Where you SHOULD NEVER stand

Adam...thanks for posting this. Probably one of the more important posts ever.

As an athlete it is your right (duty?) to ask people to move if you feel they are in harms way. I have not lost a weight during a throw in 7 years (after learning the hook grip)....but I still to this day make anyone off to my right move before I start throwing LWD or HWD.

That video was from Houston, Texas on the 15 May.  I was throwing there in the Masters that day.  We missed this throw but heard the weight clang against the bleachers.  I had no idea at the time that there was a measurer standing there.  It did not happen in the Masters flight.

It is worth noting that at that games, the 16lb sheaf went twice into the crowd, the second time hitting a lady in the face and nearly knocking her out.  These games were moved inside due to weather (in a rodeo-livestock pavilion) and among other problems, the hammers and weights really took off when they hit the hard dirt ground.

Games held under these circumstances need to be completely re-thought-out in terms of the safety margins.  I am sure that the first-time AD at these games learned a lot and was lucky enough to do so in avoiding a tragedy.  But it is also the responsibility of all experienced throwers to "put in their two cents" on safety if they see something dangerous.  You only get one chance to get it right.

This is a serious problem, and one that some day may bite us all by limiting our ability to compete, or increase the cost of doing so, and that's all secondary to the trauma of a serious injury or death.

In college, one of my team mates got hit in the head with a hammer at the end of a 145' throw. He lived, but barely. I held him waiting for help. Don't want to see that ever again.

In 2009, KO shanked a hammer throw at Alma and miraculously missed several people. I was sure, from the other side of the field, someone had gotten killed.

Same year, Mike Brown took a 56# to the side on a slip. I'm sure it would have broken bones and damaged organs on a lesser human.

As throwers, and family and friends to the people around us, it's vital that we all help keep each other, the crowd, the shaggers, the markers, and every one safe.