Goals - Post 'em if ya got 'em

[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!

[Ayin McFye]

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.