11-30-03

It’s the end of the month already and where does the time go, when you are training or going to school let alone the real world of nine to five? The college athletes are on the verge of their first big showdown this weekend coming at the Kent State early bird meet. I think that there will be a lot of athletes using this as their first opportunity to knock the dust off their game day attitude.

"Game day Attitude . . . " That has such a nice ring to it. It is the same attitude that shows up for the big lifts in the weight room and the occasional drive on the freeway. I have received emails recently about bridging the gap between practice and competition day. "What is your secret?" Well to be honest I don’t really have one. I would say that the best kept secret for those that are doing really well in any sport, is time spent. I would say that I am finally getting to a place emotionally where I can really turn it on if I have to, but compared to veterans of sport, like Lance Deal or Jud Logan I have a long way to go. I do believe however, that there is a certain attitude that an athlete must have on the day to be successful. The fear of competition or the fear of ‘the’ competition is something that affects almost all athletes at one time or another, but the conscious realization must be made that ‘they’, as in your competitors have no control over what happens in the ring. It is a feeling that is very tough to break in a lot of athletes, and this is where the attitude comes into play.

What kind of attitude do you need to have? What is acceptable, and what is not? All valid questions in their own right, but the answers are not as clear. When I have gotten ready in the past I use to take on meet day like a brawler getting ready to have a chain fight in an alley. "No one was walking out of that building alive." Metaphorically speaking that is, and it worked on occasion, finding that place in oneself where intensity overrides everything else. Using this mind set I was able to become a really good weight thrower of about 69 feet and an average hammer thrower of about 61m. However, every time that I won, I was as high as a kite and every time I lost I felt like a gut shot dog. I knew that I could never keep this up over the long haul, and I knew that the hammer wasn’t reacting to pure intensity. I began to self evaluate my competition strategy, and I realized one thing that was important. When I was fired up it, came from one of two emotions, excitement or rage, one or the other, never both. "No one has ever been excitedly raging? I don’t think so anyway."

After this realization, I determined that both can be good, but rage has too much of a tendency to be negatively induced, the same feelings that one might have in a fight or flight situation, the same feelings that a lot of young athletes have when they lose their legs. Where as excitement or enthusiasm, often comes from a truly positive perspective of what you are doing. A love for the moment, and a need for a positive situation, a mind set where you develop an intrinsic need for the competitive stimulus, stimulus being a meet. Imagine actually needing a meet environment to fulfill an eternal need or satisfaction? All of a sudden competition is no longer a dreaded battle or fight, but rather a feast of opportunity and positive fulfilment! I know that sounds a little Freudian, but when you can make the switch in your mind and competition becomes a need you will have tremendous success, because you no longer have fear and you will for the first time truly understand what it means to relish in the moment.

Training . . .

Well having been the week of the turkey, our training sessions were altered, but nothing too serious. We dropped one upper body weight room session, but everything else continued as normal, with a three throwing day week and some cold weather Pr’s. I call them cold weather Pr’s because there is something to be said about throwing when it is less than 25 degrees outside. If you are even close to your high end, good on yeah, because I lose about 5m on the really frigid days. However, with that being said I was able to have a really good wind chill day with the 14 going over 70m and the 18 over 60m.

This week was the reintroduction to the back squat, after a 12-day hiatus from all squatting exercises and it felt good to be back under a bar. We are currently, doing three position snatches, heel elevated back squats, Bonderchuk lunges and stiff leg dead lifts for the lower body. The upper body is a combination of thick bar inclines, torso work with plates, triceps exercises and some auxiliary pressing moments. The lower body volume would look like this for those that are interested. Snatch 6x3, Squat 6 sets, Bonderchuk 5x8+8, and stiff dead lifts 5x6 3,1,3,1 tempo. The volume is quite high In the lower body, but it comes as a thankful governor for me because I have a tenancy to become a little ‘neuro’ really quickly and the days without squatting movements had me springing off the ground. The upper Body is a continuation of what we have been doing with the addition of the Plate work. When we start incorporating the plates back into the workout I know that it is hammer time, the upper body is starting to look a little ‘shotput’ and not enough hammer so Jud makes the changes. And the plates will stay in the workout in one form or another from here on out. The plates for me, equate to about two meters in practice by the end of the first three-week cycle. They help me with posture and release position as well as firming up my core, the feeling of being locked in.

Derek