Older Larder Ass

Training Over 35 Lifter
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I came to a horrible realization this morning whilst kettlefagging.

I have been too easy on myself. I have been whining about my hip for awhile, and I noticed this morning that on my left handed swings I am not going as deep as with my right handed swings. think of hiking a football, this is how you reach back. well, I was only going about 1/2 way back on my left hand swings, which of course use the right side glute and spinal erector, which corresponds to my bad hip.

As we all know, when we find a form problem, we start over and correct it. so, I will prolly have to go back to ladders of 3 until that side reaches parity with the other, because my form broke down pretty bad on ladders of 4.

ahh, the joys of self realization. throwing at lunch.

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i threw
i sucked
i fell on my ass in public

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Not quite veni, vidi, vici but probably more appropriate to the situation. Here’s a question. On occassion we’ve all uttered, or written, “I suck”. Without taking the low road and the easy cheap shot, lets looked at what this means. When you took up throwing, did you:
A: Expect to instantly be very good or even great without devoting a whole lot of time to learning/training and failing in this you “suck”?
B: Be the best there is by your 3rd meet or at least by year’s end and failing in this, “you suck”?
c: Learn, practice at, and enjoy a sport/past time that 99.9% of the population knows nothing about and 1/2 the remaining .1% think you just like running around in drag?
(Hint: don’t go with A or B).

Here’s the point. We all excel, and suck, at certain things. Every Highland Game, Track Meet, powerlifting, curling, hurling, sheep shearing, corn shucking, etc. meet has a winner, and a loser. (Don’t mention ties, I’m on a roll here) But the loser, for having trained and competed, still wins out over the person who doesn’t try at anything. We never really discuss the mental aspect of what we do here. You’ve got to have confidence when you get under a weight, get ready to throw, get up on the stage. Even if your mantra is “Today, I will suck less”. Not to sound really saccharine but you really have to believe you can do something before you can. And guess what? You may suck forever. But are you having fun? If not, quit it and find something else.
Yeah, I got long winded, again, younger brother. But you don’t suck, no one on this forum does. You’re still just learning. And when you fall on your ass in public, take a bow and pretend it’s suppose to be done that way. Most won’t know the difference anyway.

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[quote]hel320 wrote:
Not quite veni, vidi, vici but probably more appropriate to the situation. Here’s a question. On occassion we’ve all uttered, or written, “I suck”. Without taking the low road and the easy cheap shot, lets looked at what this means. When you took up throwing, did you:
A: Expect to instantly be very good or even great without devoting a whole lot of time to learning/training and failing in this you “suck”?
B: Be the best there is by your 3rd meet or at least by year’s end and failing in this, “you suck”?
c: Learn, practice at, and enjoy a sport/past time that 99.9% of the population knows nothing about and 1/2 the remaining .1% think you just like running around in drag?
(Hint: don’t go with A or B).

Here’s the point. We all excel, and suck, at certain things. Every Highland Game, Track Meet, powerlifting, curling, hurling, sheep shearing, corn shucking, etc. meet has a winner, and a loser. (Don’t mention ties, I’m on a roll here) But the loser, for having trained and competed, still wins out over the person who doesn’t try at anything. We never really discuss the mental aspect of what we do here. You’ve got to have confidence when you get under a weight, get ready to throw, get up on the stage. Even if your mantra is “Today, I will suck less”. Not to sound really saccharine but you really have to believe you can do something before you can. And guess what? You may suck forever. But are you having fun? If not, quit it and find something else.
Yeah, I got long winded, again, younger brother. But you don’t suck, no one on this forum does. You’re still just learning. And when you fall on your ass in public, take a bow and pretend it’s suppose to be done that way. Most won’t know the difference anyway.[/quote]

Applause!

Applause - YouTube?

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[quote]mjnewland wrote:
a well-executed snatch just looks cool, especially with some weight.

[/quote]

So true!

Yeah, just pretend the fall was part of the move. Those lazy ass observers won’t know the difference.

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I have yet to fall throwing caber, sheaf, hg hammers, braemer stone, and javelin. Everything else I’ve tried throwing has put me on my butt at one time or another. The heavier it is and the more you spin around to throw it, the more likely it is that you will end up picking yourself off the ground. I just try to remember not to do whatever put me down there again. Sometimes this works.

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Thank you all for your love and support.

Carl, it was the hammer that knocked me on my ass. last games I saw some guys really leaning back to make the wind circular. they were probably wearing spikes. And, I always end up diving over the trig in at least one of my stone throws

Snap, For what its worth, I did jump up in the gymnastics “I stuck that one” pose.

Harry, as always, well said. I feel sucky when my training doesn’t go well. Since I throw against myself, i only hope to get better each meet. I am getting a little frustrated with the double spin on the weight for distance, because I am just not learning it as fast as I’d like. Since my conditioning is so low, I cant take that many throws very close together. I like learning things fast, and while its a bunch of fun, i just wish i was making faster progress. We all tend to be harder on ourselves than each other.

Our games this weekend is called The Rumble, and we throw heavier than usual implements. note that as a masters guy, I would normally throw the 42# for distance and over-bar, but in this one, we throw the 56#, which to me is heavier than it sounds.

31# Braemar — Ladies 23.3# Braemar
23.3# Open Stone — Ladies 15# Open Stone
56# HWFD — Ladies 28# HWFD
42#LWFD — Ladies 20# LWFD
22# Hammer — Ladies 16# Hammer
20# Sheaf — Ladies 16# Sheaf
56# WOB — Ladies 28# WOB

I’m really looking forward to it, as it should be bags of fun.

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It sounds fun, heavy, but fun.

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joe, it will be some good heavy fun.

i threw again today. i won’t say I sucked again, because I don’t want to get cuzzin harry all wound up again.

I am still not very good at throwing the weight with a double spin.
I threw the hammer 6 times without falling on my ass.
I wish I was better at throwing the weight.
I am beginning to wish I had spent a little time with WOB. Oh well, with limited training time, it just takes longer to get good.

later babies
old lardass

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[quote]mjnewland wrote:
I am still not very good at throwing the weight with a double spin.
[/quote]
Don’t feel bad. I’m not good at this either.

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So how was throwing the monsters?

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I envy all the cool stuff you’re doing.

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At the games I______________________and I am now___________________________.

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[quote]hel320 wrote:
At the games I___threw hard___________________and I am now____________recovering_______________.[/quote]

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[quote]mjnewland wrote:

[quote]hel320 wrote:
At the games I___threw hard___________________and I am now____________recovering_______________.[/quote]
[/quote]

HAHAHA I know you kicked ass!

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Hey all, I was trying to find my old marks for comparison. as it turns out, I did improve in a couple areas. here is how it fell out:

56# for height 9’6". the only other time I did this was in practice a couple months ago, and I could barely get it past my fingertips, which i figure at 8’. I’ll take this as a PR.

20# sheaf 13’. this is a huge improvement over no-scoring with the 16# sheaf a month ago. I couldn’t get over 14’, well I kept hitting the uprights, so now its time to start thinking about my aim. everyone said my tosses would have been good for 17-18’ if I had done it straight. got it over the bar for the first time, pr

31# braemar stone 19’1/2". i just need to practice throwing rocks more. 1st time throwing a rock that big, PR
23# open stone 23’.

56# for distance 17’4-1/4". this was 2 feet shorter than my best throw at st. joseph’s, where I was only using a single spin. 2 throws, 1 scratch.

42# for distance 21’5". 1 throw, 2 scratches. on the 3d throw/2d scratch i dropped my big ass right onto the trig and left some skin on it. The trig is a 4x4 used to mark the front of the throwing area. This is an improvement of around 2’.

22# hammer 43’4-1/2". I threw 52’ at st josephs, so this sucked. they made me throw my 2d and 3d throws from the girls trig, “to save the grass”. bastards!

Sadly, we don’t toss the caber because Jeff’s field is too small.

Hung around for a bit, drank a little rye, ate some hotdogs, got to know some of the other throwers. There were several state records broken at this event. Plus, I know have scores on the NASGA website!

Once again I was DFL on all throws in my group. My bad technique is second only to my horrendous conditioning. But, I got a little more coaching so I have some things to work on for the rest of the month. Halloween is our last games, so I am taking this week off to recover. My hips already feel better. I have a fraternity reunion this weekend, which will challenge my liver. after that, back at it for 3 weeks. I am going to practice a little differently. I will devote at least 1 day to the hammer for every 2 days on the weight. I will also try to fit on some kind of conditioning, probably walking. I feel pretty pathetic in the conditioning realm.

Still, its always fun to get with the lads and huck some heavy stuff. I will be a force to be reckoned with next year. or not.

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You were throwing the young guys weights so you did good. A 31# stone is massive, can’t imagine trying to cradle it. You improved in most areas. Great going. I need to work the hammer, too. Keep baseball bat releasin it. Thinkin of making some spikes so I can get some good back lean in to it. Starts gettin chilly out your way by halloween, don’t it? Wear something warm under the kilt.

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Sounds like a good time was had by all! Awesome throwing you’re doing so well.

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Glad we won’t be throwing that 56 pounder later this month. (We won’t be will we?) No caber sucks, but my wife will be happy to know sheaf gets thrown at Jeff’s field. I can’t figure it out, but she loves watching that. DFL or first by a mile–doesn’t really matter. Doing it and getting better at some of it does.

Edit: Although my wife just asked: “Why can’t you throw sheep from a pitchfork? That would be even better.”

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Carl, tell your wife I said “yes, that would totally be better!” Jeff’s wife may not be so excited, but I will ask about the sheep

I am pretty sure we will be throwing age-appropriate weights. so for distance the 42 and 28, we may throw the heavy hammer as well as the light like at the cache valley games. 42 for height and 16# sheaf. Not sure how heavy the stones will be, but I will be expecting something closer to the usual weights. its been nice taking this week off, and it will be even nicer to be throwiing the 42 instead of the 56 next week. that thing kicked my butt but good