So you need some practice equipment?

[ThinBlueLine]

Alan H,

Thank you. I struck a deal with my local Play it Again Sports and bought 150 pounds worth of plates at $ .40 per pound. I have already built a 30 pound weight and a 60 pound weight and I plan to make two hammers, one at 20 pounds and one at 25 pounds. I will have pictures up soon, I hope.

[Alan H]

Alan H,

Thank you. I struck a deal with my local Play it Again Sports and bought 150 pounds worth of plates at $ .40 per pound. I have already built a 30 pound weight and a 60 pound weight and I plan to make two hammers, one at 20 pounds and one at 25 pounds. I will have pictures up soon, I hope.

I would be careful about using overweight hammers. When you're first starting out, hammers are all about extension and balance. If you fall on your keister, you don't throw good, you know? Really heavy hammers don't help with that, you will develop balance faster with light hammers. Use the 20, that's fine, but much more than that? I dunno.

Once you start getting it down, what you progress into is developing speed and weight transfer, and once again, a super-heavy hammer doesn't help with that. What a 25 pound hammer will help with is developing core strength, but there's a limit to that.

If you ask the pro's, you'll discover that many of them NEVER practice with a 22 pound hammer. I'm dead serious. Craig Smith wrote on the NASGA forum that he doesn't even own one. So use that 25 pound hammer for a while to develop core strength, but ditch it in a couple of months and focus on the 15-17 pound hammer.

I would also think twice about that 60 pound weight. I'm dead serious, here... I would take 15 pounds off of that 60'er and throw the 45. Why? Because that 45 is actually more like 48-50 when you add in the weight of the handle and hardware.

Take the leftover 15 pounds of weight and put it on a handle and throw THAT. That's right, throw 15 pounds, the womens weight.

Why?

Because throwing the weights is all about position. You have GOT to hit the positions, got to get in the power position, got to accelerate out of the power position into the sprint phase, etc. etc. It's no different whether the weight is 15 pounds or 50 pounds, it's POSITION and TRANSITION. You can throw 15 pounds-plus handle + hardware = 18 pounds all day long. You can get 30 throws in a workout and burn that muscle memory for position with the lighter weight. Try throwing a 60 pound weight that many times.

Is this idea coming from me? No. I emphasize NO. I got it straight from Ryan Viera who told me to my face during a training session I had with him about a month ago, that he spends more time with the womens weights than anything else, drilling position, position, position.

If you want to toss a 60+ pound weight, that's your business, but I would strongly urge you to make up a 15-18 pound weight and use it for the weights for distance.