Right hip / soft step

[nije]

PS Zelezny on his 98m throw - has pretty much a plantar flexed right ankle so all these neutral foot drills he did are not demonstrated here! We may have missed a few frames but it looks like his right heel never touches the ground. SO in practice he is not doing the theory or replicating the drills - abit like the fixed feet drills mick and steve practice but never actually did.

[slinger]

the problem with this pics of the WR are the frames are so spaced apart time wise i feel, but to me to behind pics are quite good aren't they? imo at impulse his right foot is pretty much neutral to me and again at FRFC....are my eyes knackered??? hahahaha!!!

i have very mixed feelings about fixed feet throwing, i did it at the same time with dave and mick and steve and for me they were a revelation i actually learnt how to throw a javelin and not use my upper body too early in the throw and learned how to understand how to sequence the throw, it also taught me how to "stick a left on it!!!" but i mixed them up with full 100% intensity throws every session and just did the fixed stuff at the beginning of the sesh to get going and get my legs working. At the start of the following winter however, all the throwing i did was fixed feet and off very short approaches, as the season came i tried to throw off a run up but couldn't do it - literally, it took me all season to get used to running at it.....i never understood at the time that zelezny would do all the fixed feet stuff to concentrate on a particular emphasis for say a couple of weeks and then take it back off a run up and test what his emphasis off a proper run up, i just thought that fixed feet were all that he did and me being 17 nearly 18 decided that was what i was going to do.

imo they are a useful tool, as they are easy on the body and things can be worked on whilst doing them, but that's all they are - they are basically a drill and should never imo be the be all and end all of the throwing you do as they are just not competition specific enough to be that.

i actually think backley got alot out of them especially in 1998 after a year or so of doing them as he was brilliant that year and was back to his best nearly from the early 90's.

[thebear]

think that has cleared up some points for me - but can someone explain what fixed feet throwing is? If anyone has video of this it would be ideal

[slinger]

glad this thread has been of help to you

fixed feet throwing is a style of throwing which athletes can use to work on specific areas of technique safely and under control, it's a throw which is not competition specific with regards to it's intensity or the aim of throwing far.

the throw can be done either from a standing position or from a few strides, the number of strides is a personal choice and is usually done from 3 up to 7 strides and is done from a position where the javelin is already in a withdrawn state....they can be done whilst off a short carry, but it takes a bit of time to develop the skill to control it off any sort of "proper" run up tbh.

the idea is to throw from within your throwing base on the floor and to remain in this position after release - so no recovery or allowing momentum to carry you over the top. This really promotes the idea of of developing a strong throwing base to throw from and a solid left side to block and for the right side to work against. It's a throw which allows you to concentrate 100% on what your legs and feet are doing instead of how hard you are hitting the thing, as the emphasis is not on how far the javelin is flying, if you run in too quick and let your upper body dictate what you are doing the chances are you'll be very ahead of yourself and it'll lead to a throw where the legs will have worked very little and you won't be able to stay with your base after release.

the standing throw

the standing throw is performed from a normal throwing power position - upper body tall and back, javelin arm held high with implement under control and the athlete's body weight very much biased on the back foot [the right foot] this should be on the ball of the foot and be slightly ahead of the bodies centre of gravity, with the leg slightly flexed.........then initiation of the throw is done by a few priming movements - these are done by the right foot turning out, so the right hip moves forward and the bodyweight shifts to the left foot, the throwing hand simultaneously turns inward and so the elbow turns up, the left arm at this time whilst being across your body should turn so the little finger of your hand becomes upper most, this then shuts off the left shoulder............this priming movemnt should be preformed 3 or 4 times before actually throwing, once ready to throw the throw is commenced with the exact same sequence that has been primed - so it is initiated from the floor - up, this is vital as it really does promote a good sequencing of the movement, the throw is finished by allowing the throwing arm to be delivered high over the shoulder, nice and easy, the chest should be high at release and be square to the direction of throw and not have allowed the left shoulder to of pulled away, thus promoting a good solid left side.

3,5 and 7 stride throws

again the emphasis is placed on the sequencing of the movements during deivery but with the added task of performing some steps or X overs, for me this is an excellent tool to really get somebody to work hard during the X overs, achieving active, rangey X overs can be at times difficult due to the mindset people often having of throwing too hard and running as fast as they can and in doing so perform very short choppy X overs, allowing them to get ahead of themselves and even decelerate, but with the focus being placed upon not throwing hard with the top half - trying to bash the paint off the thing, you really can create good width and activity off the ground.........if done correctly it's possible to have a throw that has equality and rhythem, a throw that has aceleration on the run up, achieve excellent sequencing that leads to a solid bracing left side at delivery. You don't even need to follow the javelin over the left leg, as if you get it spot on and time it right, your solid left will transfer most of the run up momentum up the body and into the javelin.

fixed feet throwing is a good link between any technical drills and a fuller more intense throw, it's a way of throwing which is allows you to keep throwing all year round with lessening the risk of injuries, but as i've said before it isn't a certain fix or cure, as if done alone with no other types of throwing the cross-over effect to your fuller throw won't happen, for them to be really effective it's best to do them as part of your normal throwing session, at say the beginning, or even as a seperate session....i always did them as part of a normal session at the beginning and then i did fuller 100% throws after - maybe 50% of each during the winter months for example and when doing my fixed feet throws i'd focus 100% on what my body was doing, not even being interested in what the javelin was doing after it left my hand, then on my fuller 100% effort chucks i'd run in and not think about a single thing except absolutely caning it and shouting as loud as i could! - but it worked my technique of my competition throw and at 100% effort improved considerably without even thinking about it, whilst doing it.

in my experience they worked for me as for what they promote have become my biggest assests to my throwing technique.

i don't have any vids tbh, but maybe somebody has?? i hope my explanations are fine for you though?

[thebear]

Thanks Slinger - help much appreciated

[slinger]

hey, no problemo mate!

i just ramble on, on this forum but if my ramblings can be of use, then that's a good thing!