Are you ready for the hammer season? Ready or not, elite throwers around the world are getting ready to enter the ring if they haven’t done so already. On Saturday, the first major US meet of the season will take place at the Mt. SAC Relays with throwers like Kibwé Johnson, Libor Charfreitag, Drew Loftin, Mark Dry, Sultana Frizell, Jessica Cosby, Sophie Hitchon, Sarah Holt, Britney Henry, and several other elites. The IAAF Hammer Challenge kicks off in a few weeks in Tokyo. I’ve had six months to speculate, talk about, and analyze the upcoming season. So without further ado here are the 10 reasons why I think everyone should watch the hammer this year.

1 – 80 meters still has to be right around the corner. It was first on my list last year and remains first on my list this year. I want to see the women’s world record broken with the first throw over 80 meters. A half dozen women are within striking distance and just one of them needs to get there. Betty Heidler has to be the favorite to reach the mark first. Not only is she the current world record holder at 79.42 meters, but her recent inconsistency plays to her advantage in this regard. Throwers like Lysenko have been so consistent that I would be more surprised by a big personal best. But with Heidler anything is possible and a big throw of 80 meters is definitely one of them.

Last week I posted the first part in an interview with Kevin McMahon, a two-time Olympian in the hammer throw and one of the top throwers in the history of American hammer throwing. In Part 1, he discussed how he started out in the sport and the coaches that helped him along the way. In part 2, he discusses his approach to training and technique.

Martin: When you started out, you were able to progress quite quickly and reached nearly 70 meters before you turned 20. That is a level that many throwers already plateau at. What do you think helped you to continue to improve to almost 80 meters, while others never get beyond that mark?

When people think of American hammer throwing in the late 1990s, silver medalist Lance Deal is often the first name that comes to mind. But right behind him was a thrower with arguably the best technique in American history: Kevin McMahon. When I started out in the hammer throw, Kevin was one of the throwers I looked up to the most. Not only was he still active and at the top of his game, but he was one a pleasure to watch. The rhythm of his throw was the antithesis to the grip and rip style of some of his competitors like John McEwan. But Kevin’s throws weren’t just pretty, they also went far. His personal best 79.26 meters (260-feet) stills ranks fifth all-time in America. He was two-time Olympian (1996 and 2000), two-time US Champion (1997 and 2001), and a silver medalist at the 1999 Pan American Games. Since his career has finished, but he has continued to stay connected to the sport through coaching at both the high school and collegiate level.

Kevin obviously understands technique, and listening to him talk about training always brings me a new insight into my throw. There is no doubt his eloquence comes in part from having some amazing mentors and coaches throughout his career, but it also is a testament to his approach to the event. In this first part of our interview, Kevin discusses how he got started in the event and what he learned from the likes of his former coaches Mac Wilkins, Ed Burke, Harold Connolly, and Dan Lange. Be sure to check back for the next installment of the interview where Kevin discusses his training and approach to technique.

Some things in life are timeless. A good wristwactch is one. Another is a bad excuse. Bad excuses, unfortunately, are too often repeated. A case in point was an article sent to me recently by Bob Gourley, America’s top high school hammer throw statistician and also a fine youth coach.

The article was written in 1939, but could have just come from the mouth of Lionel Leach 70 years later. Back on February 17, 1939 the Lewiston (Maine) Evening Journal printed an article titled “Maine Principals Ban on Hammer Draws Fire.” In it, the paper responds to what turned out to be true rumors that the Maine Principal’s Association was going to cut the hammer throw as an event at the state championships. During the 1920s and 1930s, more than half of the states had the hammer throw as a high school event. But within the ten years all but Rhode Island would have eliminated the sport.

A topic that has interested me a lot this year is how to identify and develop talent. Recently Vern Gambetta shared a good article on his blog about a counterintuitive article recently published in journal Sports Medicine. The abstract describes the article best:

[T]he vast majority of [talent development] systems expend a great deal of effort maximizing support to the young athletes and trying to counter the impact of naturally occurring life stressors. In this article, we suggest that much of this effort is misdirected; that, in fact, talented potential can often benefit from, or even need, a variety of challenges to facilitate eventual adult performance.

Here in Switzerland you can see first hand that the hammer throw has been declining over the past decade. Youth participation is so low that the hammer throw was cancelled at the national under-23 championships for lack of participation this year. But the problem isn’t isolated in Switzerland; neighboring Germany has seen youth hammer results in decline recently and what was once the strongest hammer throwing nation had results of 70 and 60 meters win medals at this years national senior men’s and women’s championships in the hammer throw. But while many countries are struggling, at least one has not just witnessed growth, but a growth level perhaps unmatched in history. That country is the United States.

Spearheaded by the efforts of Harold Connolly and many others in the mid-1990s, the number of US youth hammer throwers has increased fivefold at beginning and elite levels by almost every measure. This success is remarkable and something that other countries and other events can analyze when trying to replicate such success.

For people like me and my readers, the hammer throw is a year-round sport. Whether or not there are competitions, we are following our favorite athletes, out there training ourselves, or coaching others. But for the vast majority of the world, thinks it happens just once every four years if they have even heard of the hammer throw. Some people complain about this, but I think it is wonderful that we ever get this much exposure. Let’s be honest, the hammer throw will never be a household sport and we get the rarely chance to expose new people to the event. Even if the hammer throw is added to the Diamond League that will only give it a fraction of the exposure the Olympics did. Even without much television coverage or any Americans on the podium it was still the topic of some water cooler conversations around the world.

Psychologist Angela Duckworth has done some interesting research into what personality traits can be used as predictors for success in school and other ventures. IQ, for example, is actually a poor indicator of how high a student’s GPA will be. Duckworth’s early research showed that self-control was a much more reliable predictor, but even that was not a good predictor of higher successes. As a lengthy New York Times piece summarized “People who accomplished great things, she noticed, often combined a passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take. She decided she needed to name this quality, and she chose the word ‘grit.’”

When I think of grit, I think of one man: 1956 Olympic Champion Harold Connolly.

The US Olympic Track and Field Trials got into action yesterday with a special event for the hammer throw taking place at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. An estimated crowd of 3,000 spectators swarmed the campus and they were welcomed by a rare sight for Oregonians this June: the sun. It seemed like everything lined up to produce a great event. In my season and meet previews I highlighted this as an event that was crucial for hammer throwers. With extra media and fans in attendance, throwers could either step up their game and give the media something special to write about, or they could make it just another event. The throwers definitely seized the opportunity and left all in attendance with a memorable experience and the outflow from the event is still coming in as media outlets have been writing about and praising the event non-stop for the past 24 hours.

At the end of the day, the US now has its first track and field Olympians: Kibwe Johnson, A.G. Kruger, Amber Campbell, Amanda Bingson, and Jessica Cosby. Three of the five will be making their first Olympic appearance. Congratulations! The final results are available here online for men and women. While I was unable to attend, both my family and many friends were there. After talking with them, reading all the media reports, these are a few things that stood out to me.

The Setting

The Olympic Track and Field Team Trials kick off on Friday in Eugene, Oregon, but the action starts a day earlier and 111 miles north when the hammer throw final takes place on Thursday at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. The decision to move the hammer away from the main event has stirred a bit of controversy since little was done to initially promote the event. Even within the last week there were three separate reports of Nike employees telling individuals and press that the event was not open to the general public. But a little controversy has been good as it pushed both the USATF and Nike to put out a last minute effort to publicize the event. A new hammer cage was recently installed at Ronaldo Field and bleachers will be coming soon. By all measures things are coming into shape just in time.

Whether or not you are in favor of the idea, there are some definite advantages to the format. The event will be broadcast live on regional television and a large turnout is also expected since the event is free and open to the public. More information for spectators, including parking, directions, and more, can be found on the Track Town 2012 website.