How do you get started? How can I find a coach that will help me build up my strength and throw the right way?

Any tips on making the items used in highland games?

Any and all advice is SUPER welcome!!

~ Ted Schwab

Hi Ted,

I'll do my best to be brief and categorical.  Hopefully some of this will be helpful.

To quote strongman coach Brian Alsruhe, "Not that many things really work, and those things aren't that hard." 

Find a lifting program that emphasizes the four big movements: squat, bench, deadlift, and overhead press.  There are tons out there for free or cheap, e.g. 5/3/1, cube method, strong lifts 5x5, Matt Vincent's training lab, various conjugate programs, etc.  It's also worth considering spending a little bit of money to buy a program from a reputable coach, especially if they have highland games or strongman experience.

After you find program you think you can follow.  Stick to it.  Adherence is the greatest determiner of success on any program; however, to quote my lifting coach (James Bullock), "The law of individual differences is king."  You will find (or your coach will help you find) what you respond to best.  It may be volume; it may be frequency; it may be intensity.  Go in the direction that gets you results.

You may also get some distance with 'dinosaur training' or 'Rocky IV' training using awkward heavy things instead of weights, but a good structured program will require a gym with loadable barbells.  The other stuff can get relegated to conditioning work at that point.

YouTube is your friend.  Look up Jake Sullivan or Matt Vincent or Gene Flynn or any footage from an actual games and analyze the technique.  Justin Blatnik (Strength Empire Gym) posts here regularly and also has a YouTube channel where he posts his throwing practices. 

A few books also exist like Throwing Lab or A Contrarian Approach to the Highland Games (which also comes with DVDs).  Those may be the way to go for you.

All that said, there is no substitute for finding a real person to help you.  It's by far the most efficient way to learn.  Find your nearest Highland Games, and politely reach out to the Athletic Director.  Ask who's a local thrower and how to get in touch with them in order to get some basic training.

Then all books and videos aside, to quote yet a third mentor - this time retired HG Pro Craig Smith who told me when I first started, "There is no amount of not throwing that will make you a better thrower.  Now go throw."

Check the NASGA Rules and Getting Started sections for specifications on the implements.  Stones you can usually find or get from a local landscape outfit for free.  For weights and hammer heads you can get a long way with Wal Mart or Play It Again Sports weight plates, JB Weld, eye bolts, chain, and PVC from Home Depot.  I still throw a homemade WOB implement and one of my three 16# hammers is homemade.

Otherwise find a group who has equipment or drop the money on real stuff from Old Celt, Landrich Power Systems, etc.  (Note: I only mention them by name because I own and use some of there stuff, but there are other makers if you look).

Tree branches make handy WOB targets and baseball backstops make convenient height measures for sheaf.  You can find a way.

I am by no means the grand dispenser of Highland Games Gospel, but I have some mileage.  Other throwers can certainly chime in with corrections.

Also, HG is inherently punishing as a sport.  You participate at your own risk, so use your brain first when you move heavy things.

Tom