the comp, but politeness dictated that I keep my distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mitch and Ryan discuss. Photo courtesy of an unidentified stalker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The one comment I heard clearly was by Ryan after he took out Barnes\u2019 record on his first attempt with a 23.23m bomb from a static start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell,\u201d he said as he approached his father near the stands along the right foul line. \u201cI just did everything wrong that I\u2019ve been working on in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever corrections he and Mitch made seemed to work, as Ryan improved to 23.31m on his next attempt, which got folks wondering if he might just bang one off the wall at the back of the landing pit–a distance of 24 meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He fell off a bit in round three with a pedestrian 22.94m, after which he and Mitch again conferred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Ryan got back in the ring and launched a new World Record of 23.56m. Funny thing, the laser had it at 23.58m, but apparently World Records still have to be measured Amish-style with a steel tape, and that knocked off two centimeters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A photo showing the distance between Ryan’s new World Record toss and the wall at the back of the shot put landing pit courtesy of UCLA throws coach Sean Denard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Either way, it was an historic performance, and I was dying to get Mitch\u2019s take on it, particularly regarding his interactions with Ryan during the comp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He graciously agreed to a phone call a few days later, and one thing he emphasized right away was that he and Ryan do not have a typical coach\/athlete relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started coaching Ryan when he was in grade school,\u201d Mitch explained. \u201cThen all the way through junior high and high school. And when he was looking at where to go to college, that was part of the equation. Wherever Ryan ended up, they had to be comfortable with me being involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe it or not, that was a dealbreaker for some programs, but the Texas staff agreed, and during his time in Austin, Ryan would regularly send Mitch videos of his practice throws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen, when Ryan moved to the Training Center at Chula Vista, he worked with Mac Wilkins<\/a>, and I know Mac really well, so I\u2019d go there and work with Ryan for maybe a week at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line, being Ryan\u2019s father and coaching him for something like two decades has given Mitch what he terms a \u201cdeeper understanding\u201d of Ryan than most coaches have of their athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another unique aspect of coaching Ryan is that, in addition to his remarkable talent, he has developed his own thorough understanding of the event and what he needs to do to make the shot go far. Actually, \u201cunderstanding\u201d is probably not the right word. For sure, Ryan is a dedicated student of the sport, but it\u2019s his feel of what works and what doesn\u2019t that sets him apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe great throwers,\u201d says Mitch, \u201ceach have their super power. For Joe, it\u2019s his strength. With Tom Walsh<\/a>, it\u2019s his incredible speed. But for Ryan, it\u2019s his instant recall of the feel of every throw. Because of his ability to feel what went right and what went wrong with each attempt, and because we\u2019ve worked together for so long, at meets I\u2019m more of a sounding board for him than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a time earlier in Ryan\u2019s career when Mitch found himself offering Ryan different bits of advice during competitions, but that is no longer the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith so many distractions at big meets, it\u2019s not a good idea to say too much. Sometimes, I\u2019ll suggest one simple cue, which can be valuable because it can help focus you and, if it\u2019s the right cue, it can fix so many other things. But Ryan is to the point now where there aren\u2019t usually a lot of things to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Mitch, Ryan\u2019s comment after the 23.23m opener was indicative of this. \u201cFive years ago, if he felt like a throw was way off, it probably was. But now, his technique is so stable that if one little thing is off it might feel like a lot to him, but it can still be a pretty good throw.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One change they made after the 23.23m was for Ryan to switch immediately to full \u201cCrouser slide\u201d mode, or as Mitch calls it his \u201cstep across\u201d technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur plan going in was to take two or three throws with a static start, but after his opener we jumped right to using the step across. He’d never fully clicked with it in a meet, but after he went 23.31m he told me it felt good and there was more there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 23.56m, Ryan knew he was in business as soon as he shifted left. It was the same feeling he\u2019d had on his first World Record in Eugene in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aspect of Ryan\u2019s development that Mitch seems most proud of is his ability to produce big throws during competitions. \u201cIn college,\u201d he says, \u201cRyan couldn\u2019t do that. He\u2019d have big practice throws, then throw poorly in a meet. It’s taken him a long time to develop the skill of throwing his best in competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One key has been endless hours spent building stability in his technique. Now, according to Mitch, Ryan will sometimes put a cone at 20 meters and \u201cdrop a dozen throws on it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to the future, Mitch refers to the current situation in the men\u2019s shot as a \u201cperfect storm.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJoe, Tom, or Ryan by themselves probably wouldn\u2019t have pushed the event to the level they have. But together, they\u2019ve made 23 meters like 22 meters used to be. I wonder if ten years from now, people will look back on this time and be amazed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That seems likely. In the meantime, it seems the key to knowing what to say to an athlete during a competition is to build a relationship with them that allows you to give them what they need, whether that be a simple cue or just a sympathetic ear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Shameless Plug<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full disclosure, I have a selfish reason for rooting for Daniel St\u00e5hl. My friend Roger Einbecker and I have collaborated with V\u00e9steinn on a book about the Big Man\u2019s career from the time they started working together through the Olympic triumph in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A possible cover for our upcoming book.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Daniel is a remarkable dude, and I think throws fans and sports fans in general will enjoy this inside look at one athlete’s path to the top of his sport. We hope to make it available soon as both an ebook and book book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been traveling a lot and also contemplating how to make progress on a ten-year plan to paint our house, which is now entering it’s thirteenth year. The plan, I mean. But, I’m ready to commit to a weekly piece on the throws which, as is the case with this inaugural edition, may not appear … Continue reading The Monday Morning Meathead: June 19th Edition.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,9,18,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discus","category-musings","category-shot-put","category-usatf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8knIb-Xb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}