3 Movements to Help Sciatica

The Oregon Ducks made school history at the 2009 Pac-10 Conference Track and Field Championships by sweeping both the men’s and women’s titles for the first time ever. Both winning teams set records for scoring the most points ever, and for the Oregon men it was their 3rd consecutive Pac-10 track title. Learn what else happened at the meet.

Senior Michael Kiley of Chaminade High School toured the 3000-meter steeplechase in 9:13.92 at the 2009 New York State Track & Field Championship Meet to set a new national leading time. Find out all of the winners, and who set state meet records and who pulled off upsets.

The 800m run is a race for only the toughest track and field athletes. It is a grueling race for sprinters, as it asks them to run at almost 90% speed for 2 full laps, a lot longer than any sprint race. For distance runners it asks them to run their fastest for the entire distance.

In a previous life, my younger days, I was half-miler and later an 800, track and field athlete and it was indeed my demon. Worse, I was also a miler and ran the two-mile, and to run these events at the same track meet, was pure torture, making water boarding sound fun and refreshing actually. When explaining the 800m to an acquaintance I noted that it was a sprint the entire way and it was an event where the winner was the most conditioned athlete with the highest tolerance to pain.

Athletes with different genetics perform differently and this is apparent in many sports. Especially in track and field; athletes with fast muscle twitch are amazing sprinters, those with slow muscle twitch, if they train rigorously and drop their body fat are absolutely incredible distance runners. Those with a little of both can do well in the medium distances, and with a lot of work out can become very good sprinters or long-distance runners, yet never seem to be as good as those who have the ideal muscle twitch for either short or long distance.

There is a reason why California is continually the top-producing state in the nation for track and field talent. That reason would be a population of 36+ million people, the highest in the nation. When you know that the second most populous state in the nation is Texas with 24 million, and then New York with 19 million, well, you get the point. Find out just how good are the California prep athletes.

A basic teaching progression for teaching the rotational shot put. For a beginning thrower, this will be a heavy volume of throws if a competition implement is thrown.

The right foot touchdown in the hammer throw is a critical point of force application to the implement. This can be clearly seen by those throwers at the top of the world rankings today. You will notice how much force they are putting into the ground with each successive turn. In order to better facilitate this force production, should athletes be taught to land with the right toe or heel during each double support phase?

The entry is full of subtle balance and position nuances, but when performed correctly, leads to much smoother and farther throws. Common mistakes that you will encounter in the entry include:

It is useful to see the throw as a system in motion. If the system is set up correctly from the beginning it will run as expected provided there are no breakdowns along the way. Many people do not realize how critical the entry of the discus throw really is. If the system is not set up correctly, it has virtually zero chance of success. Once the thrower has a good understanding of the full technique, she should spend time perfecting her entry every day.

Okay, so it’s not really a secret… The only real secret to success in the throws is repetition. The sooner the athlete gets a high volume of quality repetitions, the sooner the athlete can begin fine tuning technique. Remember it is easier to learn big movements than smaller more intricate movements. So let the athlete get accustomed to rhythm and basic principles of throwing the discus before becoming too concerned about specific time in each phase or angles of trajectory.

After your athletes have a very basic understanding of the release mechanics, you want them to grasp the importance of the feet and hips in the throw. In order to do this, move on to a power throw progression with three phases.