Hammer Throw Media Blitz
Right after the Swiss Championships I hopped on a plane to America, where I am now preparing for my wedding on Sunday. I took a three week vacation from work for the wedding and honeymoon (one of the benefits of working in Europe) and had planned on taking most of that time off of training. But after talking with coach Bondarchuk on Sunday, I will now only take a 10-day break. I am in great shape and he doesn’t want me to lose that before starting my training back up again. That means I am trying to squeeze in a few training sessions before the wedding and then will relax on the honeymoon. Even though the break is shorter than planned, I think it is still my longest period of time off since 2007. A man of few words, he gave me a succinct reply after I presented him with a revised training schedule: “Okey. Heppe weding. M.B.”
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Two questions come to mind with the lead picture in “Die Einsamkeit des Schweizer Meisters”:
a) nobody else trains with you? Facilities are so rare that I’d think you’d have company, and yet there’s never anyone in your videos, either.
b) There’s so much open land around you. They couldn’t move your circle?
a) The article says I train alone most of the time, but I was disappointed that it left out more about my training partners. There are two throwers I train with here in Zurich: the 2010 women’s national champion and a masters thrower (who just earned bronze against younger copetitors at Serbian nationals). However, we all work and it is hard to coordinate schedules. Sometimes I come later because I have a meeting or do an impromptu lunch training and miss them. Also, they often throw a handful of times a week and I throw 10x per week. That means if I am lucky I get a training partner in 4-5 sessions a week and am still alone more than half the time. More often it is just 1 or 2 times. There is no coach and there just aren’t many throwers (hammer or otherwise), so even though it is the only facility in the city, there is no one else that wants to use it. The same was true in Seattle.
To fix this I’m trying to build a training group. I just had a U20 girl qualify for Swiss nationals and a U18 boy who is less than a meter under the limit. Both have learned quickly after a few sessions and are enthusiastic. I like throwing with others, and it doesn’t matter the age or talent level. If any other Swiss throwers (or non-Swiss throwers) are interested in helping to form a group, I am more than willing to help them get settled in Zurich.
b) I’ve asked the same thing. Most of the picture’s foreground will be the massive skatepark. The is already a slew of soccer fields. There is more open land to the left, but I’ve been told it is zoned as a nature preserve or something like that. I love how relaxing and easy to focus it is at our current facility (plus the long history it has). I also like that I don’t have to schedule my training; I can just show up and the field is always mine. But there are some plus sides to moving. The new place will be at the track, which has a better weight room and will help us integrate into the team more.
Serbian masters thrower? Dejan Lisinac?
On one hand, I love that a guy his age (42 right?) can still win medals in such competitions against younger generation, but on the other, it shows just how bad the throwing is right now in Serbia. The national record of 67.46 still stands after 20 years and, with the exception of Seid Mujanovic, I haven’t seen anyone getting close to it for a long time. Of course, it’s the bad coaching and the fact that the sport doesn’t get too much attention in the country, and all the talent is drawn to team sports.
At nationals, there were sub 15m shot put throws in top 5. I felt like I was watching a decathlon competition (especially because there were two decathlon athletes competing in it). Top 3 were good, and Asmir Kolasinac is a fine shot putter (already has the A-standard for Daegu and London) and just when I started to think that it’s not all bad, I saw the results from womens shot put. 11.47 for gold, 6.79 for bronze. SIX METERS SEVENTY-NINE. That’s…there are no words to describe it.
But I guess that’s something that motivates me even more to become a coach and try to turn things around.
Sorry for the ramble and off-topic.
Yeah. Dejan is great to train with. Serbia is in a similar situation to Switzerland. But in Switzerland Dejan would have placed second. Shot put was won with 15.80 (a PR) and less than 15 was enough for a medal.