Camp Pockoski ... a great 4 days spent throwing

[Alan H]

I'm two days back from what I call "Camp Pockoski". I flew out to North Carolina and stayed with Mike and Mindy Pockoski for 4 days. We worked on basic principles of throwing...setting up the "X"...which is one way of describing how you get the bottom half of your body ahead of the top half, "winding up the spring" so to speak, until you explosively unwind to deliver the throw. That basic concept is crucial to most of the throws that we do.

LWFD, especially in the second half of the throw, you sprint for the front of the trig, knock your knees together to build speed in the hips, and ram your hip out in front to pull the implement around. You've "landed in the X", torqued up in order to apply force to the weight. In the stones, if you do the South African, but also if you stand...and absolutely if you spin, it's all about getting the top half of your body behind the bottom half, ramming your hip forward, driving up and out of the power position and then explosively unwinding the spring to deliver the stone.

Even in the hammer, that last fraction of a second..you drop your low point two inches closer to the ground (unless you're Detroitpete in which case you're already two inches closer to the ground. ), and then pop the trailing hip up and around to give the hammer that last *slam* before the release. Basically, you drive up and around in a motion much like an olympic lift clean, out of the bent-knee, athletic power position.

So while we spent a lot of time on discus exercises, what we REALLY did was work on just a few basic principles..."set up the X", and making the right foot (I'm right handed) as active as possible to get the hip around into the throw. It was without a doubt a revolution in how I think about throwing. I also learned the whole logic behind the South African drill/throw. I picked up several drills to do to teach patience, and how to focus on a point out int he sector. Basically, "focus" is what a dance does when they spot. I learned a few little things, really just three things in the hammer which significantly change how I will throw that event, and while I will be getting those things dialed in over the next two months, I am confident that PR's are going to fall next season.

Mindy had a particular skill...or maybe it's just the mental wavelength that she's on but she said several things during the long weekend that "clicked". You know how you can work on something for a long time, and you try to describe it, but you just can't get the concept across? Then, out of nowhere, you choose different words and *Pow* it all makes sense, suddenly? Well, Mindy P. has that skill, or maybe it's just that I hear what she says a particular way because some stuff she said got me over the mental block of how to activate my right foot....and that's HUGE.

Both Mike and Mindy spent some time with me on the Olympic lifts, which are excellent in terms of building explosiveness out of the athletic power position. As mentioned up above, most of the throws we do depend heavily on that ability to "stick it". When I get whupped on the field, as a general rule (there are exceptions) it's not because my technique is bad. It's because I have run out of gas, or really never had it to start with, and I can't *Explode*. Now I know the basics of doing a few Olympic lifts and I've adjusted my workout to include more of those from now to the beginning of March, when my gym time goes to one day a week and I start throwing 2-3 days a week.

Those who know me in person know that I'm a cerebral guy. Mike put it well in a Facebook note, today. Throwing is not drills. Never forget that the goal is to throw far. You do drills in practice. When they call your name on Game Day, go rip the implement in half.

I know Mike is lurking on X Marks....I introduced them to the site and Mike and Mindy met Tartan Hiker and his wife during my trip. Maybe he'll join up and drop a post or two in here, or ask questions about kilts 'n stuff.