Highland(ish) Game Training

I am going to sign up for a Highland games, but it is mainly strongman events. It’s 9/27 so I don’t have a ton of time to train for it, but it lands in a deload week so I should peak towards the event anyways.

Open stone put
stone press for reps (60 seconds)
Heavy weight for distance
caber toss (max distance)
farmers

Any training tips for the throws? I have access to all sorts of Strongman stuff, but not really any throwing stuff. I was thinking lots of kettle bell swings and maybe some sumo dl’s for the caber.

I was lucky enough to speak with some of the competitors after this year’s Inverness Highland Games, and I asked specifically about training for the caber toss.

The answer was unanimous: there’s no way to train for it but to get a caber and learn the technique. Even the smallest guy there said that strength had little to do with it.

Caber for distance? So do they not care how it lands? Is 6&12 not a perfect toss? Just curious how that is scored.

In fact, they said that for just about everything except the stone lifting, but even then strength will only get you so far. The only one to lift the Inverness Stone certainly didn’t look the strongest, but he’d been competing the longest. Same case with the throws.

Good luck, and report back. I may experience my first game as a competitor in 2015, if I make it back home in time.

I got KB swings from a pro strongman. He also said tire flipping might help mimic the motion and explosiveness, something I need to work on anyways.

Caber for distance… no clue. I’ve been looking online for it, but no clear answer. I found a vid from the 2012 contest and it looked like they were using a slightly shorter caber and tossing it the same, just measuing the distance, either way I’ll find out soon. I’ve never really thrown so it will be a new adventure. I’m picking up a 20lb medicine ball for “put practice.”

Kilt ordered, scotch bottle cracked, scotch eggs recipe printed, so its a go.

As it’s less than a month away, I don’t think anything you do in the gym is going to have much carry-over to the field.

My advice would be to get a 16 lb river rock from a garden supply stone, assuming it’s 16 lb competition stone. Mark off a trig with track paint (4.5 feet by 7.5 feet, wouldn’t even bother with the back 1.5 feet at this point) and get throwing. Lots of technique videos on youtube for this, but wouldn’t bother with any kind of spinning technique as it takes a long time to learn - do a shuffle-step technique (think back to when you were a kid, hucking a ball as far as you could). Key points are to make sure you end up in the power position (toes of lead foot roughly lining up with heel of trailing foot) and to keep a good “wrap”; twist your body and look back as long as you can before you release. Other useful tips are to jam the rock into the side of your face, so that the pressure you are putting on it with your hand is the only thing stopping it from falling to the ground. Make sure to extend your wrist under tension when you are about to release - think the grip you’d have doing OHP/Push Press. These two things alone will add some feet to your throw.

For HWFD, are you able to get your hands on a 56? There is absolutely no practice for this event except to actually get out there with an implement and throw - same goes for virtually every HG event. Don’t bother with any of this two-turn stuff at this point, you won’t master it in a month and you’re better off with one spin. Cast the weight, generate as much momentum as you can at the spin, make sure you wind up in power position when you release. This event is all legs/hips, make sure you “catch” the first spin in a quarter squat type position. Also note your foot placement when you release, making sure it’s as close to the trig as possible. Even a foot of distance lost in this event is huge.

Good luck

Thanks PB, I can’t believe I didn’t think of a garden store for a damned stone. The whole search was getting ridicules, I never thought finding a rock in CT would be difficult, we have a town named “Rocky Hill” for Pete’s sake.

Overall, I know the time is very short, but I have been focusing on getting my explosive strength up, and basically “do what I can with what I have.” I decided to do this competition pretty much to “pop my cherry.” I don’t expect to win, only to gain experience and have fun.

The HWFD is apparently a block thrown discus style, not that that matters because I am equally inept at either style. I spent a lot of time watching videos of all the throwing events, and I sort of want to do the traditional HWFD now, but the fee is $10, so I’ll take what I can.