"The Ring" archive entries from May 8th 2010

These are the posts from "The Ring" archive on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/ from day May 8th 2010

Quote from Hank Slam

Yeah, I remember this. Coach Fraley of Pole Vault fame was behind this (along with others). This really stung for us throwers. Apparently these guys thought the throws were slowing down the meets. I HAVE NEVER FORGOT THIS, NOR WILL FORGIVE.

published at May 8th 2010 2:28am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Hank Slam

At all the track and field meets I have been at it was the JUMPS that went long on time! 3 attempts at EACH height! Malarky!

Here is MY HUMBLE PROPOSAL to make meets faster. Give the Vaulters, and Hgh Jumpers 4 attempts. They can chose their heights after each "fair" attempt. If they miss, its considered a foul attempt. How's that for speeding up things?

This is/was the biggest slap in the face to throwing. Just MY opinion, and If I hurt anybodies feelings then you should consider how others feel before you get involved in an event that you don't even do, and OWN up to the consequences. You just might find out that people disagree with you vehemently. We are stuck with this BS ever since.

Sincerely,

Ronald E. McKee

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 2:41am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Big Adam

As a thrower I can see how many would feel we are getting the shaft. In reality I wonder if that is true. We already have flights set up for most major meets so the throwers who were considered elite could compete against each other in the same flight. Kind of a built in finals in a way.

I remember in college when I was in my best shape I still had meets where I was so exhausted from adrenaline that I could barely pick up a shot by my 5th throw. I usually hit my best throws on #2 or #3 anyway. I even had a meet or two when I was so gassed that I would pass on #6.

I pose a question to all ringers. Instead of fighting what we feel to be a grave injustice perhaps we sho embrace it as a chance to turn up the heat on competition.

Just my two cents,

would love to hear more.

Adam

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 3:16am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from long&loud07

On the other side of Adam's argument..what about those meets when you felt like complete dog sh*t until during the first couple throws, screeched in sideways to the finals and caught your rhythm on the last few attempts. There are great things about having 4 throw meets if everyone is "on" but those times that you are "off" it could be the worst thing possible.

published at May 8th 2010 3:33am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from long&loud07

scratch 'until' out of there.

published at May 8th 2010 3:34am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Hank Slam

All those thousands of practice throws, time off from work, general expense of getting to a meet, personal sacrifices, broken friendships/relationships, and your were too tired to pick up your shot? Sounds like you could have saved us all time and just passed your last two throws. Your talking to a guy who used toilet paper for Pro-wrap, and still throws to this day.

Yesterday I had a Sophomore hit his lifetime best on round '6' to win his league championship. Incredible drama. The crowd went nuts!

Now get back to why it was instituted...to speed up a meet. I submit that the throws are not the problem. All throws had six attempts for the finalists. We finished well before the end of the meet.

Ron McKee

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 4:39am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from w8coach

I have a beef with the whole attitude outside the throwing areas in regars to the throws. It begins in HS whne a coach on the track says , " Well this kids can't run or jump so they must beable to throw." No problem with a kids giving it a chance and seeing if the throws are a fit but they shouldn't be left there if they can't throw at any competitive level at all. Why don't the running coaches leave those kids on the track?

More importantly, why don't we have minimum meet standards for all events? We have a hundred kids at a meeet throw 15 feet in the shot, of course the meet is going to take forever. Some coaches want to flood events in order to pick up any scrape points for that victory that may keep thme in the hall of fame. If a kid sees a minimum standard that is out of their reach to whatever degree they can make the decision to to either try to attain the standard and get to the meet or they can decide that the juice isn't worth the squeeze and not clog up meets for those who are capable of meeting the standard.

Four throws is rediculous for many reasosn. In meets that have more than one flight, you never have any head to head comp, you are competing agianst a standard.Three prelims, nine to the finals, three morethrows in a meet of 40 throwers, has less throws than 4 straight throws for all. 4 X40 =160, 3X40 120 +3X9 = 27 147 total. Measure every throw. It takes the same amount of time to walk over to the place where it lands with the tape as it does with the friggin pegs and there is nothing to knock over.
I could go on but won't. Bottomline is that most of these rules are made by coaches other than truethrowers. They step over a dollar to get to daime. My Venting.

published at May 8th 2010 5:49am on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Gary Cooper

We have been to a few meets that were actually geared towards The Thrower.
They gave everyone 4 throws. Then the top 9 went to finals and were given 3 more. These were Thrower Meets.
We have put them on. We have 2 Rings each and we split the Flights up. We had 12 flights of boys Shot and discus. we took the top 6, running it from one ring and the other 6 used the 2nd ring.
While the boys discus is being ran, we do the same with the girls sp.We had 114 throwers. If any thrower from the lower flights have a mark that will put them in Finals then they're given the slot in Finals that their marks seeds them.
We have a BBQ and thrower Shirts. Other schools had started this for Freshman and JV throwers, we had originally planned ours for Varsity throwers. But this past year marks were down and 90% of Teams seemed to be in a rebuilding phase so we gave anyone who wanted to come the chance.
I still think ours needs to be a Varsity Throwers Meet. With a Qualifying Standard to hit in order to compete. And It would be a great idea to open it State wide so throwers from the west side of Missouri could get a chance before State to compete against those over here on the East side and everyone in between.
Throwers have little if any voice at the Top with the Powers to be. Coaches that want to help their passion for the throws could do so in several ways:

Get rid of the painted rings!! We went to a meet that the painted on ring was just 6' 6". And at Conference the past week, it was painted on with a 2" roller with no true arc to it. This is where our Districts are being held next week. A Championship Venue that can't afford a $145.00 metal ring after spending thousands of dollars on a pole vault pit shouldn't be allowed to host that Meet.
Stop letting the running, jumping coaches send kids that can only throw shot 15' down to be a thrower. When you are trying to get kids that have ability, ring time each day.and they have to wait for throwers hitting marks that you know are far from being competitive.Then it's time to ask the head coach why they don't put this youngster on their relay team or pole vault...They don't want them on the track because it will slow down others who are around them....
And what about Meets..Reversing the Flights??Another post...

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 12:38pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Gary Cooper

We have all been at meets where the throwers are flighted with the lower marks going first.

We have also been at meets where those first couple of flights are usually given longer warm up times, because the guy running it off is feeling fresh and alive.Maybe still talking to another coach he hasn't seen in while or whatever.
As the flights go on , the coach starts getting tired or maybe wants to watch one of his other kids in a running event etc.So the warmups get shorter going from those 1st flights getting 15 min to the last ones getting 5 or so.
Then are the times that are my favorite. The bad weather days such as a situation where it has rained and instead of making a Great effort to keep the kids from walking through the mud and tracking it in the ring. Well they don't. By the time the better throwers are up in their LAST flight the ring is a slim pit and no one gets to throw in conditions that are going to show their ability and isn't that why they are there? To go after a pr to get a mark that will move them up on the area ranking list?
Why can't the flights be reversed? Especially in these conditions. And maybe that would also push these kids to hit even bigger marks, because they don't know if a "lower seeded" thrower might stick one out there. It might be the new boost to help make it even more interesting.
Coop

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 12:52pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Big Adam

While your at it we should petition USATF to wipe all the throws records and begin using the international implements. That way we can truly compare ourselves to the rest of the worlds young talent.

Cheers

Adam

published at May 8th 2010 3:40pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Tony Ciarelli

Lets run the
80 meter dash
180 m
330 m etc. etc.
and take the 3200, start at the starting line and run straight for the gate go outside and come back when your finished.
I don't follow our league rules most of the time when it is my meet and give 6 throws, but our league rule is 4 throws for varsity and 3 throws for JV and F/S. Some how we get pushed in with the horizontal jumps since they can't get done in time then we get punished and the rule's guys say if they only get 4 jumps then you only get 4 throws. It's funny how these powers that be never change the vertical jumps, the pole vault is always first to start and last to finish at our meets. The throwers are at home having dinner before they finish most of these meets. Half the time they don't care about what we are doing until they see we might be able to score some points for them. Anyway it's time to get ready for sectionals and hopefully State. This is the best time of the year, long weeks with only your best guys.

WASA~KI~SHIN
Tony Ciarelli
Cappo di tutti Capi

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 4:09pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Big Adam

Conor goes 230-10 at Princeton Heptagonal. Nationals is gonna be awesome!

published at May 8th 2010 8:02pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Norm Balke

Have any of you experienced this:

25 throwers.
One flight.
4 throws.
Thrower may choose: 1+3, 2+2, 3+1, or all 4

ON average, the last thrower has to wait around 70 throws (it could be as many as 96 throws) before they can throw. Not only that but the thrower retrieves the disc, cleans it off, decided whether or not to throw another one, consults with their coach, etc.

I am not kidding, this happens a lot in my neck of the woods.

nb

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 8:29pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Norm Balke

I've always been intrigued by this idea:

Do like a "3 alive " or "5 alive" like they do for HJ.

I would only give 2 throws per "distance standard".

First round, let's say, 40'. All the slugs get a mark, and the stallions can wait around and "pass".

Next round say, 45'. Next round 50'. You could do it however you wanted to.

At most high school meets, this would guarantee that the better throwers would be throwing against each other. Excellence would be rewarded.

All marks would count.

There are other things to consider, but I think that it could be somewhat exciting.

And it may SAVE TIME since for some that is a big consideration, because you are forced to do "one throw at a time" and the lower throwers (some of whom have no business even being throwers) will have fewer throws. Always bothered me that the better throwers get the same amount of throws as the slugs.

Just some random thoughts on a Saturday.

nb

Display More

published at May 8th 2010 8:42pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/

Quote from Big Adam

Down in Southwest Missouri what you described is pretty much the rule. In fact it is pretty much every meet until our Conference Meet or a larger meet hosted by a university. I was at a meet the other day where the official running the discus would scratch any thrower who did not wait until the discus hit the ground and she instructed the to leave the circle. I approached her and told her this was not in the rule book. She rudely told me that if I wanted to start a protest I could do so but that she was told she could run it however she wanted. She was only giving each thrower 3 throws as it was and when I asked about that she said that she didn't have time for all that crap and there were too many kids anyway. There were only 24 kids total!!!

Alas that is how it has always been.

published at May 8th 2010 8:46pm on http://www.effortlessthrow.org/