TRAINING LOG: Ben Edwards

Thought about making the title "The long climb out of C class" but realized that I could qualify as a D class if there was one. 

I'm recently hooked on Highland Games.  First contest was July 17th, the Ledaig Highland Games.  Had no prior experience as a thrower or athlete for that matter.  Spent the previous 10 years specializing on my grip strength and have gone about as far as I'm going to go in the grip world.

About the only strong thing I bring to the HG training is of course my grip strength.  Otherwise, I'm sorely lacking in overall body strength and especially speed-strength.  There is nowhere to go but up for me since it's the beginning and I'll get the newbie gains just from dialing in my technique on the various events. 

My stats are:

5'10" and currently 220lbs.  35 years old.

My bests in competition are:

OPEN STONE 17lbs: 26'6"

HWFD: 15'2"

LWFD: 32'11.5"

LIGHT HAMMER: 54'

SHEAF: BOMB

CABER: BOMB

WFH: 9'

I missed 10' three times on the WFH and was pretty close on one of those.  So in my next games that should go up to the 10' mark at least.  Otherwise, the other numbers are pretty accurate in terms of what I was capable of that day.  I got some good advice (and I'm not new to the contest scene - have some USAWA contests under my belt and grip contests) to open conservatively and so I did that on everything except the Sheaf.  I missed the 12' opener just because of how strange the event was to me.  I think I had enough height on the bag (20lb) but couldn't put it over the crossbar.  The Open Stone throw was a real eye opener.  I used some ugly form of a glide.  Probably threw as far standing though.  I've got a ton of work to do on improving my explosiveness with the implements.  Have been working on some of the events since that first comp and expect to see some significant improvements on the Light Hammer especially at the next go round.

I'll start my training log on today's workout since I decided to focus on the Kirksville Scottish Highland Games as my 2nd and final comp this year.  Really like Thom Van Vleck so it will be a great games to enjoy the camaraderie and also shoot for PRs on everything too.

9-1-10, Wednesday

LWFD

Actually weighed 29lbs but that�fs not going to make a lot of difference.  I cobbled together a homemade LWFD �gimplement�h that consisted of some plates duct taped and tied together with a strap through the middle and then attached to my 3lb handle.  Worked well enough for what I wanted though. 

-8 throws.  Best was 30'.  Had 3 throws at 28' and 2 at 25' so the range was kind of large.  32'11.5"�is what I threw at the Ledaig Highland Games in July.  I think I would�fve thrown a real implement farther than that today but I�fve got to train with what I have right now.  No problem with that.  All the throws were right handed.  Felt like my footwork is getting a little smoother.  Still slow as molasses but I�fm working on speeding things up.

Here's my last and (believe it or not) smoothest throw from today's training.  I still do the single spin and don't have plans on going to a double spin for quite a while.  To be honest I can barely get my clumsy feet to do the one turn without looking like an idiot. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVaQVrC5tso

Try marking out a trig or even just a line for 20-30 feet so that even after your last game you can keep working footwork & line drills through the winter. Vierra has several videos (VP productions & Youtube) showing WFD drills. Coach Mac has also suggested holding an olympic bar overhead while doing line drills to strengthen your balance.

Welcome to the Addiction!

Also found a few places (great friends) to throw the hammer so that'll accelerate my gains on that in short order.  Will be buying a real WFD and WFH implement at Thom's games too so that'll be a huge leap forward for me in terms of actually training the specific events that will be used in comps and not just cobbling together training implements that fall apart on the 5th throw.

Welcome Ben, the key to the hwfd is getting to the trig with bent legs
so you can use the legs to get lift on the implement. Somewhere on
my log is a sheaf drill video that will help a lot. Hope to throw with
you someday.
Bill Gray

9-8-10, Wednesday

SOUTH AFRICAN

-10 throws with 10lb medicine ball-right hand.  Didn't measure any of them because I was only concerned with reviewing videotape of my throws and then trying to make the successive throws smoother. 

BRAEMAR

-10 throws with 10lb medicine ball-left hand.  7 of these hit 21' and my best throw was 21'6". 

GLIDE

-3 throws with 10lb medicine ball-right hand.  None were measured.  Managed to improve my form from my 1st to 3rd throws.  All were still pretty ugly though.

2-HAND OVERHEAD THROW

-5 throws with 10lb medicine ball.  Since I was doing this in my yard, I threw the medicine ball vertically instead of going for horizontal distance. 

BRAEMAR

-4 throws with 17lb stone-both hands.  21'...21'9"...24'...23'-right hand.  Lefty was 15'...16'...17'6"...18'. 

-8 throws with 16lb shot-both hands.  22'6" (twice)...23'3"...22'...22'...22'9"...right hand.  Lefty was 17'9"...17'7"...18'6"...18'. 

Overall Notes: A lot of throws compared to what I'm used to in a single workout.  Definitely good for me and my shoulders aren't really that sore the morning after.  The soreness that is there is the good kind.  The kind that lets you know you've done some hard work.  My distances are terrible right now.  I need to find the groove on my Braemar puts even though it really looks like they should be super easy with hardly any technique.  I'm finding that's not the case.  Plus the obvious would be that I need to bring up my strength and explosiveness if I ever want to climb into the B Class.

My wife surprised me with a 16lb shot yesterday (blue) and that was a nice addition to my throwing stones and implements. 

Duncan McCallum wrote: Can't wait to get home and check the vid Ben.  Don't get discouraged man...if I can do this you can do this.

Thanks Duncan!  I'm only discouraged for very short periods of time.  Then I quickly bounce back and make plans to get stronger and more technically proficient. 

"Then I quickly bounce back and make plans to get stronger and more technically proficient."  Not reaching your goal on the first try is a good thing; it makes you work harder.  It isn't a loss, just a lesson.  Besides, if you always got your mark on the first try, what would be the point?

And that my friend is half the battle...congratulations on having a future in the HG!

"Then I quickly bounce back and make plans to get stronger and more technically proficient."  Not reaching your goal on the first try is a good thing; it makes you work harder.  It isn't a loss, just a lesson.  Besides, if you always got your mark on the first try, what would be the point?

And that my friend is half the battle...congratulations on having a future in the HG!

TVV has probably forgotten more about HG than you or I are likely to learn.

Really like the lwfd! Another innovator!

Alan H wrote: You know, that single spin LWFD video is not half bad.   You should feel good about that.  Don't worry about how far that clanky chunk of metal goes for now. Just try to do things right, and then a little more righter and so on. Distance will come in time. Thom is a great guy and will get you going the right direction.

Thanks!  I like the advice to just focus on how it feels and making the technique and form tighter over time.  But it's hard to NOT try to make everything go farther, even if it's at the expense of good technique.  But I really plan on having a long career in the HG (maybe not career, but you know what I mean) so I'll take it slow.   

http://highland_tools.tripod.com/saacc/id1.html

This will take you to the homemade hammers. 

9-15-10, Wednesday

LWFD

-8 throws righty.  None lefty.  Did Braemar with my 10lb medicine ball lefty instead.  Then 1 throw righty with the medicine ball.  Best throw was my 2nd at 29'6".  Nothing to write home about and the rest got progressively worse.  Here was the rundown:

27'6" - 29'6" - 26'6" - 25'6" - 15' (hit a tree in my yard!) - 26' - 24'6" - 24'

*Overall Notes: Really not a bad workout considering it had rained quite a bit today and the ground was pretty muddy.  I finally quit when my left foot kept sliding all over the place during my windup. My 5th throw actually hit a tree in my yard.  A big tree.  One that I can usually avoid hitting.   

BRAEMAR

-8 throws lefty and 1 righty with my 10lb medicine ball.  Best throw lefty was 23'2". Best righty was 27'6". 

LIGHT HAMMER 

-1 set of 4 winds counterclockwise and 1 set of 4 winds clockwise with 15lbs.  Just made my own hammer trainer from PVC and it is excellent!  I love how it actually flexes, unlike the dowel I was using the other times I've trained winds.  Need to get my wife out in the yard to start training it too since we'll be doing light and heavy hammer in the Kirksville Games. 

Finished the workout feeling great and wanting to do more.  Figured that was a good time to end it and know that I put some good effort into the workout but now it's time to recover.

9-21-10, Tuesday

LIGHT HAMMER

-3 sets of 5 winds-both directions.  Used my homemade PVC Light Hammer and I love the flexibility of it.  Makes for much more pleasant swinging.  Focused on counterbalancing the hammer with my hips and keeping my feet firmly planted, even if it meant swinging a little more slowly.  I wanted the form to be tighter than it has been lately.  I�ve been videotaping and then reviewing each set of winds to make sure my form isn�t getting too loose.  That way I can correct any form defects before they get too out of hand.

9-26-10, Sunday

LWFD

-5 throws righty.  Didn't measure them.  All felt pretty good technique-wise. 

LIGHT HAMMER

-5 throws.  All but 1 felt pretty smooth - compared to the way I threw at my first games at least.  Best was only 59'6" but that's about 4' better than my official games result so I'll take it and hopefully translate that into a big PR on the Kirksville Highland Games on the 9th of October.

BRAEMAR-16lb Shot

-3 throws righty.  Best was only 25'.  The other two were a bit over 23'.  Did these throws last so I didn't plan on them.  Just wanted a few throws to end the workout.

*Overall Notes: Very pleased with this workout because some friends let us (wife and I) use their field to throw in.  That means I finally got to actually release the hammer instead of just doing winds in my yard!  Much better feel to it than having to stop before releasing it.  This will help my next games performance quite a bit.