The Psychology of Hammer Throwing

The Psychology of Hammer Throwing: Two Case Studies
Niall Cannon
University of Notre Dame
Abstract
This paper details a two-case study of Olympic hammer throwers to be presented in two parts. It examines
how world-class hammer throwers employ psychological principles to assist them in competition. The first
case study is on Jud Logan, a former American-record holder who took fourth place in the 1992 Olympics
at Barcelona. The second study details Lance Deal, the current American-record holder and first American
to medal in the hammer throw in over forty years. The second study also examines how Deal had to use
mental strategies to prevent himself from squandering his Olympic experience.
Part Two
Lance Deal, the American record holder and first man to medal for the United States in the
hammer throw since 1956, was able to overcome the big time pressure and anxiety of the Olympics to win
a silver medal during the games in Atlanta. Heading into the 1996 Olympics, Deal was one of the top
ranked hammer throwers in the world. However, he almost let his best chance of medaling slip away. He
fouled his first two throws and after his third throw, he was exactly tied for 8th place. He was sure that, just
like every other meet, the officials would only take eight throwers to the finals. Since he was tied, the
officials would look at each competitor’s second best mark to determine who would move on to finals and
get another three throws. Deal had no other fair throw; thus, he thought he was finished. Sitting on the
bench with his face in his hands, Deal thought he was done. It was not until the score board showed that he
did in fact make finals (in the Olympics, in the case of a tie, both competitors go to the finals). Still in 8th
place going into his final throw, Deal unleashed the hammer 266 feet and landed in second place, becoming
the first American in forty years to medal.
Deal’s road to the silver medal consisted of mental turmoil that began the very moment he arrived
in Atlanta. Once he arrived, Deal had no place to stay. Somehow the coordination of rooms for athletes
got botched and Deal was left without a place to stay. Deal said in our interview (personal communication
1998) that at this time “my world was basically crumbling around me because this happened two days
before the Olympics, two days before what I thought was my best shot to medal. At a time like that,
everything is going to bother you more.” Fortunately for Deal, when the sports psychologists caught wind
of what was going on, they vacated their rooms and slept on some couches so Deal could have his own
room.
When an athlete has been training his entire life for one moment, any disruption in normal
procedure, such as checking into the hotel, can lead to catastrophic results. This was not the first time at
the Olympics that Deal had to handle plans that went wrong. During the 1992 Olympic games in
Barcelona, the bus going to the stadium where the finals were being held got lost. In situations such as
these, the athlete must calm himself and remain focused on the task at hand. Deal says, “In my opinion, if
you let it be a big deal, then it will be a big deal. What I was able to do was not let it be a big deal.” Deal
had to repose himself in this situation. When there are monumental errors, the athlete must take a deep
breath and relax in order to control his anxiety. After this repose stage has been successfully completed,
the athlete needs to refocus and find a solution to the problem. A better solution can be found only after the
repose stage because only then is the athlete in a clear and stable frame of mind. Finally, the athlete needs
to respond to the plan of action that he created in the refocus stage by now executing the plan of action to
alleviate the original problem. Deal was able to complete these three stages in Barcelona and soon found
his way to the stadium in time for the finals.
Deal began using a sports psychologist in 1991 to help improve the mental aspect of his hammer
throwing. One of the major aspects of mental performance they have worked on is breathing technique. A
substantial part of Deal’s psychological focus is based on certain techniques of breathing like explosive
breathing, belly breathing, and alternative nostril breathing. Deal says that breathing “changes your blood
chemistry in different ways and that explosive breathing, in particular, is good for knocking yourself out of
a bad loop.” Explosive breathing is a simple, but extremely effective technique that helps cleanse your
body and mind. The athlete takes a deep breath and holds it for about five seconds. This creates a lot of
back pressure and then he pushes the air out of his lungs as violently and quickly as possible. It can help
get the athlete excited and give a feeling of power and being in control. Often, when a hammer thrower is
not throwing well or keeps fouling his throws, he begins to develop feelings of helplessness in regards to
technique. At these times, it feels as if the implement dictates the nature of the throw. Situations like these
are a great time to employ explosive breathing to give the athlete a sense of empowerment over the
implement and over his competition.
Having a pre-competition warm-up or pre-meet set of events scheduled is very important for an
athlete. These special warm-ups or pre-meet events should only be done before competition. This gives
the athlete a break from the ordinary warm-ups that are done every before practice all year round. It helps
the mind and body to distinguish between practice and competition through a form of conditioning. Lance
Deal, on the mornings of competition, states:
I like to get up, eat early, and then do something a little bit physical like jump up stairs,
mow the grass, or chop some wood – just to get the blood flowing so I can feel my body. All this
time, I’m thinking about throwing.
Obviously Deal does not do this every day before practice because it would eventually become mentally
draining. However, getting up early and chopping wood in his backyard, sends signals to his brain and
body that today is a special day – a very different day than the previous one. These pre-meet actions set the
necessary mental and physical environment that the athlete needs in order to compete at his best.
In order to compete at the highest level capable, the athlete must maximize his athletic talents and
mental capacities. Often, this means that the athlete has a special frame of mind that he enters before
competition. For example, Deal says, “in my mind, there is a definite geographic location I need to be in
order to throw far.” However, each athlete must tailor his frame of mind for competition to his own
emotions, athletic abilities, and personality. If “you try forever to be someone else, it’s not gonna work”,
according to Deal.
To reach peak performance, Deal must construct, psychologically, a bubble. This allows him to be
in a flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1985) which is “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that
nothing else seems to matter” (Csikszentmihalyi 1990, p.4). Deal has a unique frame of mind, which he
enters into before every competition. He refers to it as “the bubble.” He says, “I can’t describe it. Imagine
it is like a bubble with thick walls that you can float around in. The people around me can tell when I’m in
the bubble, but they don’t have any idea what’s going on in there.” To Deal, this bubble acts as a mental
refuge from the pressures of being a world class hammer thrower and lets him hide away from all the
distractions and fanfare that comes with being the number one ranked hammer thrower in the world. He
continues his description of the bubble by telling us; “Once you’re in there, you are in your own room and
you decorate it the way you want to and put pictures on the wall and put your favorite music on. It’s your
room and you’re there.” Deal has trouble describing his bubble to others because it is such a unique
creation that only the individual who created it can understand it. He says, “trying to define it changes it –
it’s kind of like God. How do you describe God?” Just as God represents someone different to every
individual, each person must find his own bubble and way of mentally preparing to compete. Deal conveys
this message of individualizing his mental approach when he says:
You go to practice and work on the technique, and you go to the weight room and get your
strength. You go to the track and do your plyometrics and power sprints. Then when it comes to the big
meet, your personality comes out. How you do on the big day has nothing to do with all your training –
that’s your base. How far you throw on the big day reflects your personality. Thus, finding the way you
compete and throw well is very, very individual, more individual than your training. Everybody can take a
weight workout and get basically the same result, but I don’t think everybody can do a certain breathing or
mental exercise or follow a certain pattern and get the same results.
For Deal, there are many flags that signal his entrance into the bubble before competition. He says
that “after seven years of thinking about it and figuring out where this bubble is for me, I’ve got quite a few
flags in the ground on the way, and one of those flags is to get up and chop some wood before to get my
blood flowing before meets.” Another flag for Deal is his support system. The love of his wife and
children provides emotional support and gives him a sense of reassurance. When his wife Nancy sent him
messages on his pager during the Olympics in Atlanta, Deal says “it was good because then I was hooked
into my support system.” Another flag that Deal has which signals his approach to the bubble is his
breathing techniques right before the competition. He says “before I start warming up for any competition,
I do alternate nostril breathing where I breathe in one side and blow it out the other and repeat this. It helps
me keep focused.” These are just three examples of the many flags that point the way to Deal’s bubble.
They provide a mental haven where he is completely in control of not only the implement, but also the
world. This lends a sense of empowerment and dominance to Deal that is definitely the mental attitude
needed by an athlete when competing in the Olympics and trying to throw a sixteen pound object over 270
feet. Without physical control, which begins with mental control, the hammer will overwhelm the athlete.
Hence, when Deal is in his bubble, his emotions of complete control and relaxation transcend the pressures
of the Olympics. He walks up to the ring to throw, and it is as if he is in another world – which he is in
mentally. In his bubble, Deal is unaware of the eighty-five thousand screaming fans or the fact his
competitors are throwing personal bests. He is completely focused on executing the technique, which will
result in a personal best for him.
There have been times before where Deal’s bubble burst and the competition ended in failure. He
had blown a couple of meets before 1991, but none as significant as the 1991 world championships. At the
world championships, the officials would not move the cage back a few feet for him even though he was
left handed. As a result, the right side of the cage was directly in his plane of vision on his release. This
caused a distraction that he had never dealt with before, since it had never been a problem to move the cage
back. Deal said that “it knocked me off and I fouled my first throw . . . I completely exploded mentally.”
When there is a mental explosion such as the one that Deal experienced at the World
Championships, it is very difficult to pull one’s self out of a hole. Such mental vices as negative self-talk,
doubt, and fear now enter into the mind of the thrower. These detrimental mental processes usually ensure
failure. The thrower only has roughly three to five minutes between his throws. This small amount of time
adds to the probability that he will not have time to rearrange his mental outlook and gather himself for a
successful throw. Like many other sports, but especially throwing, success and failure are contagious. If a
thrower has an outstanding first throw, often the next three are also good throws. However, when the first
throw is a scratch or feels awkward and out of control, it is likely that the next few throws will also not be
too successful. This is largely due to the confidence that is built early in your series of throws. If your first
throw was great and you are at the top or near the top of the competition, it allows you to relax and take
much of the pressure off.
Muscle tension and anxiety are two of the most common downfalls to a thrower. To ensure that
he does not have to encounter muscle tension and anxiety, Deal enters his bubble. The bubble provides a
sense of security and allows Deal to transcend all the pressures and other distractions that come with
throwing against world class athletes. However, the bubble that Deal enters before competitions is very
individual and cannot be compared to any tangible object. Earlier, Deal said, “I can’t describe it. Imagine it
is like a bubble with thick walls that you can float around in. The people around me can tell when I’m in
the bubble, but they don’t have any idea what’s going on in there”. His notion of “floating around” in the
bubble tells us that when Deal escapes to his mental haven, he feels so little stress, tension, and anxiety that
he literally feels like he is hovering in the air. It means that Deal has entered into a trance that provides a
surreal state of mind to him. This isolates him from his competitors, and the pressures of competition.
Since using a sport psychologist for seven years, Deal finally had mapped out a path to his bubble.
He could almost routinely climb into the bubble for major competitions and it appeared that it was the cure
to all butterflies and anxiety. For the next few years since mentally exploding at the World Championships,
Deal went on a tear. Quickly he attained a top ten world ranking and then in the year leading up the 1996
Olympics in Atlanta, Deal was rewarded with the number one rank in the world for hammer throwers. It
was not a feat accomplished since Hal Connolly had last won his gold medal in 1956. In the prime of his
career, feeling he had mastered the technique, and with his number one world ranking, Deal marched into
Atlanta in search of a gold medal for himself, the first for America in that event in over forty years.
However, things did not go as planned.
As one would expect, Deal began preparing mentally for the Olympics almost a year before
Atlanta. He explains that “my whole plan, for a year, was to throw 78-79 meters on my first throw and 83
meters on my second throw. Way back in October of 1995, this plan was in my head”. Thinking about and
focusing on one meet a year before the competition, may have been the downfall to Deal. Creating a plan
that far back may have unknowingly placed an enormous amount of stress upon him. All Deal had to do
was show up at the Olympics, throw the same distances he was used to throwing in practice, and the gold
would have been his. However, his bubble burst and Deal became a mental disaster.
Deal had been to the Olympics before in Barcelona, but never had he participated with the title of
the number one ranked hammer thrower and the public’s expectation of gold. Added to all this was the fact
that the Olympics were in his home country. Deal described his emotional experiences directly before
competition:
I was actually crying during the warm-ups. The music was blaring and then they lined us up
for introductions and they played the 2001 theme song and I just about jumped out of my skin. When they
announced my name, I had never heard anything so loud and the crowd was going nuts. I’m using this, and
I’m getting up for it. I think I may have gotten a little too up.
There were no such elaborate introduction ceremonies in most of the meets Deal competed in. The huge
crowd going nuts when his name was announced was an event he had never experienced before. Most of
the best track and field meets take place in Europe and he is not welcome there because he often beats
Europe’s best. Warm-ups felt great and Deal was set to begin the competition. Mentally, he was on the
verge of entering into his bubble. Deal says that “after the first round of throws, nobody had thrown over
80 meters and I thought to myself ‘shoot, I can just go win this thing right now – but I wound up scratching
my first throw.” The game plan that he had been working on for over a year was tossed by the wayside in a
matter of seconds. When Deal decided to look up at the scoreboard and see how the other competitors had
thrown, he left his bubble. One of the essential aspects of the bubble is not to pay attention to the
competitors. As a result, he abandoned his game plan in an attempt to throw the hammer as far as possible
– the result was a scratch.
A little nervous now, but not in a state of panic by any means, Deal had to find a way to climb back
mentally into his bubble. He explains his attempt to climb back into his bubble by doing a breathing
exercise. He says:
I have this breathing exercise and while I’m doing it I say ‘one throw, one throw only’. I
kept saying that and again I scratched the second throw. Now I was completely knocked out of my bubble.
So, I kept trying to get there by doing some explosive breathing and kept rewinding the week of practice
previous to the games where I was throwing personal bests on almost every throw.
Deal attempted to use the explosive breathing to bring him out of the rut he was in. To an extent, it worked
because the throw would have put him into second place except that his foot nudged the outside of the ring
causing a foul. Now, his mental state of mind was a disaster zone. Fifteen years of training for the
Olympics was all about to come down to his third and final throw. He needed to make sure it was legal and
a pretty good throw in order to make it into finals and get three more throws. On his third throw, Deal says,
“I finally had a fair one, but I looked up and saw the scoreboard and saw that I was in 9th place. I thought I
was out. I was dead – finished.” In track meets, the top eight distances go to finals and get three more
throws, but Deal had thrown the exact same distance (down to the millimeter) as the 8th place competitor
and they usually look at the next best throw of each to determine who moves on. Since Deal had no other
legal throw, he thought for sure he was out. However, in the Olympics, if two competitors are tied, both
move on. Deal sat on the competitor bench contemplating his retirement and entertained emotions of utter
failure and disappointment. Just fifteen minutes earlier, Deal was about to jump out of his skin upon
hearing his named announced on the loud speakers. This emotional roller coaster was exhausting and
draining.
Deal was unaware of the Olympic rule that stated, in the case of a tie, both athletes move on to the
finals. Deal says that “they took nine to the finals and I had 90 seconds to get my glove, shirt, and shoes
back on again. Because I was rushed, I fouled the first throw in finals.” Ninety seconds is far too short of a
time for an athlete to gather himself and compose a mental game plan when seconds ago he thought his
throwing career was over. As a result, it could have been predicted by almost anyone that his first throw
would be a foul. Finally, Deal gathered himself and moved into an honest 8th place on his third throw,
which he bluntly felt “still stinks when you’re looking at winning.” Still far removed from the tranquil
settings of his bubble where anxiety and tension do not exist, Deal was infused with emotions of anger,
disappointment, and nervousness. Before his 6th and final throw, Deal desperately sought to find his bubble
again.
Mentally, Deal was trapped in a cycle of negative self-talk and feelings of anger. He needed to do
something that would help him gain a new outlook for his final throw, one which would bring him closer to
his bubble. He says, “one of the things I do in a competition, if things are not going well, is leave. If I
cannot leave physically, I try to leave mentally. In Atlanta, I got to leave physically. It kinda breaks the
cycle of that mental talk that is not good.”
Deal was able to physically remove himself from the area and take a moment to gain some control
over what was going on before his final throw. He says:
I was throwing and kicking stuff around. Not to vent, but to put myself back in a position of
control because at the time I was a loser and the biggest choker at the games and my twelve years of
intense training was down the toilet.
Deal was creating a situation where he was in complete control when he left the stadium for a moment. His
throwing of water coolers and kicking trashcans allowed him to regain some sense of power. He was now
ready to re-enter the stadium as a totally different place than the one that saw him waste away his first five
throws. He had armed himself with a new, empowering outlook and was ready to control the hammer
instead of letting it command him.
Changing his emotions from powerlessness to empowerment, Deal was once again locked into his
support network. To Deal, this was vital. It provided a feeling of security and allowed him to ease back
into a comfort zone. He commented earlier that locking into his support system was one of the flags in the
ground that he always saw before entering the bubble. Deal described how it affected him mentally when
he saw that his wife, Nancy, had made her way to the railing of the tunnel where he was now re-entering
the stadium:
Coming back into the stadium for my final throw, I saw my wife who was in speaking
distance. She said to me, and I’ll never forget it, ‘yea, you know how to throw far’. And it made me say to
myself, ‘yeah, I know how to throw far, what am I worried about’ . . . seconds later, 6th throw, 81 meters.
The fact that the most important person in his life was there at a time when he was at the lowest moment in
his athletic career made a gigantic difference to him. Encouragement from the person who loved him
unconditionally gave him feelings of assurance and helped him climb back into his bubble for his 6th and
final throw.
That 6th and final throw of 81 meters meant that Lance Deal had climbed from eighth to second
place, a mere four inches behind the gold medalist. However, Deal says “the place that I was at mentally
when I walked into the ring for that last throw is the hardest part to describe”. Walking back into the
stadium, after speaking with his wife for a second, Deal had found his way back into the bubble. The fact
that he has trouble describing what was going on is evidence that Deal was so engrossed and so focused
that he was oblivious to all else except doing what he knew how to do best – throwing the hammer.
On this final throw, Deal tapped into the essence of what came naturally to him, throwing the
hammer almost effortlessly as a result of and training. His frame of mind, being in the bubble, allowed him
to act as a robot and carry out his final throw in an unconsciously competent manner. He claims to have
been completely unaware to the point that he cannot recall hardly any details of that last throw, but he had
no problem detailing the previous failing throws. He compares his final throw to a fellow he used to work
with about ten years ago in a car repair shop and said that he was the individual that popped into his head
while out of the stadium and attempting to reclaim his thoughts. Deal described this individual and how he
also acted in an unconsciously competent manner:
I used to work at this Volkswagen garage, and there was this guy who was the lead
mechanic and when he worked on cars, he didn’t ever know he was doing it. He would talk and
work at the same time and before you would know it, the engine would be fixed. Meanwhile, the
other guys and I were cussing and throwing tools all over the place. Years later, this popped into
my head. No anger, no violence, no retribution. This guy just did the job with complete confidence
in himself that he could do it. This was the last little push that got me back into the bubble for that
final throw.
His final throw resulted in Deal winning a silver medal by coming from dead last to second place on his
last attempt. It was a landmark occasion because Deal became the first American to medal in the hammer
throw since 1956. He helped put the USA back on the map for hammer throwing.
Much can be learned form the experiences of world class hammer throwers like Jud Logan and
Lance Deal. Their comments can be used to help establish a solid mental foundation for novice shot
putters, hammer and discus throwers. Events that rely so heavily on the mastery of technique combined
with explosive power, demand mental toughness. The fact that all eyes are on the thrower when he steps
into the ring makes the amount of pressure greater for the thrower. Therefore, one of the first
psychological principles I would instill in a young thrower would be teaching them to control their
emotional levels in practice so they do not choke during a big meet. This can be accomplished by having
inter-team “throw-offs” at the end of each week. This would mentally condition the athlete to the pressures
of being under the watchful eyes of competitors and coaches. In practice, it is easy to get into a rhythm of
throwing, retrieving the implement, and then waiting your turn again. However, rarely is practice
conducted similar to the way meets are run. In meets, the athlete throws, and then must wait for all other
competitors, which can sometimes last ten minutes. Holding intra-team competitions would allow the
athlete to see which areas of the competition make him nervous and highly aroused. These competitions
allow him to focus in on the sort of mental self-talk occurring. Then the athlete and coach can talk about
the experience and see where the weaknesses during the competition were and attempt to correct them
before the big meet.
Secondly, I would instill the repose, refocus, and respond mental approach to disasters. Too often,
throwers will have a poor first or second throw and become disgusted with themselves and then proceed to
waste that third throw. If the first throws are not going well, the athlete needs to learn how to take a time
out and have a plan for getting back on track. Teaching the young throwers how to handle each stage of
repose, respond, and refocus would allow them to better handle stressful situations. This would especially
be helpful to younger throwers who can easily become intimidated by older and significantly bigger and
stronger throwers. While the younger throwers may not necessarily have a shot at winning, they can still
strive for a new personal best. When a younger thrower is not comparable to any degree to the level of the
other throwers in his preliminary round, too often they just throw quickly and try to finish competing as fast
as possible in order to save face. Employing the repose, refocus, and respond strategy will help the athlete
stick to the game plan that he and the coach had designed before the meet.
Finally, as a coach to a young thrower, one of the most important psychological principles that I
would instill is short-term goal-setting. It is essential that a young thrower have realistic short-term goal to
achieve because a young thrower can so easily become frustrated with the level of technical sophistication
required. Added to this, in order to master the technique, the thrower must have an incredible strength base
in order to be able to execute the technique while holding the sixteen pound implement. Thus, due to a lack
of strength and time required to master technique, young throwers often struggle greatly in the beginning.
Hence, it is imperative that the coach work with the athlete to set short-term goals for the athlete. The
attainment of these short-term goals will instill confidence in the young athlete and give him a sense of
accomplishment. This in turn will help fuel his desire to stick with the event.
It is essential that novice throwers (and all other beginning field athletes) learn the importance of
mental training. Deal’s Olympic experience shows just how much power the mental aspect is in sports.
Even though he had been ranked number one in the world at the time and even though he had been in the
Olympics and several other large meets previously, his story reveals how mental breakdown can ruin even
the best athlete. An athlete can train for as many years as he wants, but if he neglects the mental training
necessary, the athlete will only be a champion in practice. It is imperative that young athletes learn to deal
successfully with anxiety, muscle tension, and arousal in the proper way so that they are armed with the
proper weapons to fight off choking in the biggest meet of their lives – just like Lance Deal did.

 

Great stuff Guy's!  

It doesn't matter how strong or well trained you are, if you cant harness the mental aspects of a competition then its all for nothing. 

Train the mind as hard, or harder than the body if you want to see great success in this sport.  I know, I've been on both ends throughout my career.