Today is the first day of spring and the snow is finally beginning to melt in Kamloops.  We are still training indoors, but plan to start training outdoors again next week.  My throws have been feeling very good this past week, so I am eager to get outside and see how far they are going.  I am also on a new training program that has me throwing heavy hammers again and doing a lot of hammer-specific weight training.  The hope is to get me in good shape before the season starts.  We will be heading down south for a few weeks in April and will start the season at Arizona State’s Sun Angel Classic and the Mt. SAC Relays in Los Angeles.

Below are some videos from today’s training session.  I think they help illustrate how I am trying to improve the start of my throw.  I am not patient enough and start to turn before the hammer gets moving. This is a bad thing. It affects the ball’s orbit and throws off my balance in the subsequent turns. The error is slight, but important. The good news is that I have already made a lot of progress in fixing this problem.  I am also much stronger this year; I am throwing the 9-kilogram (20-pound) hammer in the first video and it feels (and looks) so much lighter than it did last season. Dr. Bondarchuk agrees. He pulled me aside today and told me “This year different move.”

» Click here for a video of me throwing the competition 7.26-kilogram (16-pound) hammer