The quote above may sound like the beginning of a throwing manifesto, but instead it is part of the simple conclusion in my coach’s 2007 book Transfer of Training in Sports. Besides the occasional article in obscure journals, little of substance has been published by or about coach Bondarchuk in English.  He has a wealth of knowledge that guided him, and many of his athletes, to gold medals and world records in the throwing events.  Since moving to Canada in 2005, throwers across North America have gradually started to learn more about his coaching methodology.  He has spoken at clinics across North America and published two books in recent years.  If you been following my site, you’ll know I also have been writing about his philosophies, but I don’t have the space or time to really do it justice.  Since Bondarchuk’s second book was just published last month, I figured it would be a good time to review both of his new books. This post discusses his first new book, as translated by Dr. Michael Yessis.  I’ll review his second book next week.

Right now I’m sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting to catch my flight home to Seattle. The first leg of my flight gave me some time to reflect on yesterday’s competition. While there were positives and negatives from the meet and I may not have thrown as far as I wanted to, I did achieve much of what I wanted. I started the competition with a lot of energy. My first attempt flew out of my hand and landed at 65.75m. Unfortunately, it also landed just outside of the sector, as did my second attempt. After making a few adjustments, I got a legal throw in the third round and improved again in the fourth and fifth rounds before having a questionable foot foul on my final attempt. My best throw measured 64.72m.

There is nothing more satisfying than sleep for the sleep deprived. Food for a hungry man comes in a close second, but the food often pales in comparison to the succulent dishes we create in our minds and overindulgence can quickly turn satisfaction into regret. Sleep, on the other hand, never fails to satisfy. I started Thursday morning with a training session before heading to the airport, where I flew to Marseille (via Amsterdam) and drove another hour to nearby Arles. Once in Arles, I squeezed in another quick workout before grabbing dinner and finally heading to bed. Other than a short nap on the plane ride, I was been awake for nearly 30 straight hours. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out cold and couldn’t have been happier.

As I mentioned last week, I’m in Arles for the European Cup-Winter Throwing meeting. Arles is a small town sitting on the Rhone River. It was beautiful here yesterday with sunny weather and clear skies. The flight into Marseille was picturesque and the white cliffs on the Mediterranean reminded me of scenes from To Catch A Thief, which I watched earlier in the week. The weather declined slightly today as clouds moved in to turn the weather to overcast.

I’m back in Seattle for the week before heading to France to open my season at the European Cup-Winter Throwing. The entries for the meet were just released and it will feature an elite field, with over 20 throwers over 70 meters. I’m hoping to gain some experience and approach my best opening result ever (66.47m). Training has been going well, and I think that is possible with the right conditions.

My time in Seattle will be busy working on business for the Evergreen Athletic Fund. I actually attempted to take a few throws at a small local competition on Saturday, but ended up passing most of my attempts due to a sudden hail and wind storm. After the competition, I put on a quick youth clinic for the throwers with Mike Mai, Zack Midles, and Jake Boling. Tomorrow, we will host our annual meeting and I’m excited to see what ideas we have for the future of the organization.

It’s been two and a half years since I started writing about my training on this thing called the interweb. Since then, many other track and field athletes have also started their own websites. Now, there are so many blogs that it can be hard to decide which ones are worth the read. Some are updated often and some rarely. Some provide a superficial look at the athlete, while others are more personal or contain detailed accounts of training. Below is a collection of my favorite sites across all the events. If I leave out any great blogs, feel free to add them in the comments below.