Rule of thumb for throws per session?

Greg all you have to do to gauge your 80% throws is come throw with me and land your throws only a couple feet past mine instead of way out there and you'll be good.

dl_buffy wrote: I've been doing it (right or wrong) based off of my practice PR's.  If I have a PR at 103 in practice, then I take 80% of that as the distance I should hit.  Usually I will throw a board or found piece of trash at that number so I cn see it.  (Been really consdering those little wire flags though.)

I try to do three events in every workout and as often as not, i do four..  That said, I also tend to throw in cycles.  So for example, for about a month I get the open stone out at every throws session.  Recently, I've gotten LWFD out for every workout because I got sick of working so hard at Open Stone and making no progress.  The last month on LWFD has yielded a lot of progress so that's comforting.

45 throws in any event seems like a lot to me, even if half of them are drills.  Here's a typical workout breakdown for me, if I'm by myself for 2 1/2 hours.

warmup event.... This is where I'll do stuff like footwork with the softball, or "stick the hip" with the softball, or "throw the 5 pound iron bar"  or "chuck the old HS discus"...   stuff like that.  Give this about 10-15 minutes.  It's all about reinforcing one or two fundamental throwing principles,  like "get some separation and then drive the hip into the throw...".

Event 1 ... light weight or light stone

some warmup... then pick a drill and do it maybe 6-8x.  Then do 4-5 throws, working on ONE, or at most TWO things.   Then maybe 4-5 where I really try to blast it out there at about 95% effort. I rarely throw at an honest 100% effort, anything comparable to a 100% max effort deadlift because as you've said, if I do that, I mudge it up.

Event 2  ..... heavy weight or heavy stone

I'm already warmed up.  I may pick a drill or decide on the one thing I'm really going to focus on today.  I'll do that for 4-5-6 throws, then try to blast it out  at 95%   for 3-4 more.

event 3 .... likely as not, it's hammer.  I only own a 16 and a 12, no 22 hammer here.

I often will do 30-40 winds in sets of 6-8 without releasing, just getting into the feel of the rhythm, and catching the ball behind me.  Then I'll do 3-4 single spin and release, then 3-4 working on one particular thing, and then 3-4 blasting it out there.  So that's something like 9-12 actual throws.

Event 4 ..... usually caber but maybe wob

both of these events tire me out like no other so I'm only good for maybe 6-8 tosses.  So I think about ONE thing I'm going to do, and then do that about 3-4x. For the remainder, I try to put out 95% effort.

So how many total times do I grab some Highland implement and let it leave my hand at some velocity? This is not counting the softball or discus warmup.    Looks like about  40-45 throws, maybe 50 total over all four events in 2 1/2 hours.

Sometimes I have "theme" days.  Yesterday was a"theme" day.  The theme was -  "throw the goddamned thing over the stupid bar you wretched dork!"

I was throwing with a guy who'd never done sheaf before. He's young and strong and gullible, so I had him do three throws to my two.  ANY-way I did at least a dozen sheaf tosses with the 16, starting with a plain old relaxed "power clear" style and thing finishing up with about 4  where I stick my hip...a bit unorthodox, but it's working.

Then wob.  We put the bar at 13 and gave it a go, maybe 3-4 times each  He has 13 like it's no problem, I gotta work for it. So then we went to 13' 6"and gave that a shot 3-4 times. I hit the bar a bunch, he cleared it. So we went to 14'  and tried THAT.  I tried about 3x and said "enough". He did it about 4-5 times and then wanted to try 14' 6".  I just watched in disgust.

Then I set up a little challenge.  Put the bar a foot below your usual top-end and clear that AS FAST AS POSSIBLE... as in throw, pick up the weight IMMEDIATELY...swing and throw again.  Do it as many times as you can, to clear your height.    I got 12 feet, 3x, mudged up the fourth one and smacked it into the bar even though I still had plenty of gas.  The most I've ever done this is 6x in a row.   He got 13 feet 5x before he did and up-and-down in front of the bar.. 

That was a LOT of wob, but hey, it's "theme day".  Looks like about  14 wob throws over about a half-hour span.  That was after the sheaf workout.

then we went and did some HWFD and I KILLED it for about 6 tosses and said "enough for one day".

Hope that helps.

BTW, you are kicking ass.  I just want to remind you of that.  You haven't even thrown at your first Games yet, for Gods sake.

42, you got it wrong.

As a newbie in this sport, I have seen talk of drills but don't really know what those are. All I've done up to this point is work on the throws. I may do standing vs full, one turn vs two turn and things like that but don't know of any specific drills like the "stick the hip" that was mentioned.

Is there anyone who has videos or descriptions of drills for any/all events?

You know me, Dave.  

I would throw as many times per week as you can while still maintaining some kind of progression. Obviously this is going to be very personal; it is probably best to keep records of your best throws in each throwing session so that you can be aware of any trends - negative or positive - and adjust your throwing volume accordingly.