Posts by Bill Pendleton

We do 45 throws a day 5 days a week. 25 shot and 20 disc or vice versa and that only counts full cross ring throws. My best throwers got in about 7,000 throws thi syear.

I've been coaching a very long time and I went back and the greatest freshman to sophomore year improvements I've seen were 17' ( 29' to 46' ) from a kid who went 62' as a senior this year and 16' ( 32' to 48' ) from a sophomore this year. Along with the 10,000 throw concept I always tell beginners it takes 1000 throws before you'll feel fluid and natural. Almost everything about the discus is unnatural. Upper body staying wound as lower body gets ahead, keeping the body in the middle after driving across ring instead of pitching to front etc.

Last Saturday one of our shot putters, Will Truong, finished 3rd in the state in the shot put ( 62' 4.5 ). He also has an appointment to the West Point prep school. On Monday he was at a friend's house getting ready for final senior activities. He attempted a back flip on a trampoline and suffered a broken neck. On Tuesday and Thursday they operated on him to stabilize his neck. The good news is he can move his arms and hands, feel contact on his feet and legs and can move his foot up and down already. He faces a long road to recovery but he is a tremendously hard working kid with a great personality. He was one of our captains. If you'd like to contribute to a fund for Will:

WILL TRUONG FUNDRAISER | Other - YouCaring.com

Thanks
CP

From a coach's standpoint having a good non reverser is a pleasure. You never worry about fouling.

We had # 7 and # 8 additions to the 60' club so far. Will Truong senior 6' 1 240 threw 61' and freshman Bronson Osborn 6' 2.5 235 threw 60' 3.

I rarely see a thrower with a good block who isn't a good non reverser. My son threw 203' with the hs disc ( 1.6) and was a non reverser. As a junior he threw 183 both ways but as a senior nr was better. Reidel and Schulte proved it can be done. ( Although all the rest of my good throwers were reversers in meets .)

We use the non reverse throw extensively in the off - season being maybe half of the throws the first month and less as the season approaches. However, I use them off on on as a remedial tool. When a thrower looks off balance particularly when he/she is overrotating and landing in what I call "the hole" with their feet past midline and their torso leaning back toward the center. When they are doing that they get the the throws off but they aren't good ones. If they do that several throws in a row, I'll have them do a sequence of a 'stop' throw where they cup the discusin their hand so they won't drop it and then stop and freeze when they hit power position. They will almost always hit the power position and be leaning forward and stumble. They will do that a few times until they can stick the landing. Then they throw non-reverse because you can't do it if your off balance unlike a real throw where they can get it off but it's bad and they don't feel/know why. A couple reps of that sequence and they're usually straightened out.

I don't see him anymore but I can get his email probably.

Does anyone know if this is legit? It's their second year and they just had qualifying. Why you would have qualifying in th emiddle of high school track season in the US is beyond me. It says 15-17 but the marks aren't that good for that age 178' in disc and 54 for best American in shot. Is this a deal where kids pay their own way financing some coach's vacation?

I think speed like any body function has a genetic component. The idea is to operate at 100% of your capacity which will put you at your best which is all you can do. And since most throwers don't reach that, you'll beat a lot of people who are more talented but don't work as hard.

1. There is speed and there is speed. Speed from the start of the turn when the rt foot lifts off to when the left foot unseats ( pushes off ) has MUCH less relevance ( almost none ) to distance as compared to the speed with which the left pushes off and the time it takes for that foot to hit power position.
2. Correct technique repetition builds speed. Watch anyone who does a repetitive task. I've seen video of women factory workers who can grab an apple in one hand, grab a wax paper with the other hand, wrap the apple in wax paper and box it in a fraction of a second. You can't even follow their hands. Why , because she has done it a hundred thousand times. Danek (?) said 10,000 throws a year was the key. Malcom Gladwell in his 10,000 hours essay has the same point. If you put in a ton of correct practice trying to get faster, you will.

Nick I assume the qualifying for that meet also takes place next spring. We will make sure he has marks with the 5 kg shot then. Let me know if I'm wrong.

Another pr. He went 18.35 ( 60' 3.5 ) in our trimeet today with a 12 lb. We have cycled down in preparation for a big invitational Saturday.

Believe me I would never try that with an "older" guy which in my case is anyone over 18. In 38 years of training guys I have found young guys can do almost anything. Originally in squat we went one heavy day ( Back ) one medium day ( front ) and one light day ( overhead or stepups ) a week. I'm talking full squats here. Anyway I wasn't happy with the results and switched up to two back squat days and two front squat days every week and the of guys over 400 a year doubled and we got a guy or two over 500 every year. Older guys could never do that. One b gut on the Juggernaut or Bingisser site said after 30 he was just as good but did half the training.

I had a 20.33 ( 66' 8 ) high school thrower in 1991 and our standard workout was 50 throws. They were all throws with a 10 lb shot not the 12 he threw in meets. We had a bucket with 5 in it and he'd throw a set of 5 at a time then go get them. We also lifted first and then threw because we had to. This is not what I would do now but it worked then. He also hit that pr at the national championship meet ( Keebler ). I will say we only did that because he was a spinner. I've seen many guys hit workout prs 30 or so throws into the workout because it doesn't take much out of you. I think a glider is fried much sooner. We were also throwing only shot one day and only discus the next at that time.

Florian
Fine with me. I'm sure Tony doesn't care. I can't speak for Don.

This site has been around for many years but there are some good articles on it about throwing. Don Babbitt, Tony Ciarelli and myself have a few articles.

Coaches Education.com

He went 17,39m (57' 1") in the shot today.

Sounds like you have had more than your share of bad luck so you're due for a change. My son is a Captain in the army. He was in artillery and did two tours in Baghdad doing everything but artillery. He will be 33 in July. My younger son is a senior at WP so he will be regular Army in a few months. Those are big time throws. Good luck.

Sounds good to me but I have no frame of reference. I will get ours next week.

It sounds awesome once you added the information about stabilization. I always tell them the most important lifts are the ones you could fall down doing because they require stabilization and athleticism. But you're way above my pay grade. I was happy the head coach spent money on getting us more variable weight shots and discs. We have a very good weight room in terms of standard equipment but nothing that technologically advanced. We're somewhere between Rocky walking up snow covered hills with logs on our back and you. Where do you coach at?