As athletes, as coaches, we are always striving for better in search of the elusive “best.” We read all the latest materials, we scour the web for bits of information, we go to clinics and talks, we listen to those who we feel know more than us and can teach us something. That’s great. One thing Stewart really instilled in me is that we are always a student of the sport. We always keep learning.

I remember days he would come into training because he read a book about anatomy trains and that proved one of his ideas of why using these groups of muscles were superior to another. He found proof for something he always knew and sometimes, he would find something that pointed in another direction, and he would explore it, unafraid of changing his hard earned belief if something more credible came along.

I saw this in Koji while he was here. We sat in on a Physical therapy session, seeing if we could learn any more insights from the hammer or ways to improve training from a lady diagnosing the muscle usuage and development of his hips. Very interesting class, indeed. But Koji is a perfect example of a student of the sport where he travels the world learning from athletes, coaches, and scientists.

But these are just examples. Any good coach or athlete will realize they don’t know it all and must continue to learn in order to improve. We learn from experience, we learn from trail and error. In this sport, if you’re not moving forward, then you are being left behind. If you insist you know everything and are not open to change, then you will simply be missing out on so much good information.

However, there is also the old adage, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” That kind of messes up the idea of learning from others and changing.

Or does it? I think there is a perfect way to merge these two ideas. One, there is no harm in learning about another idea, another system, another technique, another training method. Learning is learning. You can choose to use it, or not, use all of it or not. (Plus, I think the more afraid someone is of learning about some other point of view, the more unsure they are of their own.) But learning is the essential part. Two, no system is perfect for every athlete. Instead of force feeding something that isn’t 100% working for the athlete, you can create a hybrid, improving parts, adapting parts, with the same goal of getting better.

So, that is my goal of 2011, I’ve learned so much over the past 5 years and will continue to learn more. But for this season, I am going back to what I know works, and adding in some new ideas that I think will help it work even better.

2011: Focus and General Training Theme

What Has Worked For Me:

• Speed and Aggressiveness: While at CSU, we really worked my comfort and aggressiveness with my hammers. I threw the 3k almost year round as part of my hammer regiment and the competitive nature of the team allowed for me to push my tempo and aggressiveness during practice. When I went to a meet, there was only comfort and confidence when I went into the circle. I know in the past years, I’ve backed off aggressive too much. I slow down, think a lot, and spend too much energy trying to make it feel right. There is nothing wrong with spending more energy on trying to feel a part or get it down, but I know that I am someone that responds to speed and when I feel good about the throw, the throw goes far.
• Heavy Hammers: Throwing heavy hammers for me teaches me good technique and helps build my special strength. When I feel hammer strong, I feel good and confident and my hammer flies. I’ve learned the difference between hammer strong and weight room strong. I know throwing the 35lbs, 25lb, 20lb, 6k, 5k, and 10 really help develop my technique and strength better than anything.
• Throwing Focused Training: The year I fractured my tibia and could only do drills and minimal lifting, I improved my hammer by 25 ft. Under Stewart’s training when I got some of my farthest throws and successful seasons (including making Olympic team), I had a heavy throws load. Training was used to support throwing and throwing was never sacrificed. The system was set up for optimums (optimum strength, speed, etc.). I’m already pretty strong, not saying I can’t get stronger, but I’m strong enough to throw 75m, however, my technique isn’t solid enough yet to use all my gifts to do it. My answer is keep an aggressive throwing program working on fixing my technical flaws, not ignoring my technical flaws or making it harder to address them by bulking up or speeding too much time and effort in the weight room.
• Supportive Environment: When I’m happy, I throw better. When I’m not happy, it’s harder to concentrate and execute. All the places I’ve been the most happy, I’ve been the most successful. I know you could argue the reverse is true, but I will take my chances be surrounded by people who care about me. lol I know as a person, I want to be around people who have a interest in me as Loree the person and not just Loree the hammer thrower. I miss being around my friends and people who care about me. I know I need to be in a healthy environment if I am to continue growing.
• Special Strength/Athletic: When I feel good, light, energized, explosive, and fast, I feel it go into the hammer. When I feel just weight room strong, I feel just strong but slow. I try to force the hammer to go into position or I can’t feel it at all. I like being strong and I like training, but I know I throw better when I feel athletic. I love it when I feel like an athlete and feel fast, so I am going back to making that a focus in my training. The women’s hammer is changing, it is a speed event and the fastest, most explosive, and most technically sound are the ones who are rocking it. I want to go back to feeling like that type of athlete.
• Balanced Life: Going along with supportive environment, I am looking for a balanced life. I want to focus on hammer and throw far, but I also want to be able to have something else in my life to get my mind away from it, to decompress. This can be working, being with friends, a healthy hobby, volunteering, whatever. I just really know when I have a balanced life, things are better.

What Hasn’t Worked:

• Not Throwing: I know this sounds silly, but for me it is true. When I’m not getting the reps in throwing I need, I don’t have as many chances to work on the technical things. When the technicals things aren’t progressing like I want, I don’t throw as far. I can’t be as aggressive because technical problems magnified with speed. Plus, when I don’t throw as much, I’m not as comfortable or confident in my throwing.
• Not Balanced Training: I have a metal rod in my left tibia from a fracture that lasted two years of college. One reason I have the fracture is because of over training and under resting and ignoring getting help. One reason it lasted two years is because of under resting and continuing to train. This year and years past when I push too hard, I get injuries, injuries that plague me the rest of the season or at least put me out of training for a bit. Also, when I put too much time (notice I say too much, there is a healthy amount you can train) in the training, I lose feeling of the hammer, I have decreased energy, and sometimes I over train and my body shuts down. I’m getting older and I need to train smarter. Training until I get hurt is stupid, I have nothing to prove how tough I am and push through pain (especially without health insurance). I must listen to my body better and train smarter.
• Not being aggressive or confident: This has got to stop. Second guessing myself and backing off is not helping and I plan on going back to old Loree who walked in the circle with swagger. When I compete, I will compete to win and not afraid to lose.
• Giving up everything for the Hammer: I know I’ve preached sacrifice and bragged even how much I give up and am willing to give for the hammer. And though I am no less committed to being the best, I am however, going to make sure Loree the person is happy and healthy because if she isn’t, that hammer isn’t flying.
• Non-planned implement training: One thing I really liked with Stewart is we had a plan with hammers. I knew what weights, what intensity, and what amount every day. I knew how he used to the hammers to teach, build, and peak over the course of the season. I am a fan of peaking with hammer! We wouldn’t show up in the weight room making up the weights, reps, and routine and hope that would magically build into a PR. So, why would we do the same with hammers?
• Not having a Coach: I floated around a lot when I first graduated and one thing I know is you need a support system. The most important part of that support system is your coach. You need a coach. You need a coach with an eye to help you improve. You need a coach with the knowledge to help you improve. And you need a coach that you can trust to improve you.

Things I’m Looking to Improve or Add:

• More speed oriented training: This year and the next, I will be focused on constantly improving my hammer speed. I will do this through fitness, being a lean mean throwing machine. And I will do this through efficient technique that allows me to use my speed in my throw and still be technically sound. And I will do this through specific training. I will add more training time with lighter implements and/or training speed with repetitions.
• More Throwing: I spent some time with Kibwe, Crystal, and Sultana and also racking other people’s brains and training styles and I am thinking of testing out a few double throwing session a week. Of course, I will do this is a smart way, but I want to increase my throwing volume for this year.
• More time with rehab, balancing body: I need to stay healthy. So this year I will add in more time for stretching, muscle balancing movements, core strength, taking time when I need it, and getting to the doctor sooner. (It will help now that I have access to a training room again.)
• More specific strength: I’ve built up over the past 10 years a steady foundation of general strength, but I want to continue exploring specific and functional strength that will directly impact the hammer.
• About 4 meters to my throw: lol

Currently Doing:

So right now in training, I’m just doing some general fitness work and implement more AP’s stuff into my training. My bodies been through a lot and I am focused on being healthy and ready for this next year. I’ve been throwing with Collin (coach at Mesa and hammer thrower) in the mornings 4-5 days a week, just 10-15 throws or so just to keep the feel and rhythm. I really enjoy the non pressure environment and am already throwing waaaaaay further than USA’s and feeling good. We talk hammer and share most of the same ideas and technique and training. I ask him questions about my throw and he points out things, and he does the same. I almost forgot how great it felt to have someone to throw with…

The master throwers who come out there tell me how much better I am looking and I assume they are talking hammer. Okay, I’m just joking about that. They say they can tell a difference in my throw. Somethings that I’ve already changed. I went back to the the toe turn on the start. Right before Stewart retired, he had me change to a heel for a drill and liked it so much, he kept it. If anyone knows Stewart, they know he sometimes changes things for a teaching tool, but that’s not the way it will stay. However, he retired before he told me to change it back or to keep it. I had a great summer in Europe with it so when I moved here, I kept it.

However, last year, my start sucked. I didn’t have a single consistent throw because my cues for the start were constantly changing and it always felt off balance. I found I straightened my left leg, didn’t have enough weight on it, so it ruined the start, I used two to try to find balance, and then tried to throw with turns 3 and 4 (with little success).

So, Collin and I were talking, instead of trying to address all the problems the heel turn was causing individually (because that’s like putting a band-aid on cancer because it doesn’t fix the problem, it addresses the symptoms) or spending the next 3 months trying to undo a year of habit, why not go back to the heel. So, I went back to the heel and my throw is back. Instead of feeling like I’m treading water and sinking all year, I finally feel like I’m holding steady enough to start progressing forward and address other things.

One thing Dave and I tried to work on last year was letting the ball go into the direction of the throw better. However, instead of doing this the right way, I developed a really bad dragging problem probably not helped from the off-balance start. So, now that my start is solid, I am working on sitting back better and the ball is moving in the direction of the throw better without the drag. Yeah, feels great to feel like a hammer thrower again.

So that’s that. I am moving back to Colorado in mid Oct to continue on these positive steps I’m taking so far. I’m very excited to see how the new things I am adding to training will pan out. Hope everyone is enjoying their training. I’m trying to soak up the last of this sunshine!

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