Ask Martin Vol. 13: Rocky IV and the Hammer Throw

Question: As a very stereotypical American hammer guy myself (I did not throw until college, focused on getting strong, threw the weight, etc.) I can tell you that I really wanted to outwork people when I was training. I wanted to grind it out and bleed to be good in a very Rocky IV kind of way. If we can agree that Americans are too obsessed with maximum strength and this is holding our hammer back… is this simply an individual track coach problem, or is it culturally influenced? Is our cultural heritage holding us back in in the hammer, while helping us in the shot put? Are the fine skills of hammer too nuanced for our firepower and bootstrap pulling things we tend to glorify? -Coach Lynden

Every young thrower dreams of training like Rocky.

The influence of culture on track and field and athletics has been a hot topic lately. Just this week, Sports Illustrated’s David Epstein just spoke about his current book project with the House of Run. There is a big reason for the attention: every culture has traits that lead to success in some sports and creates hurdles in others.

After I last wrote about culture, I received an email from an American track coach saying that he had the key to overcoming the cultural disadvantage we have to Jamaicans in the sprints: he has created the Riksha Runner, a new training device that utilizes the “coefficient of restitution.” Before the email, I thought that restitution was just an obscure legal term. But apparently it can help sprinters more than steroids. According to this coach: “I can improve every sprinter’s maximum speed by at least 11% in a couple of weeks! I do that with everybody – no exceptions … Maybe Switzerland would be interested in my services in view of the upcoming world championships and London Olympics.”

Maybe the coach’s product works, but I never replied to the coach since I don’t think he understood my original post. My point was that many countries succeed at different sports since they funnel their top athletes to those sports. His proposal merely tries to correct this cultural hurdle with another cultural hurdle: the allure of the shortcut.

Lynden and I have been talking about various topics recently and when this one came up I immediately thought that strength training is the shortcut of the hammer throw. Weightlifting has been pitched as a shortcut since it first was marketed in the mid 20th century. Fitness gurus, supplements, training tools, infomercials, etc. all promise to unlock quick success. And focusing on weights does produce quick success in the hammer throw. It may even be a benefit for the U.S. in the shot put. But it rarely brings the long term success that athletes and coaches are looking for. Just look at some of the best NCAA throwers and you’ll see that many have already plateaued after their junior years even though they are just 21 years old.

To top it off, it’s a deadly combination when you combine weightlifting with another American maxim: “more is better.” We think we have to work the hardest to be the best. That’s the American dream after all. This is often formulated in the statement “all things being equal, the stronger thrower will throw farther.” This question is ludicrous because it ignores that strength comes with sacrifices. One sacrifice can be feeling. It is rarely the case that “all things remain equal” and many times a hammer thrower can have less feeling for the implement when they are stronger. I don’t think it is a coincidence that some of the strongest hammer throwers in American history have also had some of the worst technique. Another sacrifice is lost time. What would happen if you spent 100 hours on technique instead of the bench press? All things being equal, I bet the thrower focusing on technique would be better even if they have less pain to show for it.

I understand why coaches do not want to try programs that focus more on technique and throwing. Lifting is a tradition. It is engrained in the U.S. throwing culture. If you stick with tradition and it fails, then it is hard to be blamed. But if you try something new and it fails, there is a large risk. It’s easy to explain to a kid why they are not throwing far when their legs are sore. After all, you can point to their new squat best as a sign of improvement. But it can be difficult to have your athlete buy into your program when they throw poorly, yet have not lifted heavy for weeks. The biggest mental test during my career is to get through those down periods without succumbing to my Rocky IV instinct.

But in the end, culture does not prevent us from trying non-mainstream ideas. Many of the top American coaches focus on the basics of technique and throwing. But the fact that they are a minority shows that there is a big hurdle stopping the vast majority of coaches from trying new things in the hammer throw.