It was sort of funny, Friday afternoon. Javalina came out of the shower and he said he was walking back and forth in the shower and he remembered the motion of the glide throw for the shotput. I thought he was joking or something and said something like "what do you mean, Goofball?" He said you know, I sometimes walk back and forth in there while I think, I still don't know if he was kidding, but he said he remembered the motion of kicking his leg back to throw farther. I said "good, about time."
We have been to two meets and he is doing mediocre, at best. For a kid swearing he will throw 40 feet by the end of the season, then to watch him increase only 4-5 inches from the first meet to the second, it seemed like we were in for a long season. But last year he was already throwing as far as 27 feet, yet this year he had only managed 25 feet and change. This year, because they started from scratch, he has just been standing and throwing from that position. Last year he would do the glide motion, which starts with his back to the field. He kicks his weaker leg back as far as he can in the throwing circle and in one motion while he is turning his body and coming up from almost a squat position, he heaves the ball and as he releases, he is supposed to have so much momentum that he keeps turning.
We went outside Sunday while we grilled and at first he was goofing around, just doing it barefoot. He threw his normal 25 feet from a standing position, then trying the glide he went up to 27 feet, but he was barefoot. I told him to go get some shoes on and he comes back in Crocs. I just shook my head, but he did get to 29 feet, so it did help. I kept watching and marking and helping him go back and forth. I got him to put his hair in a band to get it out of the way and all the videos say to hold the shotput just by sitting on the top of the palm, not to wrap the fingers around it. He had a throw near 32 feet at this point. Eventually, Wife finished telling stories to Girlie and the BF and she came out. She threw in high school and after a minute she gave him some tips which managed to increase him to over 34 feet. The biggest tip which gave him an instant 2 extra feet was to take a deep breath and grunt it out on release. He hesitated to make noise but the throws all got more consistent, the last four all landing within inches of each other with the longest one being 34 feet and change. The other good tip she told him was to mark where the guy who had thrown the farthest was at. That was the 35 feet mark and I stuck a stick at that length and man, he came close to it.
Basically, by working with him, in one afternoon, we increased his distance by 10 feet, that is pretty darn good. I am not sure what that will translate to as our yard slopes down a bit. I say maybe he loses a foot or so, but I don't see why he can't throw a solid 32 feet this weekend. He did promise 40 feet, and if he does everything else correctly, he needs to pop with more oomph when he kicks his leg back, maybe squat a little lower, get all his hair away from his neck, and figure out how close he can get to the edge of the ring without scratching out, oh yeah, and proper footwear, not freaking Crocs. I think he can squeeze another 6-7 feet. It is going to be interesting to see. I just wish he would also take the discus as seriously, it is such a beautiful thing to see it fly off properly. But he loves the idea of the raw strength of that little cannon ball, the discus, not so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment