"The Ring" archive entries from Aug 16th 2008

These are the posts from "The Ring" archive on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/ from day Aug 16th 2008

Quote from tgthrower

First of all, congratulations to Christian for his Silver medal! A silver medal in the Olympic Games is a TREMENDOUS accomplishment.

Reese is young and will have many more opportunities and Adam has done as much for American throwing in his career as virtually anyone.

Last January, myself and several other people took a lot of heat on this board for expressing our opinions on the USATF Olympic Coaching selection process, much of which is extremely political but also very "shady," especially with the last staff selection.

Many on The Ring said that it did not matter all that much - that the Olympic Coaching positions were more "administrative" than anything else. Even several high profile athletes fired back at our opinions.

Well, this is why it MATTERS! Look at the "not so good" performances of the US throws groups in Athens and (so far) China. Quite a bit is involved and if the talent of the coaching staff does not match up to the talent of the athletes, there are going to be problems - whether the athletes want to admit it or not.

All one has to do is to compare the recent Indoor World Championships in Spain to the Olympics in China, only a five month time period. What a huge difference in the results.

I don't know what kind of political clout that the National Throws Coaches Association or US Track & Cross Country Coaches Association has, but perhaps these organizations can be the avenue to get the USATF to change the the way they do things in the future.

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published at Aug 16th 2008 1:09am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from KSCTHROWER

HAHAHAHAHAHA

published at Aug 16th 2008 1:11am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from KSCTHROWER

Why do throws always get shafted.. The hammer got taken out of the Home Depot Commerical .. this crap pisses me off.

published at Aug 16th 2008 1:13am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Mr.Incredible

I have read in the past from the elite throwers that the Olympics are just another World Championships. That is not the case. As Al Oerter said, "These are the Olympics, you die before you quit".

Knowing that, we wonder why the Europeans have not bought off on the spin. For this very reason. The glide holds up under pressure, and the spin does not. Randy Barnes is the only spinner in Olympic history that I csn think of that has won the gold. every year we have these monster throws with the spin, but it seems like the gliders step it up by a meter and the spinners lose a meter or more at the Olympics.

Could Cantwell have won with the glide? He may not have thrown 22 meters as a PR, but I think that he would have been the Olympic Champion today, and he would not have had to wait to the last round to come back.

Just my opinion. The US has great throwers and I was praying for a sweep. I just think that the glide holds up better and is more consistent in the Olympics. There is less to think about.

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published at Aug 16th 2008 2:08am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Mr.Incredible

Thats why Al Oerter was the greatest thrower of all time. He was the underdog in every Olympics wearing a neck brace and self coached, and he showed up to kick butt on the biggest stage in the world four times.

published at Aug 16th 2008 2:23am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Torque-converter

Amazing how NBC can find a whole 6+ minutes to show all 3 of our 800m girls not make it to the next round, but not have enough time to show throws that take 1.5 seconds from start to release? If they spent equal amounts of time on the throws qual as they did on the 800m, we could get clips of every thrower in the comp.

Maybe we can get them to show throws clips after false starts on the track. This is normally the time that we get to watch sprinters shake out leg muscles, stand around, sit on the ground, or on the lane marker, drink water, and spit on the track.

Or better yet we could get some more updates on how much lower Michael Phelps left testicle sits than other athletes. Or more info about his genetically freakish size 14 shoe and 6'7 sorry I meant to say 6'8 arm-span. Oh did I mention that he eats Chuck Norris for breakfast and craps asteroids.

published at Aug 16th 2008 2:33am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Torque-converter

I meant to say Phelps can crap the Universe. Asteroids are not quite big enough.

not that I don't like Phelps(greatest swimmer ever)

Just wish we could get a whole 5min of throws coverage at once

published at Aug 16th 2008 2:38am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Tony Dziepak

Throws coverage needs to be more like the synchronized diving. Earlier this week, NBC primetime showed 1/2 hour of live diving, showing all six dives of at least three pairs of divers in each round--for both the men and women.

published at Aug 16th 2008 2:43am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Bill

Any word if we will get any more coverage of the discus than we did the shot?

published at Aug 16th 2008 2:44am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Hunter

I don't think the result is a spin v glide issue. As I posted earlier the issue is the long, super-competitive, American track season hurts the US throwers.

In order to make the team and earn a living, the big 3 have had to throw far for the past 8 months. Guys from other countries don't need to be competing at the high a level for as long and aew thus more prepared to throw 69-70' at the olympics.

published at Aug 16th 2008 2:58am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Bahrkie

im not gonnaget my hopes up.. we shoulda havesome bring a recorder and stream it live over macthrow haha

published at Aug 16th 2008 3:02am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from MAC

Men's shot final clips will be posted shortly (no audio).

MAC

published at Aug 16th 2008 3:44am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Mr.Incredible

I said the same thing that you said a few weeks ago, but I think that when the spinners are competing in the Olympics versus an all comers meet. the first thing that they think about is "Dont foul, Dont foul" as far as stepping out of the ring. You know that big Cantwell has to be thinking that. In turn I think that effects their fluid motion out of the back and their really not attacking the board as they would if they were more in relaxed conditions, Whereas a glider only has to be thinking of hitting that middle positon with as much torque as possible (Ulf Timmerman style) and their not too concerned about fouling as much, because they know where their center of gravity will be and where their feet are on every throw.

There is no doubt that the glide is more consistent, you just wont see a glider pop off a huge PR like you would in the spin.

published at Aug 16th 2008 3:59am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Mr.Incredible

I think that Gymnast Shawn Johnson would be a great little hammer thrower. She has the leg strength and quickness to get it out there. She would definetely be the best one in the world under 5' tall. Maybe one of those Iowa coaches should recruit her.

published at Aug 16th 2008 4:03am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Norm Balke

It's all about the glide.

nb

published at Aug 16th 2008 4:49am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from drbeaufay

It's interesting to note that The Ring archives posts (or titles of posts) going back over 1,450 days... all you have to do is zoom back to the discussions about Athens in '04 and you'll see that many Ringers had glide fever back then, as well.

published at Aug 16th 2008 5:11am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Hunter

Mr. Incredible,
I agree to some extent but its a moot point because the Americans have been beating eachother up since february to qualify for the games and make a living that they're competing at 90%.

Norm,
If its all about the glide, why am I so much higher than you on the Iowa all-time shot list?

KK

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published at Aug 16th 2008 6:24am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Hunter

nm

published at Aug 16th 2008 6:32am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from slug

Arsi Harju won gold in 2000 as a spinner......

published at Aug 16th 2008 6:40am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/