I'm still trying to capture the fascination of the throws on paper, as well as in the circle itself.
Portraits of Nicole Lomnicka, Christina Schwanitz and Rutger Smith. Nicole was kind enough to give me the permission to draw her. I hope the other two don't mind that I did make the drawings.
In the beginning it was the all the big throwers like Storl, Günthör, Adams, Schwanitz etc - I was impressed by their speed, explosive strength and their results. But meanwhile it's also the woman from the local track & field club who has been doing the hammer throw and the shot put for 28 years or so and who is still competing. Seeing what she does encourages me to continue despite modest results, and shows me that the passion for the event, the fighting spirit and the readiness to train hard are enough to keep going - medals are an extra 
I sometimes help out at meets and every time I'm nervous and try hard not to make any mistakes, because I don't want to bereave any athlete of his/her accomplishments.
That's awesome, congrats 
That sounds like a perfect motto 
Enjoy the meet, have a good time and I wish you good luck too!
Thanks for this post! I have been asking myself the same questions and found the following answers so far:
- In the long run, meditation can help. It has to be done with the same consistency as the training though.
- Where does your train of thought go when your thoughts go crazy? It can be worthwhile to examine it in a quiet moment outside of the competition to find out from which kind of fear they stem. Once you know the fear, you can devise a remedy.
- Try to bring 80%, the adrenaline will take care of the other 30%
- Remember all the good hard work you did during your training, trust your body, it knows what it has to do.
This is why I love to watch Mr. Storl throw - he very often seems to smile when he gets ready to throw, like he knows exactly what he's doing and that it will go well.
- Bring a friend who believes in you and/or a good luck charm
Oh, and I can recommend the book "Die Kunst der Höchstleistung" by Alois Kogler, it has some really useful advice regarding mental training techniques.
It's awesome to hear of others who start "late" as well
It is going well, thanks, I wish the same for you!
I think I made about 30 thrower related drawings or paintings so far, I stopped counting.
On the internet you can find lots of good photos of David Storl, which is why he always reappears in my artwork.
Sometimes throwers ask me if I can make a portrait of them. I like doing this, because I can learn something about athletes, why they love their sport.
Like Mikkel Yoder Jorgensen in this drawing. He wrote that he likes about throwing that the mind can make the heavy implement seem like a feather. This totally intrigued me and I tried to capture it in the drawing. I'd love to make more in this style.
Thanks again for the advice, meanwhile I managed to get the book and it is indeed very useful!
without the internet it would be almost impossible for me to get any information about drills and such... so I am glad about the exchange of information that the internet makes possible.
Thanks, I will check it out!
Hi there! My sister and I want to do the shot put, but we are not 14 years old anymore, but 38 and 40 instead.
I was able to find a lot of information about training plans but they mostly refer to talented youngsters or experienced talented throwers.
Do you know where I could find infos about drills and such for beginners who do not have a big athletic background?
Any help is deeply appreciated!
Ok, so let me start contributing to this thread, I hope some more will follow
Fred Rehberg took a great photo of David Storl in Kassel, 2011. I just HAD to draw it and he kindly gave me his permission.
I have been trying to capture the fascination of the throwing events with brush and pen in the last 15 months and I continue to try.
This year I started doing portraits for athletes in a special manner. I ask them what they find fascinating about their event and try to include that aspect in the drawing. Like this I hope to capture the many aspects and facets of the throwing events and I'd like to make a collection.
I'd be pleased to find more throwers who would like to be part of that collection
That sounds very interesting!
I may not be young, but new to shot put, so I'm looking forward to reading it, thank you!
ps: I find it totally awesome that you learned the technique by yourself and that you have a circle at home and now I'll read the rest of the book.
I always enjoy watching him throw
