Good Afternoon Titans,
On Saturday the 26
th I attended my first Highland Games seminar near Austin, TX at
Heroes CrossFit. Organized by
Throw Bros, many topics were covered such as programming, the art of practice and nutrition. I learned a lot and I’m looking forward to putting what I learned that day into practice to prepare for a Highland Games competition happening at the end of March in Baton Rouge, LA.
The Seminar
Throwing is a skill. That was the biggest take away from this seminar. Like any skill it takes a lot of practice to master these throws. If you’re going to practice though it’s very important to have quality instruction to aid in preventing bad habits from forming. The instruction doesn’t get any better than what we had over the day.
About the Instructors
Spencer Tyler
With a background in collegiate throwing, Highland Games was an easy jump to make. Holding several world records in different events, Spencer had not only the skill but also the coaching experience to help us all improve on our techniques.
Mike Beech
Co- Founder of both HVIII Brand and Throw Bros as well as an accomplished Highland Games athlete, Mike Beech loves the sport and is a very accomplished coach. As the organizer of this event, he didn’t charge anything for attendance and only wished to give back to the sport.
Breaking down the Practice
One of the first things that was covered during the lecture portion of the day was breaking down your practices to make them more productive. Before starting remember, it’s practice so don’t go all out.
The very first thing you should do before throwing is to just do something to get warm, try to break a sweat. While you’re doing this you can also start to visualize your throws for the day. After your warm up you should break your throws down into smaller portions or “drills”. An example of this would be working on your turns for your hammer throw.
After your drills you should work on variations of your throws. For instance you can practice your one turn throw as opposed to a two turn throw.
And remember not to go all out. Stay somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. By keeping something in the tank you can avoid technical break down as well as manage fatigue. If you manage your fatigue well then you can train more often.
Programming
How often you should program your throws is going to depend greatly on how experienced of a thrower you are. If you’re someone new to this, like I am, you should program more frequently than someone who has been at it in a while. This is for two reasons. One, if you’re new you won’t be able to throw as effectively so throwing won’t put as much wear and tear on your body as someone who knows how to put more into each throw. This is the same principle as a beginner’s one rep max as opposed to someone more advanced. The relative difficulty is the same but a 200 lbs. squat isn’t going to be a difficult to recover from as a 600 lbs. squat. The other reason is simply that you need to practice the technique. Once you become proficient at throwing you can dial back the frequency because your time will be better spent in the weight room.
As a basic guideline you can do the following and tweak from there
-During your off season spend a majority of your training time in the weight room. Do a lot of volume to add some lean mass to your frame. Only throw about once a week and do a lot of drills.
-During the pre- season you can up your throwing frequency to twice a week and start to track your PR’s on your variations. You can dial back your drills a little.
-When you’re in your throwing season you should up your frequency to three times a week if you can. Dial back your drills a lot and focus more on your competition throws. Your training in the weight room should be dialed back but maintain intensity to keep your strength levels up.
For more detailed information on periodizing your training blocks check out the books Strength Lab and Training Lab.
Nutrition
As far as nutrition it looks the same as every other strength sport. Because you’ll be competing outside make sure you’re staying hydrated and don’t eat a large meal in the middle of the day. Bring snacks if you can but make sure it’s not something that will cause you to crash.
We spent the second half of our day outside throwing but I won’t go into that here. Instead I’ll direct you to the
Mike Beech's YouTube channel for better instruction. You should also follow their
Instagram here. I learned a lot and can’t wait to start practicing. If you liked this article I’d appreciate it if you gave it a share. You can also follow our
Facebook here and our
Instagram here. As always if you have any questions for me feel free to email me at
cameron@atlasstrengthshop.com.
Release the Titan in You,
Cameron Ray
