Three Versus Four Turns
Some of you may have glossed over the disussion of hurdling technique in my training talk with Gary Winkler. But his answers could equally be applied to the hammer throw or any event. I asked him why so many athletes were switching from eight to seven steps before the first hurdle and his response was quick:
Most of it is just groupthink … There is not always a lot of analytic thinking going on when these decisions are made.
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Awesome article. I recently started doing three turns and am very excited to see how my throwing progresses throughout my summer training. I’ve been watching a lot of videos and reading a number of articles, and am really trying to train as effectively as possible. I’ve been able to find answers to most of my questions. I was wondering though, if you ever train your turns in the opposite direction? I heard somewhere about practicing turns in the other direction to increase neural pathways, and that this could benefit a thrower. I have limited time, though, and need as much technical throwing practice as possible. Additionally, are overuse injuries common with hammer throwers, and can they be prevented with stretching and general/specific bilateral strengthening?
I look at throwing in the other direction from the perspective of bilateral strengthening in a post last fall. I have not looked at it from the point of view of increasing neural pathways, but I would think that as it uses a different sequence of muscles it would be working on a different neural pathway in the opposite direction. It would be interesting to look at though.