final cross step

[charless]

Hello

I am a 47 year old male vet, in my third year of throwing.

My PB is 31.39.

I have plenty of runway speed and I am reasonably strong but I don't get a long cross step.

I am about 5 11 and 14 stones, if that's relevant.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[charless]

It seems my problem is insoluble then!

Oh well thanks for looking.

[carrie]

One thing you can do is a crossover drill (if you don't already). Start at the bottom of the runway with the jav held in the withdrawn position and just do the cross step all the way down. When you cross, make sure you lift the knee high and extend the leg ahead of you. You may be surprised at how low the knee actually is when you cross normally and a lot of people only flick the leg out from the knee, covering just a short distance. You may need to make a concerted and what feels like an exaggerated lift of the knee. Also make sure when you lift the knee high, don't just drop the foot back down, you have to extend the leg and try to land on your heel. You want to avoid "galloping" and the body going too high in the air as you will lose speed.
What will also help is keeping the thought of stretching the whole body when you cross pushing the jav arm back at the same time.
When you can do this at speed, you will be surprised at how much ground you actually cover in the cross step.
To check if this works in a proper run up, place markers at the side of your run up showing your normal crossover distance and measure it. Then after some practise over a couple of weeks, get someone to move the marker to show where you land after doing your new improved cross step and measure the distance covered. Hopefully, you should see some improvement.
When I do this drill, I usually do about 3 runs down the runway, but this is only 1 drill of 5 that I do. If you just do this one, do it 4 - 6 times every throwing session. Hope this helps.

[sam]

carrie has answered it.. although i feel there might be the need to do more work on explanation.

have a look on youtube at javelin videos to see how otheres do it and try and work on the things carrie has suggested while thinking about what you have seen

Sam

[charless]

Thanks for your help.

I can run ok with the javelin withdrawn, it's just the final step that is too short.

Possibly in seeking as much speed as possible I get my centre of gravity too far forward.

[sam]

ok here's something i do with the kids i coach..

try and do the splits but remember to pull your plant foot toes up so that your heel strikes the ground first.. this should give you a longer base and give you a good block on your lead leg. but remember to keep behind the blocking foot otherwise your weight will be too far forwards and all that will happen is you will collapse at the front pulling the javelin downwards

[Administrator]

Hi Charles,

As always if you have any videos or photos you could add, it would be easier for people to diagnose why the stride is short (and indeed if it is too short).

Here's 2 possible reasons using Sam and myself as examples:

1. Sam - Sam spends a long time on his right leg before planting the left foot down and the position of his right foot is parallel to the foul line. Because a lot of his "speed" is absorbed by the right leg and because the angle of his foot is not pointing forwards enough, the result is a slow left leg onto the floor and not reaching out far enough. Soultion: What Sam has worked on is making sure he continues moving forwards, works hard with his last left leg step and puts the right foot and therefore right leg in the right position to roll forwards onto an extended left leg which reaches further forwards.

2. James - After problems with my left knee, I used to be very ginger about the way I planted my left leg. In an attempt to protect my knee I used to put the toes of my left leg down which actually made the problem worse, but it also meant that my left leg was very close to my right leg when trying to strike and throw. Solution - To try and overcome this, I too worked very hard to make my penultimate left leg stride stronger and with the aim to cover more ground. Then when I reached my left leg out further with the additional air time I also did as Sam mentioned earlier and lifted the toes up to ensure that I planted heel first then toes and I was getting a much bigger stride and a stronger left leg holding position.

So the common thing in our attempts to get over these problems was working harder from the last left leg step to give greater air time to allow the right then left to have time to find the right positions.

One of the best drills for me was to just practice "jumping" hard off of the left leg into the "right-left". I did it just from a stand, I did it off a run up into a sand pit to practice landing softly but in a good position and ultimately I tried to add that into my throwing. One thing I did wrong for a while was jumped upwards to much from my left when the emphasis must be very much on jumping forwards towards the line so that no momentum is lost.

I will try and find some resources I've read on this, the Americans talk about "jumping over a puddle" into the softstep which is a simple idea to think of an area you need to cover before going into the vital last 2 steps.

[charless]

Thanks, I did wonder whether I needed to drive extra hard off the left leg on that penultimate stride.

I'll work on it.

All very frustrating as I am faster than people who can throw a lot further.

I don't make the mistake of charging up and then stopping, but my kinetic energy is not fully going into the throw.

I know Zelezny spent hours drilling, so I guess a newbie like me should definitely not worry about having to do the same!

Once again, thanks.

[thegodfather]

Hi Charles -not sure where you live but suggest that you try to work with a coach-
You have had a number of good suggestions -but the best is to have a pair of eyes to watch you-

No one ever said that Javelin is easy -If you get things wrong you can easily get injuries -James has already mentioned he has had injuries in the past -In fact he has got an OBE for injuries suffered in the name of Javelin

[charless]

Thanks, I think I am now well on the way to curing this problem.

I now withdraw the javelin closer to my body, which helps me to relax.

Cross step is now longer, delivery faster and smoother.

[sam]

good news!