1) The discus technique is basically the same as the spin shot technique, with a few body position adjustments.
First, you have 14.5 more inches in circle diameter, although you don't have the toeboard. This will allow you to increase the stride length of your sprint from the back of the circle. You also have more room at the front to have a slightly wider power stance, and a little more fudge room to work with not fouling, in exchange for the lack of toeboard.
Second, since the discus is aerodynamic, the angle of release is decreased slightly. The thrower has to accelerate the discus to a terminal velocity that has more horizontal and less vertical, as compared to the shot. This is accomplished by a longer sprint stride (made possible by the larger diameter ring). The optimal angle of release for discus is 35-40 degrees.
Finally, the discus is held at arm's length, rather than at the neck.
2) Break the throw into phases: As in the spin shot, I like to approach the discus in three phases. In the first phase, the thrower rotates to the South African start position. In the second phase, the athlete drives the right hip across the circle, sprints to the middle with the right leg, then (backward) steps with the left leg to the power position. Finally, in the third phase, the athlete delivers the discus from the power position and follows through.
3) Phase 1 description: Stand facing the back center of the circle with toes 3 inches behind the circle edge. Feet are sligtly wider than shoulder width, knees slightly bent. Wind up by rotating the shoulder line clockwise while allowing the left toe and knee to point in toward the right knee. Also Let the left arm come across the body. Weight is evenly balanced across both legs. Put the right side (and the discus) back, and forget about it.
Now focus the attention on the left side of the body. During Phase 1, the left side of the body must move in unison. The left toes, knee, and arm must sweep and rotate left 180 degree together, until they are all pointing down the left sector line.
As your left arm sweeps left, you should load the ball of the left foot. That is, put all of the weight on the left foot, and bend the left knee to about 60 degrees. Maintain this bend throughout Phase 1.
As you sweep across then rotate left, focus your eyes on the left hand. I suggest focusing on your left thumb, pointing up at all times, with the palm facing in. Follow your left hand around to a high point above the *right* sector line.
Phase 2: Drive the right hip forward across the circle as if you were going to drive it 10 feet out into the sector. Lead with the inside of your right heel. While you are doing this, the discus is back and forgotteon, and the eyes are focused on a point above the right sector line. This is a "sprint" step, meaning the left foot leaves the ground before the right foot lands.
Now the line of your hips (imaginary line through your body connecting your left and right hip) should be in front of the line of your shoulders. Maintain this separation throught the rest of Phase 2 into Phase 3.
Place the ball of the right foot down in the center of the circle. Now bring the left foot around stepping back. Pivot on the right foot. Bring the right arm and discus into the vicinity of the focal point of the eyes.
Hip line should still be in front of the shoulder line, left foot should step down on the left sector line, with right foot fully loaded with a 60-degree knee bend. End of Phase 2.
Finally, Phase 3 is similar to the standing throw from the power position. Please see more on the power position.
Comments: appreciate how natural it is to keep the right (pivot) foot turning in the center of the circle from the final pivot step through the power position and delivery.
Drills: After a few standing throws from the power position, work your way back, step by step, through the phases of the spin. First add the last step (second half of Phase 2). I call this the step and throw, although it is commonly referred to as the step and turn. Concentrate on keeping the right leg loaded and right foot pivoting through the release.
Now do a complete Phase 2 and 3. Theis is called the South African drill. The South African is the complete throw minus Phase 1. It is not a legal throw because you start with one foot out behind the circle. In this drill, concentrate on driving down the sector line and placing the pivot foot in the center of the circle, load the pivot foot, pivot, and deliver.
Now do a full throw, but break before the South African and put your foot down. When you do Phase 1, make sure you load the left leg fully, and the right leg is just touching. Hold for a second. Now rock back on the right leg, then transfer to left for initial momentum for the South African.
Finally, do some full throws. Make sure you turn low and long, with a wide, sweeping right leg to gain momentum. Do not drive across the circle until you are fully turned and facing down the sector line. If you start to lean sideways into the center of the circle before you are in the start of the SA position, you will be 1) off balance, and 2) you will foreshorten the generation of your drive because you didn't sweep the right leg back as far as you could.
Also refer to these technique drills.
Conditioning for the Throws
The goal of conditioning is to improve your athleticism (become quicker, faster, and stronger) so that you can throw farther. Each individual thrower may have different aspects of conditioning that are more or less developed than another thrower. COnditioning, along with technique, are the two main aspects that determine how far you throw. (Other factors include stature and psychological factors.
There are several dimensions to conditioning. The thrower needs to gain full-body, explosive strength. It is especially important to have good core integrity (abdominals, lower back, and torso), and it is also important to note that a majority of the force is generated by the hips. Core integrity means strength, range of motion, and flexibility. The core should be worked from all angles: back, ab, and side hyperextensions, and rotational torso.
The thrower has to have proportional strength through all of the overlapping sequence of joints involved in the throw. The action involves an overlapping progression of movements from the metatarsals, ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, elbow, wrist, and fingers. An emphasis of full-body and multiple-joint weight exercises helps to balance the strength between muscle groups.
In other words, if a thrower spent too much time on calf raises (ankle joint) and leg extensions (knee joint), while neglecting the hip joint, he may develop pretty teardrop quads, but he won't be able to effectively apply his strength without the proper hip power. We want to avoid weak links in the chain of power. We may also focus on individual weaknesses.
Explosive strength vs. raw strength: Throwers, sprinters, and jumpers have to develop explosive strength, or speed strength. It matters little if you can bench 300 pounds if it takes you 4 seconds to do it. How is that going to help you move a 12-pound ball?
Neuromuscular adaptation: Beginning throwers sometimes have a bodybuilding conditioning mindset--that strengh training involves getting a "pump," getting sore, and training each muscle group once a week. A better approach is to think about neuromuscular training. When you are doing exercises, you want to think about recruiting all of your muscle fibers to fire in unison, or in proper succession. The body adapts by building the proper fast-twich muscle and nerve bundles during recovery. In order to do this, you have to train explosively; not necessarily with the maximum weight.
A quick synopsis of neuromuscular training will help explain what we are trying to achieve. There are voluntary and reflexive muscle contractions. The reflexive nerves protect the muscle from injury by blocking some of the fibers from contracting all at once.
We can do weight training to build the strengh in our muscles, tendons, bones, and ligaments, but there must also be neuromuscular adaptation in order to realize an improvement in performance.
For instance, the Golgi tendon organ (GTO) shuts down further muscle contraction if the muscle has been contracting hard. The proper training will raise the tolerance level of the GTO thus allowing greater force to be used to propel the implement.
Here is a good summary link: muscle contraction
Strides (60-80% over 40-100 meters); Strides can be a "load" (hard trining) or a recovery/warmup activity. Intervals (usually "150s" for the throwers" in an outside lane, start 10 meters out of the turn, run the full turn, then run out of the turn 10-20 meters. Alternate turn direction for symmetry. Walk easy 1 lap between intervals, full recovery (HR~100) before next interval. The turn means the athlete is constantly accelerating. Concentrate on relaxing, running form, leaning into the turn, find balanced, relaxed psition, and just drive each stride. Intervals are usually a load activity.
An important aspect to warming up is not only to get the body fluids flowing and get the muscles warmed, but also it is important to warm up the nervous system to prepare it to act in an explosive manner. Therefore, good warmup activities include fast agilities, some short strides, and even some explosive lifts with medium weight.
Not recommended (for warmup) are static hold-stretches like some distance runners do, or as some fitness instructors advise. These static stretches tend to disinhibit the Golgi tendon organ, which causes the muscles to "give out" at a lower threshold of stress. Pre-practice or pre-meet stretching causes the nervous system to be less explosive. It causes less of the fast-twich fibers to fire in unison.
Post-practice stretching is good, when you are sore, for those with a specific range of motion limit, and for growing athletes (high school and earlier). However, you only have to be as flexible to do the event. Therefore, the athlete can normally obtain the necessary flexibility by throwing.
Plyometrics
Plyometrics are a major component of conditioning for throwers. While the main goal of weight training is to build strength and speed strength, the goal in plyometrics is neuromuscular training.
We are actually training the stretch reflex. The stretch reflex is an involuntary reaction to a stress load placed on the tendons. A group of nerves (the muscle spindle) senses that the tendons have suddenly been placed under a load. The muscle spindle sends a signal to the base of the spine, which relays a command to immediately and forcefully flex the extensor muscles.
This reaction is autonomic--meaning that it happens without involvement of the brain. This means it is quick. Because the respons is sent from the base of the spine, the reflex is initiated even before you are aware of it--faster than the signal travelling up the spinal cord to the brain.
When the physician taps your patellar and achilles tendon with the rubber hammer, he is testing your stretch reflex. Plyometric training will develop explosive athletic abilities. It will improve vertical jump and make the athlete more "springy."
Important considerations in plyometric training: Start easy and gradually build up volume and intensity. Only do hard plyos once or twice a week and get full recovery between plyo sessions.
Appropriate plyometrics for the thrower include:
Box jumps:That is really the key difference between plyos for jumpers vs. throwers. The throwers want to emphasize speed with maximum weight-- body weight or additional weight, whereas the jumpers want to emphasize height and distance.
Jump off one box and immeiately onto another box.
Jump onto a short box, then to a higher box,
then up vertical and land into a landing pit.
Hurdle hops and one-legged bounds should be left to the jumpers.
Throwers can do 1-legged hops up the stadium stairs--emphasize speed.
Also can do squat jumps up the stadium stairs.
Again, emphasize speed, and full recovery (no more than one set per minute).
Instead of higher boxes, throwers should add weight (hold dumbbells).
Standing broad jumps: single, double, triples, and more.
20-30-meter continuous broad jumps.
Jumping lunges, vertical squat jumps
Power skips: forward and backward
Vertical jumps under the goalpost: touch the goalpost for several reps.
Upper body plyos with the medicine ball:
lying on ground, have a partner drop the ball above your chest,
catch it at arm's length, decelerate to chest,
then push throw vetical with great force.
Standing chest catch with outstretched arms,
bring to chest, and then immediate rebound throw.
Hybrid weight-plyometric exercises:
The DB jump squat: 8sets x 8 reps on the minute.
Try to finish 8 reps in under 10 seconds.
Go down to just above parallel.
Only jump a few inches off the ground.
The key is to jump fast, not high.
Plyometric presses: using very light weight,
let the bar drop during the first half of the descent,
"catch" the bar in mid-descent, decelerate to chest/shoulder,
and continuously push to full extension.
Bounding:
Power skips: emphasize vertical drive.
Thre styles of arm movements with power skips:
Running style: leg and alternate arm forward.
Jumping style: both srms forward together with each leg.
Thrower's style: arm circles with each leg.
Backwards poewer skips
Side shuffle with arm circles, emphasizing vertical height.
Weight Training
Here is a list of weight training exercises for the thrower.
Lifts can be categorized in terms of three general movements: pulls, presses, and squats.
Pulls are all of the movements that drive weight up from the floor to as far as the chest. Pulls usually involve hamstrings, lower and upper back, lats, traps, biceps, forearm (brachialis), and grip strength.
A muscle group that flexes the limbs, decreases the joint angle, or brings the extremities toward the body center is usually involved in a pulling movement. When your toes or fingers touch something sharp or hot, your body will reflex by activating muscle groups involved in pulling movements that will pull your body away from the source of pain.
Presses involve all muscle groups that involve pushing weight away from the body center. They include the overhead lifts and the supine (bench) press. The muscle groups involved include the chest (pecs), shoulders (delts), triceps, and forearms (finger and wrist extension). Presses include all muscle groups that extend and increase the joint angles.
Squats: the legs are in their own category because they are involved in both pulls and presses.
Lifts can also be categorized according to explosivity: basic strength/nonexplosive, moderate explosive, or highly explosive.
Most beginner throwers have some experience with weight training. This experience is usually of the bodybuilding-fitness flavor, where most of the exercises are single-joint, controlled, isolated movements. This is good for basic strength, but we also want to train for speed.
Most weights should be lifted at the fastest possible controllable speed, then lowered in a moderate, controlled speed. I don't think it is eve useful for throwers to do the concentric movement slowly, e.g. 2-second count. Throwers should use light enough weight that they can complete the set without losing significant speed in the up movement. When they start slowing down, they should stop rather than do forced assisted reps.
The lifts can also be categorized by the number of joints involved in the movement. The categories are multi, double, and single. Examples of multiple (3 or more) joint exercises are the power clean and the squat (ankle-knee-hip). Double-joint exercises are the bench press (shoulder and elbow) and lat pulldowns. Single-joint exercises include the triceps pushdown, arm curls, leg curls, leg extensions, and calf raises.
The general rule is: prioritize the multiple-joint exercises by doing them first. Plan each workout around 1 or 2 multiple-joint exercises. Then do the double-joint exercises, then finish with a few single-joint exercises to hit weaknesses.
Squats:I would recommend that the throwers do one type of heavy squat once a week as their primary hip strength developer. I would start with the back box squat. I use the box to control depth and teach proper technique. Then just do back squats to about parallel without the box. I also like some secondary squat activities because of their body awareness and balance elements.
Front squat, Back squat
With or without box
specialty squat variations
lunges and stepups
one-legged squats
If you have adjustable steps, I like the one-legged squat/stepdown with only a heel touch. You'd be surprised how difficult this is when you take out the toe pushoff. Use no weight, and progressively add 2 inches to the box height until the thrower can do multiple below-parallel one-leg squats. Then you can add DBs.
Presses:Strict press involves no lower body movement.
Bench press
Incline press
Overhead presses: standing and sitting,
from a clean start (in front of the neck) with a shoulder-width grip,
and with a wider grip behind the neck.
Push press: first dip by bending knees a few inches, then initiate by driving the bar up with the leg and hip power while keeping the bar on the shoulders. Then finish by pressing out the bar to straight arms overhead.
Push jerk: First dip, then push, as in the push press. But instead of pressing out the bar, bend your knees again, while pushing yourself against the bar, positioning yourself under the bar with straight arms. Then stand up straight.
Pulls:
Full clean (from the ground with a full squat)Proper technique for the olympic lifts: We are usually taught in weight training class to always lift "in control," with strict form, and not to cheat The Olympic lifts are the opposite of your typical exercises because you are supposed to use the momentum of the bar. Olympic partial lifts are wonderful exercises for the thrower because it teaches the thrower to be loose, dynamic, and explosive with weight. These are momentum, multijoint, full-body lifts.
power clean (power means without a full squat)
hang clean (hang means starting from holding the bar in a standing position,
not with the bar on the floor)
hang power clean
similarly, full-, power-, hang- and hang power snatch
similarly with a clean grip snatch and hammer-grip snatch
(hammer grip is both hands almost touching together at the middle of the bar)
clean/snatch hi-pull (to the nipples)
clean/snatch lo-pull (to the navel)
Romanian deadlifts (RDLs)
RDLs with a shrug at the top
Start with the hang power clean. Before you try hang cleans, take a few vertical jumps without the bar. What do you do? You bend your knees and hips to about 60 degrees, then you drive with your legs and hips. Your heals leave the floor first, and your toes last.
The power clean starts essentially like a vertical jump, but then just before your body leaves the ground, you transfer that vertical momentum into the bar so that you can clean it--i.e. catch it on the tops of your shoulders.
Take the bar from a low rack, palms face in, stand like yo are going to do a standing vertical jump with feet shoulder with, toes pointed slightly outward. Hand grips are slightly wider than shoulder width so that the thumbs are just outside the thighs.
Bend your knees a few inches and let the bar slide down to the tops of your kneecaps. Now jump with your legs, driving your hips forward. Keep your elbows straight. The bar should slide up your thighs to your hips.
When the bar approaches your hips, you should lift your heels off the ground and be standing on your toes. Simultaneously, you should do a powerful shoulder shrug.
At the finish of the shoulder shrug, with your elbows still straight, and standing on your toes with your knees straight and hips forward and in contact with the bar, this is the point in which the bar has the maximum vertical speed.
Now, you want to pull yourself underneath the bar. You bend your legs and elbows, and actually pull yourself under the bar while the bar is losing vertical speed. You should catch the bar on your shoulders just as the bar stops going up and starts to fall down.
You want to catch the bar high on the shoulders, in the grove between your neck and the anterior deltoid. Yuo should be able to rest the bar on your shoulders without your hands. It helps to shrug your shoulders forward. Also, the bar should be high on your fingertips--not tightly gripped. If your wrist flexibility is limited, you should stretch your wrists on the wall before doing cleans.
Returning the weight to the starting position: There is no negative movement in the Olympic lifts. Release the weight from your shoulders back to the thighs. Bend your knees to cushion any jerky movement that might stress the lower back. Keep the back straight when lowering the weight to the starting position.
Later, I will describe the power clean from the floor.
Torso work: Core integrity is a high priority for throwers. We need to do a lot of core (torso) exercises to develop strength, flexibility, and mobility.
A good rotary torso machine is highly recommended, if available.
Trunk twists with barbell plates.A thrower should train his torso like a large muscle group--once or twice a week with heavy weights, with the same reps as a squat. Not like a bodybuilder or "fitness" person that does crunches for high reps on a daily basis. The goal here is not to trim your waistline, it is to develop a superstrong, flexible torso that can absorb and remit great forces from the legs and hips to the arms and implement.
Front, back, and side hypers.
All kinds of abdominal machines with heavy weight.
Swiss balls, Pilates benches, or glute-ham machines
are good for doing ab hypers.
Use a small medicine ball held overhead.
Russian twists: lay crosswise with abs across the bench,
twist side to side with plate held at arm's length.
Event-specific or weakness-specific exercises
For javelin throwers:
Nautilus rotary shoulder machine for the rotator cuffs.
This machine also stresses the bones and ligaments around the elbow.
Timing: Designing a Training Schedule
This is an outline of how to implement the training schedule. There are three basic time frames. In college, we use fancy words to describe them: the macrocycle, the mesocyclem, and the microcycle. But we can think of them as just an annual, monthly, and weekly time frame.
The Macrocycle is a useful time frame to layout different training element emphasis at different times of the year. The main consideration in this long time frame is to adjust the proper volume and intensity throughout the season.
Volume refers to the quantity of activity, while intensity is how hard you do it. For example, in weight training, volume would be the total number of reps and sets while intensity would be what percentage of your max. In running, volume is distance and intensity is pace. In sprints, volume is total distance of all intervals and intensity is what percentage effort level (speed).
In the fall, football season can substitute for fall conditioning. Dedicated throwers that participate in a fall sport should also try to do light technique work once a week throughout the fall. Volleyball is good for girls. No additional conditioning is necessary.
If you don't participate in a fall sport, try to develop a general strength and conditioning base. Start with moderate volume and build to high volume, and low intensity building to moderate intensity. The early fall is the time to make sure athletes are proficient with their olympic movement form with light weight, and to introduce throwers new to the olympic lifts with proper technique.
During the fall, individual athletes may work on weaknesses: javelin throwers may work on weak rotator muscles by prioritizing biweekly sessions on the Nautilus rotary shoulder machine. Lots of volume on torso exercises. The test quadrathlon measures progress of conditioning, and can be tested up to once every 4 weeks.
Fall technique: now is the time to try new events. Gliders may try spinning, hammer throwers may try the toe turn. Lots of volume of balance drills, technique drills. The fall is the time to eliminate ingrained habits. Little or no full throws. The field is not lined during the fall because we are not concerned with distance thrown.
Also in fall, fun variety in practice: intrasquad strongman contests, highland games events, and/or a weight pentathlon are some of the activities.
Also in fall: throws with heavy implements until tired helps to build a conditioning base. Athletes can literally "throw" themselves into shape.
Winter: indoor season. Throws will increase in volume, and weight training will decrease slightly in volume. Intensity in both throwing and lifting will increase to moderate-high. You will have a mini-peak/mini-taper toward the end of indoor season.
Spring: outdoor season.
In general, you will "train through" the early meets, meaning you will continue with your heavy training and lifting cycle and throw in competition possibly slightly fatigued, tired, and/or sore from training. You will first taper with your weights in that you will drop most assistive exercises. However, you will continue to do your primary lifts at a high intensity. Reps and sets will become fewer.
The volume of throws will decrease before the major meet like the district meet, or the meet the week before, if you have not qualified yet. At first, weight training volume decreases, but throwing volume remains high. Then throwing volume is the last to be tapered. ALso, there is more throwing of lightweight implements in the spring to work on speed.
After the season is over, you may take a week off vacation, then do active rest. During the summer, you may do a general strength building program, or you may prepare for a weightlifting meet, a powerlifting meet, do some highland games competitions, or participate in another sport. Active rest means you stay active in some activity that you enjoy--one that is not mentally taxing.
The mesoocycle
This is a period of 1-2 months within which we want to observe progress. In order to observe progress, we have to do some similar activities so that we can measure our progress within the cycle. The shortest time to make an increment of progress is a week, but we do not expect progress every week. However, we definitely anticipate a long-term improving trend over the course of one mesocycle.
Then between mesocycles, we may have a whole new set of weekly activities. This keeps things fresh--prevents stagnation.
The Microcycle is usually thought of as a week of training activities. During the season, it is usually built around the Saturday competitions, although some high schools have mid-week meets. It usually goes like this: Sunday, being the day after the meet, is a rest day. Most training is Monday through Thursday. Meet preparation is Friday, which involves an abbreviated session of a few good throws.
Some training activities include puds, plyos, running, and agilities. Each of these elements should probably be done once a week. The puds and plyos should be done earlier in the week when there is an upcoming meet.
Throwing can be done for conditioning or for speed. High-volume-high-intensity throwing can improve strength and conditioning. However, not all throwing sessions should involve going all-out for a long session. One can also concentrate on correcting or modifying an element in the throw. There are throwing drills with or without implements. There are also heavy and light implements.
Each throwing session should probably involve some brief warmup activities: agilities and running. However, also once a week, you should do some additional running or stretching at the end.
It is in the microcycle that we think of combining warmup, "load," and recovery activities. A load activity is one that has a high training load, and requires recovery. A recovery activity is mentally and physically easy ("low-load") and actually helps the thrower recover faster. A warmup activity prepares the athlete for a load activity. Total workload is volume times intensity.
In designing the weekly schedule, we need to be mindful of not placing similar, high-load activities on consecutive days.
Basic Throwing Technique
Technique is the proper biomechanics (dynamic movement) of the body to produce the longest throws. Technique is improved through repetitions of throws and drills. It also helps to study videos of elite throwers with good technique, and to look at videos of yourself to see how your technique might be improved.
If the thrower has a conditioning weakness, he may not be able to execute the best technique. It is not only a matter of learning better technique, but developing the power to execute it.
Neuromuscular adaptation is also involved in technique. The movements are not just driven by voluntary muscle contractions, but by reflexive contractions, especially during the mid and delivery phases of the throw. Repetition will cause more of the movement to be reflexive. And that's good because reflexive is quicker feedback than voluntary.
Basic Shot Put Preliminaries, Power Position, Delivery, and Follow-through
Preliminaries
Grip: I teach my throwers to grab the shot with both hands, fingers interlocked, with the entire inside surface of all fingers of both hands in contact with the shot. Fingers are interlocked with the sides of each finger touching the finger of the adjacent hand.
Now bend the elbows and hold the shot at shoulder height. Move the shot over the right shoulder and remove the left hand. Now the fingers are spaced perfectly. They are not too close and not too spread out.
If the fingers are too close (less than a finger width apart), you lose some control of the shot, and there is a great chance that the shot will slip off the side of your hand. On the other hand, if your fingers are too spread apart, you can only transfer most force to the shot through two fingers. You also risk spraining your middle or ring finger if your fingers are too spread.
The shot should be in contact with the upper palm at the base of the fingers (the pads just below the fingers that sometimes get callouses when doing power cleans). However, the shot should not be in the cup of the palm below these pads.
Placement: You have to hold the shot against the neck with the thumb underneath the shot. Spinners tend to hold the shot further back, under the ear, while gliders tend to hold the shot a little more toward the front, under the jawbone.
The right elbow must be out, away from the body. It never should be down, close to the torso.
Foot position: It is helpful to get a 4'x 8' piece of plywood for indoor practice. See my related page on indoor practice circle construction. It describes where to paint targets inside the circles for foot placement.
The feet should be a little wider than shoulder width, with the heels off the ground. The right foot is in the middle of the circle, and the right foot is a few inches back from the toeboard, and a few inches left of center. The entire body is facing the side.
To get the body into position, first do a side lunge over the right foot. The right foot should be "loaded" (most of the bodyweight placed on it, and bent to 75 degrees). The left leg should be only slightly bent--almost straight. Finally turn the shoulder line to the back.
To test your position, if you (hypothetically) dropped your shot from a stationary power position, it would land several inches behind your right foot.
When the shot is thrown with an approach, the thrower must transition through this power position. However, the athlete may also do a standing throw starting from the power position.
For the standing throw, lead with the hips. The hipline come around from the side to the front. Block the hips when the hips are level and square in the direction of the throw (middle of sector). Block the hips with the left leg almost straight. Right leg drive continues body momentum over the left leg.
Maximum "separtion" (rotational angular difference between the shoulder line and hip line) is maximized at about 90 degrees when hips block in direction of throw.
Now the shoulder continues as a stretch reflex to this maximal torque in the torso. The shoulders follow through and overtake the hipline.
The arm punches through as a reaction to the shoulders. When the arm is extended, the wrist and fingers follow through with the thumb pointing down and the fingers turned out to the side. See http://vm.mtsac.edu/relays/HallFame/Brenner.htm
The reverse: The body will now want to follow through. The reverse allows for maximal use of the circle real estate and the fullest extension of the body and arm over the toeboard without fouling. The reverse entails removing the left foot and placing the right foot in the same spot. When the right foot lands, it should be pointed to the left.
The side of the foot may or may not be against the toeboard. If the foot is against the toeboard, you can push your heel against the toeboard to leverage your body to keep from fouling. If the foot is back from the toeboard, you can add a quick, short hop forward to keep from fouling.
To counterbalance the arms and right shoulder over the toeboard, a straightened left leg can be raised and directed toward the rear of the circle.
Beginning (and advanced) throwers should also practice non-reverse throws, where the feet are not lifted from the power position. Beginner throwers tend to try to reverse before they complete the delivery, and this greatly shortens the acceleration path of the shot in the end of the delivery.
One final note: some gliders tend to have a slightly wider stance in the power position than spinners; however, beginners can simply assume that the power position is identical for both approach techniques.
Basic Shot Put Spin (Rotational) Approach Technique
There are two main approach techniques: the spin and the glide. Both are designed to maximize the real estate in the back of the circle in order to get the thrower into the power position with maximal momentum.
I like to break the basic rotational shot into three phases. In the first phase, the thrower rotates a little more than 180 degree to the South African start position. In the second phase, the athlete drives the right hip across the circle, sprints to the middle with the right leg, then (backward) steps with the left leg to the power position. Finally, in the third phase, the athlete delivers the shot from the power position and follows through.
Phase 1: Stand facing the back center of the circle with toes 3 inches behind the circle edge. Feet are shoulder width, knees slightly bent. Wind up by rotating the shoulder line clockwise while allowing the left toe and knee to point in toward the right knee. Also Let the left arm come across the body. Weight is evenly balanced across both legs. Put the right side (and the shot) back, and forget about it.
Now focus the attention on the left side of the body. During Phase 1, the left side of the body must move in unison. The left toes, knee, and arm must sweep and rotate left 180 degree together, until they are all pointing down the left sector line.
As your left arm sweeps left, you should load the ball of the left foot. That is, put all of the weight on the left foot, and bend the left knee to about 75 degrees (just above parallel). Maintain this 75-degree bend throughout Phase 1.
As you sweep across then rotate left, focus your eyes on the left hand. Follow your left hand around to a high point above the *right* sector line.
Phase 2: Drive the right hip forward across the circle as if you were going to drive it 10 feet out into the sector. Lead with the inside of your right heel. While you are doing this, keep the shot back and forgotton, and keep the eyes focused on a point above the right sector line. This is a "sprint" step, meaning the left foot leaves, before the right foot lands.
Now the line of your hips (imaginary line through your body connecting your left and right hip) should be in front of the line of your shoulders. Maintain this separation throught the rest of Phase 2 into Phase 3.
Place the ball of the right foot down in the center of the circle. Now bring the left foot around stepping back. Pivot on the right foot. Allow the right elbow to come up into the vicinity of the focal point of the eyes.
Hip line should still be infront of the shoulder line, left foot should step down on the left sector line, with right foot fully loaded with a 75-degree knee bend. End of Phase 2.
Finally, Phase 3 is similar to the standing throw from the power position. Please see more on the power position.
Comments: appreciate how natural it is to keep the right (pivot) foot turning in the center of the circle from the final pivot step through the power position and delivery. You don't get this same feeling with the glide.
Drills: After a few standing throws from the power position, work your way back, step by step, through the phases of the spin. First add the last step (second half of Phase 2). I call this the step and throw, although it is commonly referred to as the step and turn. Concentrate on keeping the rightleg loaded and right foot pivoting through the release.
Now do a complete Phase 2 and 3. Theis is called the South African drill. The South African is the complete throw minus Phase 1. It is not a legal throw because you start with one foot out behind. In this drill, concentrate on driving down the sector line and placing the pivot foot in the center of the circle, load the pivot foot, pivot, and deliver.
Now do a full throw, but break before the South African and put your foot down. When you do Phase 1, make sure you load the left leg fully, and the right leg is just touching. Hold for a second. Now rock back on the right leg, then transfer to left for initial momentum for the South African.
Finally, do some full throws. Make sure you turn low and long, with a wide, sweeping right leg to gain momentum. Do not drive across the circle until you are fully turned and facing down the sector line. If you start to lean sideways into the center of the circle before you are in the start of the SA position, you will be 1) off balance, and 2) you will foreshorten the generation of your drive because you didn't sweep the right leg back as far as you could.
BASIC GLIDE SHOT TECHNIQUE
The glide and the spin are the two types of approach for the shot put. Both are designed to get the thrower into the power position with maximal momentum. I recommend that all shot putters practice both techniques at least through mid season.
The glide shot technique is very simple in principle: first, stand in the bed of a pickup truck that is parked and throw a football 20 yards. Now, stand in the bed of a truck that is moving 20 mph and throw the football with the same effort. From the point that you threw the football, it will land much further than 20 yards because the velocity of the truck is added to the velocity of your standing throw.
The thrower will have the same standing throw from the power position as in the spin shot technique. The athlete must still hit this position for an instant, with separation and weight on the back foot. However, what the thrower does to get into that position with velocity is different.
Starting position: The thrower puts his right foot right in the middle of the back of the circle with toes right against the edge of the circle.
Sit: To start, the athlete pikes over and then starts to fall back with his rear as if falling into a chair-seated position. Think about dropping the hip joint down and back. This is commonly referred to as "seating." During seating, the two knees are about side by side.
When the left knee approaches a 60-degree bend, the athlete quickly extends the left leg back to an almost straight position, and simultaneously pushes off with the right foot.
The thrower glides in mid air across the circle with the right and left toes an inch or two off the ground, and both legs almost straight in a forward split. The split angle is about 90 degrees.
At the end of the glide, the right foot lands in the middle of the circle with the left knee bent at 75 degrees and the toes pointing 90 degrees. Therefore, when the right foot is in mid air, the foot turns 90 degrees and the right knee is rebent under the body.
The left foot lands at the same time as the right foot, a few inches behind the toeboard at the front of the circle. When both feet land, that is the instant when the thrower must be in the ideal power position: weight is back on the right foot, bent 75 degrees. The right foot is pointed to the side in the middle of the circle, and the left foot is a few inches behind the toeboard, and a few inches to the left of center.
Up to this point, the upper body has done nothing. The shoulder line is facing back, and there it remains through the glide.
The hips start facing back at the start of the glide (aligned with shoulders). During the glide, the hips advance 90 degrees so that separation is 90 degrees at the end of the glide, when the feet land.
Now the final delivery--standing throw and follow through--is identical to that of the spin. Refer to the power position page.
A beginner technique that is similar to the glide is called the shuffle. The shuffle may be walking or running. Instead of kicking back the left foot and gliding across the circle, the thrower places the left foot down about 2 feet away from the right foot. Then the right foot steps to the center and the left foot immediately lands at the front of the circle in the power position.
The shuffle is not as effective as the glide, but most beginners can add 2-4' to their standing throw by doing a shuffle. Then they can progress to the glide.
Technique and technique-teaching drills
Spin shot and disc: rhythm drills with walking and running South Africans. Spin shot and disc: left body moving as a unit: This is the drill to practice the first pivoting movement in the back of the circle, from the initial stance to the South African position. First, the athlete winds up by bringing the implement back to the right. From that point on, the implement and the right side are left back and put out of mind. The focus is now on the the left hand across the body, and then the rotation of the left ball of the foot so the toes are pointed slightly inward.
Then the following left parts of the body must all point in the same direction and rotate as a unit: the left arm, knee, and toes. In addition, the head and eyes must rotate with the left side. The left knee is bent and weighted on the ball of the foot, and the left heel is not touching the ground.
First, practice a 90-degree povot. This brings you only around half way. Then try a half turn. This brings you to the SA position. But then try 3/4 and whole turns. If you are in balance and your weight is properly distributed, you should be able to get back to the starting position. Do these slowly.
Spin shot and disc: eye drillsSome of these exercises are not so much drills as they are something to focus on while you are throwing. As you do the throw, here is the eye focus: In the start, the athlete winds up and the left, nonthrowing arm is across the body, and the left foot is turned in. The implement is back and forgotten, and the concentration is on the left side.
In the back pivot to SA, the thoughts are focused on the left side. The left toes, knee and arm and head will rotate left as a unit. The eyes are focused on the left hand until the left hand is above the right sector line or passes the right edge of the cage. Then the eyes stay at the right edge of the cage somewhere high, such as the top of the cage post.
The left hand, foot, and knee continue on to the LEFT sector line ad the right leg sweeps forward. Menwhile, the eyes stay on that post until the discus (or elbow in shot) comes into the field of vision. Then the eyes are locked on the implement until release (discus), or until the shoulders catch up to the hips (shot). Then the head turns away from the shot (to the left) to finish the release.
Spin shot and disc: 1-2-3 drill
The athlete moves through three phases of the full throw upon the coach's command, "one, two, three." The coach checks body position in the pauses between sections, and provides feedback. After a few reps, coach decreases pause between sections, then athlete takes easy full throws without pausess.
Phase 1: thrower pivots on left foot and sweeps right leg back, finish in South African (SA) position. Athlete should be ready to sprint across circle. This pause teached thrower to be in balance, and not fall into center of circle until fully rotated around.
Pahse 2: from SA to power position: thrower advances right hip/leg/foot to center of circle. Discus (or elbow in shot) is raised to high point, left block foot steps through, weight is on right pivot foot.
Phase 3: standing throw.
Concepts: the South African consists of one forward sprint (running) stride and one backward (walking) step. That is, in the running stride, the left foot leaves the ground before the right foot lands in the middle of the circle.
