"Catching" the hammer

How soon does one need to "catch" the hammer?  Let me explain.  In the olympic hammer I always wanted to "catch" the hammer early by turning my upper body and face back towards the throwing sector and giving me a longer push with the hammer.

I've noticed that when I do this with our hammer, I'm much slower, but I get a much longer push, actually resulting in a further throw.  Yet, when I don't "catch" it as early, I'm faster, but the throw is shorter.

So, my question is, which will benefit in the long run?  Should I conentrate on "catching" the hammer sooner and working on my speed?

Thanks for the help.

Dan - having learned from a Carlos article - I agree that the catch and rip is everything(stick out/lean to your right hip to counter as hammer passes in front and curl wrists to pull it down...repeat w/more force ). The difference b/n a great hammer thrower and the rest of us is how fast they can get it moving and still crush the last catch/pull.....winding really fast w/ no yank doesn't go as far.

Catch it over your shoulder, much like your Oly hammer.  If your right handed, you push it as far as you can to the left to increase your orbit.  The use of the hips is obviously very important, so as you wind and catch, your hips need to accelerate as well.  Fast hips, faster push, farther throw.  Simple

Great explanation fellas.  Thanks for the help. 

Yeah, Carlos, a sequence explanation would be great, I look forward to it!

Someone needs to dig up that Milo article Carlos did a couple of years ago - was it Milo? I got a 7 foot PR the next week after reading it........Dragon- if you want to fix hammer asap - do 2 things #1= long,relaxed arms(the reason we use tacky is so we don't have to squeeze the handle to hold on) #2 = Joe Lane taught me "curl and catch" - last year at Ohio Snider tried it and PR'd first throw - you know how a baseball player will break/roll his wrists on the swing follow-thru? Real power on the pull down comes from being in position to "catch" the hammer as it passes over head w/ "curled" wrists and yank hell out of it down from say 12 or 1 o'clock to 6 or 7 ( bottom of wind) and get ready to do it again - work on singles for a while, then move to doubles- go to 3 only if you are still speeding up and catching the pull down w/ curled wrists.Make sense?

Bump for Dan.

"And the rest is history..."

Any chance we can get an updated link for the article?

Ohhhhhhhhhh

...and now I own two vintage Milos with a really outstanding chunk of information in them

Brian Randell wrote: It amazes me that Dan Asked this question then becomes THOR the best hammer thrower in the world lol.