As the saying goes: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. After complaining about training in winter conditions a few days ago, I decided to just give in and embrace the winter. I took an extra day off of training to spend a long weekend of enjoying winter sports activities and relaxing with Kate in picturesque St. Mortiz.

Naturally the first thing to try out was the bobsled, which was born in St. Moritz more than a century ago. The historic Olympia Bobrun from St. Moritz to Celerina has hosted two Olympic Games and is the only all natural ice track in the world. The track records are reset yearly as the track is rebuilt from scratch and carved from snow with slight variances each time. The Swiss are also one of the best nations in the history of the sport. Just think of the focused Swiss team in the movie Cool Runnings and you know what level of respect they get in the sport. Switzerland has more medals than any other country in the bobsled and the 2010 Vancouver Games actually marked the first time since 1964 that the Swiss team did not win a medal. Throwers also have a close connection to bobsled.

For the fourth year in a row I ventured north for the memorable Fränksich-Crumbach Hammermeeting in small-town Germany. I’ve been explicit in stating that this is my favorite hammer meet around. Attendance looked a little higher at this year’s tenth edition of the meet, but the results were a little down and so was the excitement. I think everyone was expecting a world record and some mere international calibre results left them wanting; Betty Heidler defeated perhaps the best women’s field the meet has ever had, and Markus Esser convincingly won the men’s title. There is still just something unique about the meet. Nearly every one of the fans embraces the event in a way that makes the athletes feel like we have been adopted by a family. To take an example, I stepped into one of the local hotels to look for Sultana. I had never been there before, but as soon as I walked in the propreitor said: “You must be Mr. Bingisser.” He then explained to his wife that I had written a great article about Fränkisch-Crumbach on the internet.

This last weekend I was invited to present about training methods at the National Coach Development Programme Hammer Workshop in Loughborough, England. With the 2012 Olympics coming up in London, the country has been infused with cash and done a great job of using the resources wisely to develop coaching and facilities. Events like last weekend’s are commonplace, and Loughborough is putting the finishing touches on a beautiful covered throwing facility that will complement the indoor throwing facility they already have.

I was very impressed with the direction the hammer throw is heading in the UK. Last year the men’s discus became world class there, and the hammer throw is not far behind. The men’s hammer is deeper than ever, with four throwers over 72.45m this year. America, with a population five times as great, had just seven throwers over that distance. It will be a few years before they become world class, but most of the throwers are young and will continue to develop. The women’s hammer has an even younger and more accomplished group led by Sophie Hitchon (UK record holder at 69.59m, 2010 World Junior champion and 2011 European U23 bronze), Louisa James (58.10m as a 17 year old, 2011 World Youth champion), and Myra Perkins (61.94m as a junior in 2011).

Over the past ten days I have taken a trip back in time. I returned to my former home and training partners. I returned to working with my coach in person. I returned to the routine of a life 100% focused on training. In other words, I returned to Kamloops.

After nearly a year away from coach Bondarchuk, I needed to touch base with him. We talk or exchange emails every week, but that isn’t the same as getting in person feedback from him. The feedback is something he also needs, since it is also difficult for him to determine my progress without observing me first hand.

Since I last wrote about my own training, a lot has happened. I got married, took a wonderful honeymoon, and have now returned to my normal training routine.

Honeymoon in Basque Country

After getting married in California, Kate and I quickly traveled back to Zürich before heading to the Basque country in northern Spain and southern France for 10-days on the beach. I wanted to visit a new and unique area for our trip, and we found just that. First off, the food was stunning, especially the pintxos in San Sebastian. I normally lose weight when I take a break from training, but this time that was not the case. But beyond the food, the area was beautiful and full of friendly locals. We were able to relax, catch up on some sleep, and try a little surfing. Before coming home we also got a little taste of local sport by watching a game of jaï alaï, a unique derivative of tennis where the positions of the athletes get into positions that resemble javelin throwers.

One year ago, the global hammer throw community lost its greatest advocate. For the past 60 years, nearly every great American hammer thrower knew and was influenced by Harold Connolly. Some, like Kevin McMahon, were coached by him. Others didn’t even agree with him, but couldn’t avoid his impact.  While his stubbornness made many hostile, he forced even those people to look hard at their values before deciding they were correct.

I could immediately sense this when I met Harold. This led me to learn my most valuable lesson from him: every moment is a chance to teach and learn.

Over the past year I have been thinking of this lesson more and more. The hammer is rarely welcome at training facilities and I used to find myself always jumping over fences to train during my travels. Harold told me stories of when he used to hop a fence to train near the airport in Los Angeles and I always joke that the ability to hop fences is the only athletic prerequisite to throwing the hammer.

Right after the Swiss Championships I hopped on a plane to America, where I am now preparing for my wedding on Sunday. I took a three week vacation from work for the wedding and honeymoon (one of the benefits of working in Europe) and had planned on taking most of that time off of training. But after talking with coach Bondarchuk on Sunday, I will now only take a 10-day break. I am in great shape and he doesn’t want me to lose that before starting my training back up again. That means I am trying to squeeze in a few training sessions before the wedding and then will relax on the honeymoon. Even though the break is shorter than planned, I think it is still my longest period of time off since 2007. A man of few words, he gave me a succinct reply after I presented him with a revised training schedule: “Okey. Heppe weding. M.B.”

Whenever I complain about the hammer throwing situation in America, I always need to remind myself that it could be worse. It could be like Switzerland. America has come quite a long ways in the last decade. Switzerland has been going in the other direction.

In the late nineties, Switzerland had more than five throwers over 65 meters. For comparison’s sake, Canada, a country with nearly five times as many people, had just three throwers over 65 meters last year.

But the fortunes have changed. Last season I was the only thrower over 65 meters in Switzerland and I learned to throw in America. Two more throwers were over fifty meters, but both are over 35 and had either already retired or were nearing retirement. The next best result was under 50 meters and an underwhelming 45.98m was good enough for the bronze medal at the Swiss Championships. With few coaches and competitions, participation is low. We need to do something to turn things around, and thankfully the Swiss federation agrees. They invited the top throwers, coaches, and youth to a hammer throw workshop last weeked at the Tenero national training center near Locarno. This was the first such event here in more than a decade.

I’ve been busy lately with my continued mission to evangelize the world about the hammer throw. If you are a frequent reader of this site, you already know my thoughts on the current state of the hammer throw. We’ve been excluded from the top meets and are shrinking away into oblivion. But perhaps worse is that the vast majority of track fans don’t even realize our absence. Many posts here have tried to inform the world of this, and now I’ve spread my efforts elsewhere.

Earlier this month I was asked to do a guest post for the popular Inside the Games website. The post, which can be read in its entirety here, discusses the problems we face and also suggests that the hammer throw community, not the IAAF, should be the most active in improving our status. Most people I talk to want the IAAF to just fix the situation. While that would be great, I don’t think we can just wait around for that to happen since it may never happen. Instead, we need to promote the event ourselves and seek ways we can be successful with our without the IAAF’s help.

My training partner, recently crowned Commonwealth Games champion and record holder Sultana Frizell, is also joining in on the effort. She conducted a lengthy interview with the Ottawa Citizen, and the resulting article focused on how the hammer throw has been left out of the Diamond League. Sultana always supplies a good quote and the article is well worth the read just to see the problem from a truly elite athlete’s perspective. I also was a guest on a recent taping of the TrackFocus Weekly podcast and was able to discuss the issue for several minutes. I will post a link to the episode once it is released. If anyone else has ideas of other avenues we could use to spread the word, please let me know if I can help. If nothing else, we are getting the hammer throw in the headlines and letting a few more people know about our event.

I was looking back at my review of last season today and it is eerily similar to how I feel about this season. However, the two years were world’s apart. I not only threw three meters further this year, but I was also more consistent and had almost ten meets over my season’s best from last year. But, as always, I want more.

The Good – Like I said above, I threw better than last year. Much better. The highlight of the season was another win at the national championships by a convincing margin. I finished more than fourteen meters ahead of the next Swiss thrower (Björn, a German citizen, also threw great for second place), which by my research is the largest margin of victory at a Swiss Championship. Training has also gone very well. I improved my special strength and set lots of training bests from the 5-kilogram hammer all the way up to the 10-kilogram hammer. If I can get that strength into the throw, I know it will produce something over 70-meters. My technique also improved this year, although it is still not where I want it to be.