Can different hammer handles effect you?

Oh My God!!

Oh My God!

Oh My God!

Chill BITCH!

Your making us other panicy Hammer Throwers all friggin neurotic......Must let go of mind screw must let go!!!!!!

My hammer Sucketh as well.

 

Well, all that you said seems to make sense, but I have my doubts.  My own hammers have rattan handles, which a lot of people like.  They're stiff and light and give a pretty good grip.  Then again, I found that throwing Dr. Bill's 16 with a 1/2" conduit handle felt really nice.  Then again again, I suspect using the smaller handle on a 22 would be just awful.

In other words, yes, I think you're overthinking it (just like the rest of us whose hammers sucketh).

-Wayne

I always threw better with whippy handles.  I think that your technique modifies itself timing-wise to whatever you're practicing with.  I used PVC the last few years and when I got a hold of a stiff handle the way I moved changed.

It always seemd to me the best hammer throwers did better with stiff handles.  I forget what he threw but Ryan launched that Fair Hill heavy hammer with the shovel handle on it years ago.  Maybe the stiffer it is the less energy is lost.

Whoa... physics dude.

~Jason

Jason Pauli wrote: I always threw better with whippy handles.  I think that your technique modifies itself timing-wise to whatever you're practicing with.  I used PVC the last few years and when I got a hold of a stiff handle the way I moved changed. It always seemd to me the best hammer throwers did better with stiff handles.  I forget what he threw but Ryan launched that Fair Hill heavy hammer with the shovel handle on it years ago.  Maybe the stiffer it is the less energy is lost.

OK, my engineer's hat is on here.  There is essentially no energy lost with either handle type (because the whippy handle is pretty much elastic, i.e., not lossy).

You could view all differences in hammer throwing as coming from the way force is transmitted from the hands to the hammer head.  The rest of the body's motion basically places the hands in position to put force on the hammer handle.  If a whippy handle is working for you, the reason probably has to do with the timing of your pull and the dynamics of the handle:  the slow part of your motion doesn't slow the head down as much as the fast part of your motion speeds it up.  Someone with a really clean motion is better at managing the hammer head, having little tendency to slow it down in one part of the motion.

On the rare occasions that a hammer throw has really clicked for me (always in practice with nobody else in sight), I felt like I could feel the head accelerate throughout the motion.  When you feel this, it's unmistakable:  it feels like you can make the head go as fast as you like, and the only reason you don't make it go a lot faster is because you're so surprised to feel this.  The frustrating part is that, knowing what it feels like to make a good throw doesn't seem to help you get back there on the next throw. 

-Wayne

In my opinion whippy is better. Incidentally, the hammer that Ryan chucked for 141'+ on Sunday and which four guys put out past 130' had a seriously whippy handle (I threw it about an hour earlier). Now I'll give my reasons. First, stiff handles tend to be thick and heavy, whippy handles tend to be thin and light. The more weight you have in the head and out of the handle the further the hammer will fly. Wire hammer throwers pay big bucks for exotic titanium handles so that they can get more of the 16# out in the ball. Second, and in my opinion more importantly, whippy handles help with the delivery. When you finish the sweep on the last wind and transition to the delivery you are looking to get a whip action on the ball. That means you have to have your hips slightly ahead of the ball before you block with the left and lift. If the handle is stiff then the only way to do that is to drag the ball slightly which takes off radius and kills your throw. If the handle is whippy and elastic then you don't. You can definitely feel the difference. Finally, from a materials point of view whippiness implies elasticity which could indicate the ability for the handle to stretch just slightly which could conceivably add radius. You'd have to test that one in the lab but even a 1/2" of stretch would add serious distance.

Edited by Borges