Watching Sedykh Coach Olympians
The first time I was introduced to the Soviet approach to the hammer was not through Bondarchuk, but through world record holder Yuri Sedykh. As a high school student I watched his instructional video and already began to incorporate some of his special-strength exercises into my training. At age 19, in the winter 2003, I had the first chance to meet him in person by attending a clinic in the Bay Area. It was an eye-opener.
Below I have posted another video of Sedykh coaching that illustrates this and many other points about his approach to technique. The video was taken in 1997 as Sedykh was coaching Dave Popejoy (Stanford University record holder, a 1996 Olympian, and a personal best of 74.26 meters), Kevin McMahon (2-time US Champion, 2-time Olympian, and personal best of 79.26 meters), and Sean Flynn (former Georgetown University All-American). There is also a cameo by a 5-year old Alexia Sedykh. Fifteen minutes of footage giving feedback to three elite throwers gives you an ever better idea of how Sedykh would address various different technical problems in a throw.
Below I have posted another video of Sedykh coaching that illustrates this and many other points about his approach to technique. The video was taken in 1997 as Sedykh was coaching Dave Popejoy (Stanford University record holder, a 1996 Olympian, and a personal best of 74.26 meters), Kevin McMahon (2-time US Champion, 2-time Olympian, and personal best of 79.26 meters), and Sean Flynn (former Georgetown University All-American).
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Nice one.
This is good stuff. Kevin would move from the low 70’s in 1997 to the upper 70’s in 1998 and earned a “not bad” from Yuri during the video.
Actually, Kevin was already at an elite level and entered the 1997 season as a 75 meter thrower and Olympian. Then during the season improved his best to 77.42 meters and won his first US championship. He was a meter down in 1998 before his big breakthrough in 1999.
Ok. I was going by his iaaf entry: http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/united-states/kevin-mcmahon#progression because the usatf had very little.
I used Tilastopaja, but they missed his good early season mark from 1998. I guess for pre-2000 marks the best source is a combination of sources.
This is great stuff! Love this video. Thanks Martin. Probably one of the best cues that Yuri helped me with was something he said in the video…”you must always see the ball” My best throws I saw the ball the whole way. Thanks for posting.