Throwing makes me feel dumb

Varies from event to event, but I'll say this first: every thrower can really only think about 1 or 2 things at a time. You drill those until they're second nature and don't HAVE to think about them, THEN you change things.

funny, I still don't think about shifting weight from foot to foot on hammers.. cues are so individual.

I am also a newbie.  I have 3 events under my belt and have been at it almost a year.  I feel comfortable with my events except the 28lb WFD.  I do a single spin and hit 42 and change every time.  I know i can get it out there with a double sipin but it just isn't working.  Videos don't help as i can't take my computer out to throw.  Any suggestions?  I almost feel like I need to spray paint where each foot should land.

eclarkhb wrote: I'm a relatively new thrower - I started about a year and a half ago, and I've competed in 5 events. In my day to day life, I juggle work, family, kids, etc and for the most part I don't screw everything up. But when I'm trying to throw, I can only think about 1 or maybe 2 things at a time. Any more than that the whole thing goes to crap. For example, with WFD, it's bend my knees, keep my head up. For hammers, it's KEEP YOUR HEAD UP DUMMY! If I try to think about when to pull or separation or anything else, it blows up. I think that at some point, after throwing 1000 times or something, "Head up, bent knees" will become 2nd nature & I can add something else in... Soooooo, my question is: What are the top couple of things for a beginner to think about when throwing (any event)? Any specific piece of advice or mental cue that really helped you guys when you were starting out? Thanks!

Too many mind!

Just focus on hitting your footwork and the rest will get there. Foot work and position are the biggest things! You cannot even begin to make big throws unless you are in the correct position. It will become second nature!

Lance Creed wrote: eclarkhb wrote: I'm a relatively new thrower - I started about a year and a half ago, and I've competed in 5 events. In my day to day life, I juggle work, family, kids, etc and for the most part I don't screw everything up. But when I'm trying to throw, I can only think about 1 or maybe 2 things at a time. Any more than that the whole thing goes to crap. For example, with WFD, it's bend my knees, keep my head up. For hammers, it's KEEP YOUR HEAD UP DUMMY! If I try to think about when to pull or separation or anything else, it blows up. I think that at some point, after throwing 1000 times or something, "Head up, bent knees" will become 2nd nature & I can add something else in... Soooooo, my question is: What are the top couple of things for a beginner to think about when throwing (any event)? Any specific piece of advice or mental cue that really helped you guys when you were starting out? Thanks! Eric, I have the same problem(s). In the past few months I developed a hypothesis where I am the first person with a highland games specific learning disorder. Apparently you are the second confirmed case.

jsully wrote:   If you want to be good at lwd, stop throwing it and focus on the hwd. The hwd isn't forgiving like the lwd is. You can't miss positions and still get a good throw. The lwd is just a faster version. You drill the positions with the hwd and it will 100% carry over to the lwd.

Sean wrote: jsully wrote:   If you want to be good at lwd, stop throwing it and focus on the hwd. The hwd isn't forgiving like the lwd is. You can't miss positions and still get a good throw. The lwd is just a faster version. You drill the positions with the hwd and it will 100% carry over to the lwd.   And the reverse is DEFINITELY not true.

My experience as well.  It was a recent revelation, and has yielded almost immediate results.

TheThorpedo wrote: However....... When it comes to hammer I find that only using the light hammer in practice helps me speed up my Heavy hammer. If I do the other way around my Light drop dramatically. I find I atart cheating and try to muscle it.

I'm a bit "newer" than some of the above, but I will say the hardest part for me to catch on to throwing is separating 'concepts' from 'cues.' Orbit and Separation are mechanical concepts of an event, as I understand them. A cue is a 'do', a reminder. So to "cue" me (as people have tried, bless their hearts) to keep the hammer in my 'Orbit' wanted me to keep my hammer in their face. Maybe not that harsh, but frustrating on both our parts that I wasn't understanding.

Just so I'm clear, I think we're on the same page. 

Sean wrote: Boys, I'm 16 years in and I've just recently moved on the Wendler scale from 'Shit' to 'Suck'. You guys have NOTHING on me :)

With any new throwers you cant do enough drills .It takes a long time and many hundred to thousand rotations to fully understand where you are and what your doing in complex turns ,After thirty odd years of throwing i still had black spots with in a throws where i guess you just hope for the best.Just try turning down a straight line 180deg each time,arms out and head up for as many as you can trying to stay on the line.This helped alot when i was struggling.