conTenTs Volume 7 Number 4 / May 2014 in every issue 2 A Letter from the President 3 USTFCCCA Presidents 56 Updates from the NCAA Eligibility Center 6 FeATures 6 Pound for Pound Weight Lifting and the Men’s Throwing Events By Don Babbitt 20 Pull and Dynamics Direction of Pull and Dynamics of Arm Action in Hammer Throwing By Andreas V. Maheras, Ph.D 30 Third Law of Motion Mechanics Fundamentals for Track & Field By Kevin O’Grattan 36 Realignment and the phases preceding it 4 Connections Crucial to the Success of a Pole Vault David Butler 42 Ties that Bind Developing relationships cultivates winning results 30 Ben Gall AWArDs 49 USTFCCCA National Indoor Coaches & Athletes of the Year 50 Division I: USTFCCCA Regional Indoor Coaches & Athletes of the Year 52 Division II: USTFCCCA Regional Indoor Coaches & Athletes of the Year 54 Division III: USTFCCCA Regional Indoor Coaches & Athletes of the Year cover Photograph courtesy of UGA Sports Communications 42 MAY 2014 techniques 1 A LeTTer FroM THe PresiDenT PUBLISHER Sam Seemes EXECUTIVE EDITOR Mike Corn ell, welcome to Outdoor season 2014. I hope you are all enjoying some CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Matt Cohen, great competitions, warm weather and good health. As we move for- Sylvia Kamp ward to our third competitive season of the year, I hope you find the time to appreciate all that is happening in our sports and continue to MEDIA MANAGER Tom Lewis focus on making positive change for our futures. MEDIA ASSISTANT Kyle Terwillegar Our indoor Division I, II and III national championships were outstanding. W MEMBERSHIP SERVICES Dave Svoboda Once again our athletes, coaches and programs put on some of the best com- petitive championships of all the NCAA. Congrats to all that achieved success PHOTOGRAPHER Kirby Lee and had a productive indoor drive. EDITORIAL BOARD Tommy Badon, As we work our way through our outdoor competitions, I hope all of you can Boo Schexnayder, Derek Yush, take the time to familiarize yourselves and your staff on the changing landscape of our sports and the potential changes within the NCAA. There is no doubt we Gary Winckler are moving toward some major changes from our leadership within the NCAA and your voices, our voices need to be heard. Please communicate with your Athletic Directors and with our leadership of the USTFCCCA. Each conference has a conference representative that represents you on the USTFCCCA Division I Executive Committees, one for Cross Country and one for Track and Field. Published by These conference representatives are your front line for all that is taking place Renaissance Publishing LLC within our organization. I encourage you to communicate with them on a regu- 110 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite 123, lar basis. Your input is critical as decisions are finalized and you do have a voice Metairie, LA 70005 in all that takes place. In addition, please note that this is a “Rules” year, and (504) 828-1380 our Rules Committee will finalize all proposed rule changes over the summer for www.myneworleans.com a new rule book for the next two years. Each member has the ability to submit rule proposals to the Rules Committee and the Committee will determine the final set of rules for our rulebook. USTFCCCA After all these years of being involved on committees for USTFCCCA I truly recognize how frustrating it can be when a proposal of a change is circulated National Office through our body, and the details, rational and reasons for these changes are 1100 Poydras Street, Suite 1750 not fully disclosed or they get lost in translation. This is a bit due to the nature New Orleans, LA 70163 of our sport and the many, many coaches that are in our ranks. There is no easy Phone: 504-599-8900 or simple way to introduce new concepts, ideas or changes without its effect Fax: 504-599-8909 being positive for some and negative for others. Please note, that we must have an open and communicative process for our sports to grow and become better. Let’s work forward from the understanding that we all need to work together toward our futures. I hope that each of you will be motivated to continue to Techniques (ISSN 1939-3849) is published work toward the betterment of our sports through working together. Ask the quarterly in February, May, August, and questions, give your opinions and work toward improvements together. November by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross I promise from my position of the USTFCCCA President that I believe in all Country Coaches Association. Copyright 2014. that we are trying to do for the athletes, coaches, fans and leaders of our sports. All rights reserved. No part of this publica- I hope you will trust and work with us for all that you may want as well. tion may be reproduced in any manner, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publisher. techniques is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in techniques are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the magazines’ managers or owners. Periodical Postage Paid at New Orleans La and Additional Entry Offices. BETH ALFORD-SULLIVAN POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: President, USTFCCCA USTFCCCA, PO Box 55969, Metairie, LA 70055- Beth is the Director of Men’s and Women’s Track 5969. If you would like to advertise your busi- and Field and Cross Country at Penn State University. ness in techniques, please contact Mike Corn She can be reached at [email protected]. at (504) 599-8900 or [email protected]. 2 techniques MAY 2014 usTFcccA PresiDenTs Division i DENNIS SHAVER NCAA Division I Track and Field Dennis Shaver is the Head Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Coach at Louisiana State University. Dennis can be reached at [email protected]. SEAN CLEARY NCAA Division I Cross Country Sean Cleary is the Head Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country coach at West Virginia University. Sean can be reached at [email protected]. Division ii JAMES REID NCAA Division II Track and Field James Reid is the Head Track and Field Coach and Assistant Athletic Director at Angelo State University. He can be reached at [email protected]. SCOTT LOREK NCAA Division II Cross Country Scott Lorek is Head Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country coach at Northwest Missouri State University. Scott can be reached at [email protected]. Division iii KARI KLUCKHOHN NCAA Division III Track & Field Kari Kluckhohn is the Head Women’s Track and Field Coach at North Central College. She can be reached at [email protected]. KATHY LANESE NCAA Division III Cross Country Kathy Lanese is the Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach at Case Western Reserve University. Kathy can be reached at [email protected]. MAY 2014 techniques 3 Pound for Pound WEIGHT LIFTING AND THE MEN’S THROWING EVENTS DON BABBITT 6 techniques MAY 2014 KIRBY LEE PHOTO eight lifting is an integral part of strength and conditioning programs for all four throwing disciplines. In the Wmajority of training plans, the exer- cises that make up the Olympic lifts and Power lifts, and their variations, are the foundation of these programs. There has been a ongoing discussion over the years in the throwing com- munity regarding lifting and throwing which centers around how much you have to lift in order to throw a certain distance. It is quite commonplace that when two throwers meet to discuss training that the conversation quickly turns to the topic of “how much do you lift for exercise “x.” However, the correlation between throwing and lifting is somewhat limited, and far from definitive, because the throwing move- ment is much more complicated than the lifting movement, and there are many other factors, both physical and psychological, that can deter- mine a good throwing performance. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of training results for male athletes attempting to compete at the highest level of NCAA competition in the four throwing dis- ciplines. The aim is to highlight the type of lifting performances an NCAA coach may see when collecting data over the long term from their training groups. There is no intention of implying that the lifting results are statistically correlated with actual throwing performance. The only purpose is to provide a large sample of lifting results that one contrasts and compares with regard to the different throwing disci- plines. General trends in the lifting performanc- es will be discussed, and the results for these throwers will be discussed with regard to event type, strength to body weight ratio, and level of throwing performance. The statistics for the throwing athletes to be presented are from actual maximum perfor- mances and not on theoretical or extrapolated predictions from multiple repetitions. This data has also been accumulated from the throwers of the University of Georgia track and field program over the past 30 years, which has produced many successful performers in all four throwing disci- plines at the NCAA level. Virtually all the athletes whose data is presented are between the ages of 18-24 years old. In addition, the lifting numbers are only representative of the training marks pro- duced while on the team as undergraduates and are reported with their corresponding throwing performances. It should be noted that many of the throwers went on to continue throwing after college and later improved on both their throw- ing results and lifting results.