Dan John,
I’m hoping you’ll see this and reply or this thread is open to anyone else involved in the Scottish Highland Games.
I started throwing about six months ago (albeit with a few months break during the holidays) and while all my other events are coming up nicely, I seem to have developed a poor technique in the HWD. My pendulum is good but I’m having trouble really getting a good arch and I always do a ‘stutter step’ with my left foot instead of letting my right foot come forward/across first.
My fellow throwers have tried to give me every bit of advice they can and nothing seems to work and I somehow picked this stupid step up out of no where.
For some reason, the 28# isn’t giving me near as much trouble and without any weight, I can perform the movement perfectly. But the 42# (I’m in the 190 class) is really lagging.
I’d appreciate any drills or tips that you or anyone else has.
Thanks.
I’m think I know what you’re trying to say but I’m not sure. One thing you could work on is hit your power position more solidly. You could even do this with the 28 to practice with the 42. One of the mistakes that some people make went starting is trying to treat the 42 like the 28. Until you are pretty dang good you won’t be able to move with the 42 like you can with the 28. With the 42 you need to make sure you land solidly in the pulling/power postition and stop there long enough to pull the weight around until it just clears your hip. Then turn again, land, wait and pull and then turn and release. You want to end up with your chest facing the throwing area or you know you are blocking yourself off. I hope this is what you were asking about. I know of a few guys that throw down in OK. Try to find some of them. It really helps to see it in person!
Yeah, I throw with the guys in OKC. Jonathan Irving being one of them (Tree killer at the Games). Yeah, the prob that he/they see is that I’m trying to pull to early instead of letting the weight come around and it looks like I’m just stepping forward instead of across to teh other side of teh trig.
Like I said, I’ve picked up this bad habit of stepping first with my left foot.
Try to think of landing on your right foot and as you pull slowly shifting your weight to your left and the turn instead of step.
the only advice i can give without actually seeing you throw is to start off slow. most “stutter-steps” and wrong release positions usually are the result of trying to start the first turn with too much gas. i constantly fouled out until i learned this. the first turn should be really slow, and try to accelerate from that.
This is a good tip. As you get better and want to throw farther you’ll need to speed the first turn up but heavythrows right. You won’t need to speed it up that much even when your better. Just look at Sean Betz or Ryan Vierra. Even they’re not going that fast in the first spin.
Thanks Heavythrower! I’ll try and get some vids soon. The guys are having me just start out with one turn and once I’ve gotten this down go to a double or triple turn. I’m not sure if that makes a difference if the initial speed will be slow. This is something I learned with teh hammer-the first pull is slow and controlled (that and hips, hips, hips)
Heavy-are you planning on competing in hte HL Games?
Yeah, I’ve watched Vierra, Vernon (the black pro thrower) and Smith-all very good throwers…fantastic technique