Training Ideas ?

[pottsy]

First of all can i just say what a useful site this is.

Here's the problem I have, I seem to have inherited a 'group' of throwers at my local club ranging from pretty much the complete novice to those who just need tech tweaking (work on the plant , etc), also most of the time I am the only coach at the javelin, so I pretty much have to run the session on my own.

So what I was wondering was if anyone had any ideas as the best way to progress with such a varied group, without those at one or both ends of the tech spectrum losing out.


Also I have a young thrower (11), who has only been throwing for 3 training sessions but keeps adding chunks onto his pb (23.50now), but his technique is really ragged but he develops lots of power on his throw from his body movement even with bad tech. Now I feel I don't want to change that natural power he is producing, but still want to sharpen him up for extra distance as well. So I guess the question I am asking is how far should the trade off between natural movement and technique go, especially in a young thrower such as this ?

Cheers

[slinger]

welcome, good questions btw!

the first in my mind is that you just have to ensure all those who you advise or coach get the same time from you, fairly simple really? also becareful how many athletes you do take on - there is a limit to what one person can deal with - too many athletes will limit your time with each and the actual number of throws per athlete in the session, so is both detrimental to coach and athlete, every coach will have their own tolerances and limits to whats comfortable - mines 4.

second question, for me technique teaching and ensuring things are done correctly is the most important aspect of a young athlete/novice athlete as if left alone faults can and do occur, but i do understand your predicament as say for example the athlete in question goes slightly backwards [as is often the case in learning new skills] they can become disheartened and at 11 years old this isn't ideal as most 11 year olds won't understand it's just normal to do so, yet on the other hand better technique will allow a better transfer of the obvious identified power into the javelin and of course this means it should go further.......so i fully sympathise! - it's a good situation to be in mind as it's what all coaches would love! anyway my advise would be find the single biggest fault - something that if fixed would get greatest return from it and work on that, it's actually surprising how someone's technique can and does improve naturally with just throwing and not particularly working on anything in particular, it's like driving your car even though you stopped having lessons after passing your test i'm sure you are a better driver now even though you haven't had any more lessons - you more you do something the better you get and javelin throwing is no different.

hope i've managed to help you!

[pottsy]

Yeah that helps, not sure if the driving thing is right as mine seems to have got worse with the years, but I was starting to just work on one thing with this guy anyway, decided that for starters I needed to try and get his arm right and get it to be straighter and higher rather than the low and bent arm I was seeing.

As for the group size thing I think that is my biggest problem as some nights I can have 8 throwers in my group which I don't enjoy and i'm pretty sure the throwers don't either as I can't really do any quality work with any of them

[slinger]

it can be difficult to say "no" - having th ability to turn people often youngsters away is the only way sometimes, but unfortunately it's not in most of our good natures to do that so we get "lumbered" with groups that are far too big.

the point i was making on young and novice jav throwers throwing a lot is good for them from my experience holds true and is by far the best method of training for these people, i'll add it's not the best for experienced good standard athletes though, as hard throwing does take it's toll on the body and other forms of training, like specific drills etc will benefit throwing technique - however a once in a while if possible throwing javs hard for 5 - 7 days can be very good for those who are struggling to find form or who are lacking timing and feeling, as the throwing feelings one gets when doing this stay very fresh from one session to the next, i used to do this every once in a while when i felt the need for it and in recent conversations with lasher he too is/has been doing this, you do feel a bit beat up at the end of the week but you've just crammed a months throwing or more into one week.

[pottsy]

The biggest problem I seem to have is stopping them from throwing eyeballs out every throw of every session. I have the odd one or two who get the idea of not throwing for distance all the time and trying to get their technique right, but to most of them it is an alien concept I am trying to get across, the same with drills as well.

On the subject of saying no, i finally decided on thurs night I had to limit the numbers in my sessions to a max of 8, as I had 13/14 possible throwers there and wanting to do jav and in a session of 1hr 15mins it would have been utterly ridiculous with that many

Another thing I was wondering is about distance rating on javs, as I have a guy on the verge of 40m and the javs we have that I can find a rating for are 50, 55 and 60m, what would be the best for him to be throwing with, as technically he is reasonably solid.