Posts by Matt Marcoccia

Quote from throwzfan

To the people at Denfi……please offer custom plates every year or two for one or two of your discs. I would pay a lot to get some clear plates for my ultimate spin. Its just such a cool look. Hey, even if you could produce 50-100 sets of plates a year that were cool colours and double or triple the price people would buy the plates.

Here is a quote right from the Denfi site on 'unique' Denfi's

Quote from Denfi Sport

Durring the start up when we fabricate the side plates the molding machines it makes some unique colored side plates, i know that throwers would like to have their own one of a kind discus, the samples is valid for any use in competition and they carry the IAAF cert.
From Time 2 time we will offer them here in our web-shop

So that means the only time they'll get these unique plates is when they make new plates. This obviously doesn't happen that often because of how many they most likely make a year. Your best bet is to check the Denfi site often and hope they have one.

Quote from Odysseus

Hey Matt, you doing Tucson this weekend? Grats on breaking 18

No I would like to do that meet once but it's nationals week for me next week. I have a few summer meets planned or at least marked on my calendar as I need some meets to prep for the Canadian team this summer.

Quote from Tom 'thunderhorse' Clough

That sounds fair enough, I got the saucony unleased as my first pair and they have been great, they made me get on the front of my foot a lot easier, but now I need the speed as don't get to train as much as I'd like to.

Speed isn't going to come from shoes it's going to come from your training.

Quote from Tom 'thunderhorse' Clough

that is some quality feedback, I have to say I am seeing more people in the addidas shoes than the Nike ones so, to hear that you know of a few people complaining about them makes sense.

Yeah got a pair of them from my school used them for indoor season and that was about it. Bought a pair of older Nike's which I'm using now and will probably move to the Adidas for the summer unless I find a pair of Nike's that I like.

Final shoe currently on the market that I know of.

Asics

Hyper Throw 3


http://www.asicsamerica.com/Sh…C2%AE-3/p/0010236724.4307




This shoe seems to be a combination of Asics two previous models into one. I can't comments on it since I haven't thrown in this shoe.

Next up are Saucony and VS Athletics as they only have 1 shoe on the market each.

Saucony Unleash SD

Saucony Unleash SD Unisex Shoes

I'm not going to say much about the shoe I'll let Adam Nelson who designed the shoe take care of that.

Note: This shoe isn't flat it has a plate in it causing you to get up on the ball of the foot. This takes a bit of time to get use to. If you are use to flat bottom shoes it may be a little annoying at first.

VS Athletics Centrifugal

VS Centrifugal

I have not thrown in these shoes but these have been designed as a "retro" shoe. These two videos will explain about the shoe.

Next up is

Adidas

Adizero Discus/Hammer

Adidas Adizero Discus/Hammer 2

This is Adidas' fast shoe. With discus/hammer in the title it's clearly meant for rotational movement as it has a flat and smooth bottom. The bottom of this shoe is very hard and can have a bit of break in time.

Throwstar Allround

Adidas Throwstar Allround

This is Adidas' medium/slow and value shoe. The bottom of the shoe is flat and textured with somewhat like pyramids. It's also a soft rubber meaning it is a slow shoe. This would be best for beginners or someone who needs a shoe for a very fast/slick ring.

I have thrown in almost every throwing shoe available throwing shoe currently on the market and own most of them as well so I can go into fairly detailed info for shoes. I'll cover each company in a separate post starting with Nike on this one. The models will also be the current shoe offered as models change throughout the years.

Brands: There are not as many shoe makers as there use to be today all that is left is Nike, Adidas, Saucony and Asics. There are also shoes made by VS Athletics and depending how far you want to go there are Chinese and Japanese companies that sell shoes just over there.

Type: Nike and Adidas have 2-3 different type shoes although the names/model differ they are essentially follow this category. Fast, Medium/Slow, Value/Economy.

Links posted will be to a website with best photos of each shoe.

Nike

Zoom Rotational

Nike Zoom Rotational 6

The Zoom Rotational is Nike's fast or rotational shoe. It's a smooth and flat bottom shoe that is meant for rotational movement but can be used for the glide as well. This is a preferred shoe for hammer throwers as well.

This shoe use to have a much harder bottom thus made it a lot faster but for some reason that has changed.

Zoom SD

Nike Zoom SD 4

The Zoom SD is Nike's medium/slow shoe. The bottom is flat and slightly textured. It's slower than the Rotationals but many rotational throwers like this shoe over the Rotationals.

Personally this shoe is my favorite Nike shoe currently on the market and seems to be with a lot of top level throwers as well.

Zoom Rival SD

Nike Zoom Rival SD 2


This shoe is Nike's value shoe. It's bottom is the exact same as the Zoom SD. The only difference is the upper which is not as quality thus being able to sell the shoe at a cheaper price.

NOTE: Over the years Nike's throwing shoes have gone from being made out of leather, to a synthetic material now to a mesh and flywire design. These shoes can be very uncomfortable depending on your foot. All of my teammates have complained about the current Nike throwing shoes. Also with the mesh build these are likely to develop tears in the upper portion of the shoe.

Quote from ThrowerFanatic

Yeah @Pauline Pauwels, thats what i meant.

So you do have a chance of winning @Matt Marcoccia?

I do have a chance. But really anyone has a chance as D2 is very tight right now. So really who ever is having a good day has the best shot.

Quote from Pauline Pauwels

probably talking about the ranking for the nationals, am I right @ThrowerFanatic

If we're talking about NCAA D2 rankings then I'm currently ranked 3rd

Quote from ThrowerFanatic

How high are you ranked right now? WHat are you chances?

What kind of masters are you looking for? Sounds interesting to combine professional sport with a degree. I guess that's only possible in the states though...

What rankings are you talking about and chances for what as well?

I'm looking at earning my masters in strength and conditioning. I'm not sure if it would be considered professional as I will most likely never see any monetary compensation and any sponsorship would most likely be from a small company with very minor things to aid in training/competition. I mainly want to continue throwing as long as I can and as far as I can to where I can still make a living by actually working.

Quote from ThrowerFanatic

Nice improvement!
What is your next goal?
Any plans made up yet?

Well Nationals is in 3 weeks and I have a tune up this week. Short term goal is to keep this feeling/consistency until then as it would set me up with a solid chance to win.

After I'm done with school I should be representing Canada this summer at one or two competitions. I would like to throw 19m this summer as long as I'm healthy and I'm mentally/physically capable of doing so since I would be a long season.

I also may have one more collegiate season left pending an appeal with the NCAA. So if I get that year back I'd like to find a school to complete my masters degree and where I can also compete and hopefully get a scholarship as money is tight.

If I take the post-collegiate route I plan on working as a throws coach or strength coach. That should allow me to continue training for a bit. Also depending on where I'm located I may be able to work with a coach.

The wait is over. 60ft finally!! At my conference meet I went 18.48m/60'7.75" and won as well. My shortest throw was 17.47m with two other throws at 17.50 and 17.55m. Also had two fouls at or just over 18m.

Threw in a random meet because I haven't been throwing well in my first two outdoor meets and my confidence was kinda shot. It was a small 4 throw meet with some good guys there and I was just there to have fun. Well ended up throwing a new overall PR of 17.72m. This throw also qualifies me for World University Games this summer. Still have some things to clean up around the finish and in the middle but 18m+ and 60ft could be attainable soon.

@Sam Healy I just spit on the outside of the ring and wipe the balls of my shoes in it, and just continue to wipe the shoes until they are tacky. I don't do it outdoors as concrete rings have enough grip to begin with. If anything I'll wipe the ring down if it's wet, dusty or muddy.

@Sam Healy that ring the wood was particle board rather then plywood and it was really grippe and felt really good with some spit on the bottom of the shoes. I had my SD's with me as well and did some turns with them the day before and they were too slow.

As for the knee/foot issue I have a nagging injury just minor with my knee, quad and hip. As you can see I'm loading the left prior to starting and partially pre-turning my left as well. It's been something I'm working on but my body just won't let it happen.

It's been a while since I posted anything video wise. Nothing special was happening a lot of consistent throws around my PR but nothing special. But this past weekend was my conference meet and finally, finally got a throw that I've been seeing in practice and warmups. Came in the 6th round and my team swept the shot.

@Odysseus the metal rim would be left alone. I'm talking about the side plate or anything that's plastic on the discus.

But I did look into it and right now it wouldn't work. Any home machine can't produce the rims fast enough, strong enough or smooth enough. A professional machine would need to be used and even in that case it wouldn't work.

As technology gets better with 3D printers this may become possible, for now it's just an idea.

Quote from Sam Healy

now that is thinking outside the box! Even make your own custom made discus (and be like other sports)

I believe most 3D printers can only do one color at a time but yeah it is possible to make a custom discus that will stand out at meets.

Now this is only an idea but possibly a very good idea. I'm sure many throwers have a few discs that they can't throw or don't enjoy throwing because of a cracked or broken plate. Many discs you can't buy replacements plates (Denfi you can but expensive. Gill may if you contact them) which means a discus can go from your competition discus to a training discus or spare parts.

My idea is to use a 3D printer to make possibly cheap replacement plates. With 3D printers coming down in price and many people having them in their own homes all it may take is getting the measurements of different plates, entering them into a program and you'll have replacements plates and discs that can be thrown again.

I'm looking into this to see if I can find anyone that could help but if there is someone in the throwing community with access to these resources it could be an interesting project to look into.