Goals

**Yaish** · 8th July 08, 02:20 PM

Oh well, nothing to do but keep practicing

Yup, that's what it takes. Good job still, I threw an 85 ft light hammer at Tucson last year and then I didn't break 80 ft again until earlier this year. Some days you have it, some you don't. With more practice you can increase that ratio to the favorable side though.

**Arizona Scot** · 8th July 08, 03:32 PM

You are so right Yaish, some weeks I go to practice and it seems like every throw is a personal best. Then the next week I can't seem to do anything right, last night my hammer throws were way off about ten feet short of what i normally do, but my weight for distance both heavy and light were better than they had been in weeks. Came up just shy of thirty feet on the light weight and hit over twenty on the heavy. Also in the gym yesterday had a personal best I got 400 lbs on the leg press for 15 reps.

**Ryan Nielson** · 10th July 08, 12:18 PM

Hammer has become my biggest weakness now. I have made some practice hammers with PVC (plate loaded) I have went through about 6 of them. The schedule 80 one held up ok but broke on the 3rd session with it. But they are about $1.75 to replace so I'll keep at it. I have been swinging with some overload weights, only up to 30lbs. so far, but going to keep increasing slowly. I hope this helps. I'm making this my number one priority now. Want to throw 60 with the heavy hammer and about 75 with the light hammer before I'll be happy.

I will probably be doing another highland games meet in august in Baker City, oregon.

**Yaish** · 10th July 08, 12:26 PM

Hammers are more about technique than any other event I think, except maybe the Caber. Do you have any video of you throwing the hammers? If so, post it so we can take a look at it.

**Ryan Nielson** · 10th July 08, 01:08 PM

I have some bad video of a bad hammer throw here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUPQsVMz9A

This was 55 feet with the heavy 22lb. hammer. I'm very inflexible in my shoulders compared to most, due to 20 steady years of heavy bench pressing and lots of injuries.

**Yaish** · 10th July 08, 03:18 PM

Yeah, immediately what I notice is you are way too upright, your arms are shortening to bring the hammer around, and your low point isn't being controlled. For all that it isn't that bad.

I don't want to clutter this thread with too much specific info, so I'll post a hammer thread you can look at in the next day or so. (busy busy here, so it will take some time)

**Arizona Scot** · 10th July 08, 03:24 PM

Really looking forward to the hammer thread, I really need to beef my hammers up before Nov. would like to be in the 70 foot range on light and 55-60 on heavy. Right now it seems I am stuck in a rut and can't get much past 60 ft.

**Ryan Nielson** · 11th July 08, 10:20 AM

I understand most of what your saying but had no idea what you mean on this part "low point isn't being controlled"

I can see it's really breaking down when the hammer reaches side to side. I need to get more side to side movement in my torso and keep my arms straighter, create a larger path.

**Detroitpete** · 24th July 08, 02:01 PM

I've been an athlete most of my life and when not doing something competitively I tried to hit the gym just to keep in shape. I began rock climbing and 'bouldering'' a few years ago but had a nasty spill last year which lead to major knee surgery (ACL, PCL, broken bones and meniscus tearing). The thing that sucked the most about the injury is that I had just STARTED to get into Heavy Athletics. I'm in my early 40's and thought it the perfect thing to keep me active. First time I touched a caber, I flipped it--and I've been hooked since.

But rehab sucks and I haven't been able to get back to much of anything in a year. I'm finally back to a place to start picking up the stones again and 2 weeks ago tossed an open 33 ft. (Always had good shot put form from high school track) Not bad for an old dude whose also under 6 feet tall and less than 200lbs ;-) --yep I'm short and stout.

So my goals are to be able to build my own gear, practice every weekend I can and hopefully next year compete in at least two local games.

This thread has helped me immensly--ya'll keep me focused. I'll post any improvement I make in practice or in tinkering with my own gear.

Thanks all! If I see any of ya at the games next year and I'm able to compete--the first one's on me!

**Ayin McFye** · 24th July 08, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitpete

I've been an athlete most of my life and when not doing something competitively I tried to hit the gym just to keep in shape. I began rock climbing and 'bouldering'' a few years ago but had a nasty spill last year which lead to major knee surgery (ACL, PCL, broken bones and meniscus tearing). The thing that sucked the most about the injury is that I had just STARTED to get into Heavy Athletics. I'm in my early 40's and thought it the perfect thing to keep me active. First time I touched a caber, I flipped it--and I've been hooked since.

But rehab sucks and I haven't been able to get back to much of anything in a year. I'm finally back to a place to start picking up the stones again and 2 weeks ago tossed an open 33 ft. (Always had good shot put form from high school track) Not bad for an old dude whose also under 6 feet tall and less than 200lbs ;-) --yep I'm short and stout.

So my goals are to be able to build my own gear, practice every weekend I can and hopefully next year compete in at least two local games.

This thread has helped me immensly--ya'll keep me focused. I'll post any improvement I make in practice or in tinkering with my own gear.

Thanks all! If I see any of ya at the games next year and I'm able to compete--the first one's on me!

Welcome to Xmarks, and I'm sorry to hear about your injuries. It always stinks to have the ability to do the things you love the most taken away.

We recently had an A class athlete come out and give us some pointers on a bunch of stuff, and I can't explain how much help that was. We all started to top out on our numbers and couldn't figure out how to do better, but then this guy Mike came out and showed us A LOT of stuff.

We kind of have to start from scratch again because we had built bad habits that now need to be broken, so our throwing numbers came back down for a few practices but they are starting to come back up again, with great improvements. I am now able to consistently throw a 60' hammer which is already a 5 foot improvement from average. I had thrown 60' once before but I had never repeated it. With the new techniques I know that with practice I shouldn't have a problem hitting 70' in upcoming months.

Our lightweight for distance throws were ok, and now they're pretty bad, but we are now learning to use proper footwork and momentum, so as soon as we are able to practice that some more, I know those numbers are going to come back up because I can already feel the potential when I get the momentum working right.

P.S. I am so freaking addicted.