"The Ring" archive entries from Jan 29th 2008

    Quote from tgthrower

    It is obvious from the previous postings that the naming of Criss Somerlot to the Olympic Staff for 2008 was, at best, political shenanigans within the USATF, or, at worse, illegal doings within the USATF.
    It seems that the largest problem that most people have is that having someone named to two successive Olympic Staffs, whether qualified or not, is simply incompetent.
    Although USATF has stated in the past that Olympic Staff members are to be referred to as "Staff" and not "Coaches," many of the releases that USATF puts out stills refers to "Olympic Coaches." Of course it does not help when people such as Criss Somerlot constantly refers to himself as an "Olympic Coach." He puts this in all his advertisement flyers for his company and any other writings or letters that he sends out.
    You would think that the USATF would be concerned that their own membership is steadily decreasing, especially with the establishment of the US Track and Cross Country Coaches Association and the National Throws Coaches Association. It is my understanding that both the USTCCCA and NTCA give annual monetary grants to USATF. In my opinion these two tremendously effective coaching organizations should stop such practices as the USATF has shown itself to be a blundering organization that can't get out of its own way. It uses the excuse as being a "volunteer organzation." The USTCCCA and NTCA are also voluteer organizations and they do a much greater service to the sport than USATF does.

    published at Jan 29th 2008 12:54am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    Quote from w8coach

    I'm going to sound a little harsh here, but weren't you listening when Adam Nelson and the rest of the people in the know stated that these people are just administrators? IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER. The efforts to ensure that the coaches that prepared our country's best to get to and compete well at these comps need to be at every comp so that the athletes hae the best possible chance for success. The things that need to be fixed are not being addressed by preaching to the choir here. I acknowledge your frustrations about the OLy coaching selections but once you realize their function(towel boy) it doesn't matter what is written on their personal letterhead.

    published at Jan 29th 2008 1:59am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    published at Jan 29th 2008 2:36am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    published at Jan 29th 2008 2:38am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    published at Jan 29th 2008 2:45am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    Quote from Coach Rodney

    Gaining Confidence is from many avenues coming together. One is Goal Setting at the long term, and having short term goals. Setting those goals, and reaching them on the road to reaching that long term Goal. example would be, I want to squat this much or pull that much. I want to hit that weight at certain times of the year. Say you get those lifts and you reach the goals you set, and the long term goal is down the road, you reach the short goals and you feel positive of your training/life. You feel good about yourself, Your technique gets better and you go into that comp with your ready to go attitude. You have no doubts on what your doing. And you let nothing distract you. I think thats confidence.

    Now I don't know about sitting in a room with a bunch of Black Widows....where is John Goodman when you need him !!! hoot

    published at Jan 29th 2008 2:54am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    Quote from Kap

    We humans are creatures of habit: we (our bodies) learn to do things in the most efficient way possible to conserve energy so the things that can be made most habitual have the best chance of becoming "normal" activity. So, for good results in throws a set routine that leads to success is needed. Like many prior posters, there is a lot to gain from a set routine you do prior to throwing, practice or meets. Establishing and maintaining a set routine can be very Pavlovian: warmup "A" leans to long throw "B". That happens if you develop that line in training- warmup "A" leads to good rhytm/positions "B" which leads to better relaxation "C" which leads to better block/stretch "D" which leads to high release speed from elastic re-action "E" which leads to big throw "F". As time passes different athletes will remove parts of this chain sooner than others, but the links are important as the success of the latter depends on success of the prior, same as throwing actions depend on prior movements to build on. It's very important that every day of training and competition the athletes follow their routine as closely as possible.
    So the development of a consistant routine has a great deal to do with confidence as the routine itself is a basis of that confidence: it becomes a Linus-like security blanket. A set routine is something you depend on that gives you a feeling of safety and confidence comes easily to an athlete who feels safe and free of distractions.
    There are many other small points you may need to tweek this, but the basics of successful progression in performance will come faster off an established and followed program/routine as the basis than making efforts to boost confidence without a consistant "foundation" routine that is designed to lead the thrower into the "zone" for good performance.

    published at Jan 29th 2008 5:02am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    Quote from jayess

    Good posts on this subject. I would like to add a couple of thoughts.

    One would be knowing that you can handle the unexpected. You know you can handle various kinds of surfaces because you don't just practice on one ring. You know you can throw if it's wet because you've practiced on wet rings. You know people watching you won't be a factor because you've practiced with your buddies standing right next to the back of the circle staring at you. And you know you can come up with a big last throw when you really need it because your coach conducts one-throw meets with the bragging rights and other perks going to the winner, and which continue until the next one-throw meet.

    The other thing is attitude. If you realize that your real opponent is the tape measure, and it's not all those guys who might be trying to distract you by yelling or flexing or strutting around with their letter jackets or scholarships, then it frees up your mind to focus on the one thing you can control - yourself.

    published at Jan 29th 2008 7:20am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    Quote from lyd

    deer in the headlights is what everyone said i looked like when i would get in the ring 2 years ago. This method worked for me and it might be a little "out there" for some people but hypnotizing really works wonders. practice was always a peice of cake for me, i could always hit the moves, and the marks, but when i got into competition i would freeze and get last everytime. After being hypnotized i have gotten 1st or second everytime. Even went to nationals this past summer.


    commom misconseption about hypnotizem: it DOES NOT make you a better thrower you simply get the tools to help your nerves and to block out any nevitive energy around you duing competition.

    published at Jan 29th 2008 9:59am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

    published at Jan 29th 2008 10:13am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

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