I am thinking about attempting to make an indoor hammer by attaching an indoor shot to a PVC handle. The handle would be short about 20 or 30 inches to reduce the distance in confined spaces. Has anybody tried this? Any pictures of such a beast?

• Videos and visualization (two great things to do when the weather sucks).
• Go to the gym and hit that core stuff HARD.
• Plate winds.
• Step and turns.
• Line drills with a plate (or better yet one of those med balls with a handle).
• The list of drills could go on forever so I'll stop now.
• Med ball throws (if you have even an ounce of creativity you could probably do these every day for a month and never do the same thing twice).
• Try to piss off the hamsters.
• Make a lot of noise.
• Avoid solving equations, just work HARD!

I have been outdoor throwing here in MN for a couple of winters now, and the limiting factor seems to be traction. Last winter I cleared off a part of a concrete slab in my back yard, its not perfect, but when the sun hits it, it melts off and dries well enough to throw. This works at least until the next snowstorm. 

When the weather sucks I do some cardio.....which involves my wife and a bottle of her favorite wine......Come to think about it, that's my year 'round supplemental training program.  (insert "big caber jokes, hammer time jokes, big iron ball jokes, etc. here).  I have decided to throw all winter this year and go the snow blower route when necessary.  I remember the days when NO BODY trained year around for the highland games, its nice to see it has become a serious sport. 

I may be too late to effectively respond to dWood's original post, but I wanted to render my two cents' worth:

To address the question "Does an indoor throwing weight exist?," the answer is, yes, it certainly does.  Since this is my first post, I opted to use a picture of such a weight as my avatar (just under my user name) for easy reference.  Now, the implement pictured is commonly called an "indoor hammer" or "indoor throwing weight", and it is basically a 35-pound indoor shot that is suspended in a nylon bag/net, which is attached to a triangle handle via a nifty swivel mechanism.  These things are GREAT for Heavies training, because at 35 pounds, they develop strength for the 28 WFD, and speed for the 56 WFD.  As a matter of fact, I have two for my own training (I'd be willing to part with one for $75-$100, but you'd need to pay for shipping from Utah, or arrange to pick it up.  They're also available at http://www.gillathletics.com - www.gillathletics.com for $279 plus shipping).

Anywho, I lived in Minnesota for a couple years, so I can relate to your seasonal frustration.  Good luck!

Check the link below, Put a 20 pound ball in the sling now just slide a piece of PVC pipe over the rope tie a knot on one end and you have an indoor hammer. I don’t know how durable the thing is but for 9 bucks its worth a shot.

https://www.power-systems.com/Nav/closeup.aspx?c=11&sc=44&g=2454&z=2454-1.jpg - https://www.power-systems.com/Nav/closeup.aspx?c=11&sc=4 4&g=2454&z=2454-1.jpg #

G-man has a good idea - but looks like it will need to be considerably stronger.

I am not a big fan of overweight work in the hammer. I think it encourages you to tense up the upper body which is a critical mistake in hammer. The only people who really seem to benefit from it are guys who throw with the upright 'American' style like Matt. Maybe Sean can chime in here since he used to throw that way.

I think you do need to do a good bit of rotational core strengthening and that needs to be done with weight (just not out at the end of a hammer). If you aren't doing Russian twists for reps with a 45 then your core is too weak. Winds on a roman chair (belly up, really stay long) with a plate or med ball. I also like winds on one of those 45 degree hyper benches (still belly up of course) for a slightly different angle. Barbell twists (you wouldn't believe me if I told you how much weight I've seen Ryan using on these). Barbell twists with the bar held overhead with a snatch grip. And on and on.