Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #26: Gill1918 presents Ken Kemeny "Rethinking Throws Instruction: Glide to Spin"

Transcript

#26: Gill1918 presents Ken Kemeny "Rethinking Throws Instruction: Glide to Spin" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We're bringing the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great
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  efficiency what should not be done at all.
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  Today we're talking the Glide Shot Put on the Gill 1918
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  podcast. Before we do, I wanted to
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  introduce myself. My name is Ken Kemeny and I am
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  the throws coach at Saint Charles North High School in
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  suburban Chicago. I am also the throws coordinator
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  for ITKA, the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches
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  Association. We have our big annual clinic
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  every year in January. We have a summer clinic that is
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  wonderful that is about a month and a half away.
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  There are a number of different coaches there that are going to
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  be working with athletes and basically the people who signed
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  up for the clinic and just shadow them.
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  Ryan Whiting is the throws person coming in.
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  Go to itca.com for details. I'm also the director of Throw
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  Big Throw Far, Chicago. I threw many, many, many years
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  ago under two of the best coaches on the planet, Scott
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  Capos at the University of Iowa and Jim Aikens at Friend High
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  School. So I was asked the question,
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  what's the best way to teach a glider how to spin?
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  What's the best way to make the switch from glide to spin?
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  And it got me thinking, if everyone is going to throw the
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  discus, isn't it more efficient to teach everyone to rotate
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  first? Again, if if everyone is going
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  to be doing the rotational motion in the discus and a lot
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  of your guys are going to be spinning anyway, why are we
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  teaching them the glide first? OK, Krauser did the glide first.
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  Yes, a good glide might possibly, maybe were grasping at
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  straws help athletes learn better stand throw mechanics
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  like my grand pappy did. But just think about it.
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  When you've got a huge group of kids with limited time, limited
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  space, limited facilities, it's just more logical and efficient
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  to teach everyone to rotate because everyone is throwing
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  disc and a lot of those kids are going to be spinning anyway.
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  I teach all my kids rotational stuff day one.
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  I convert them to the glide if they struggle.
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  A lot of these kids who initially struggle spinning pick
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  it back up a year or two later and do awesome.
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  There's years where everyone spins.
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  This has saved me an enormous amount of time and energy
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  because I don't have to run between two different practices
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  that are running simultaneously, the glide practice and the spin
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  practice. That's a nightmare.
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  We should not be doing that if we can avoid it.
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  Sometimes you can't, that's fine, but try to save yourself
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  the trouble. Interesting story.
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  This past winter my buddy Dan McQuaid was hosting Vestine
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  Hofsteinsen, best discus coach in the world.
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  He was coming here from Iceland to spoke to speak at a Wisconsin
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  clinic run by my good friend Bill Richards.
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  It was awesome. He also, Vestine, also helped us
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  with various club things and workouts.
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  It was really cool. And I got to spend a lot of time
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  with him And he was very interested in sort of like how
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  the throws coaches in the United States operated.
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  And he said that if he was a throws coach in a high school in
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  the United States, he would teach discus first because it's
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  the simplest. Everyone learns discus, then
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  everyone learns rotational shot. Then he would only teach glide
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  to kids who couldn't rotate. Well one of the best coaches in
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  the world says discus first, then rotation, then glide.
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  To be clear I'm not anti glide. The national records 81 dude was
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  a glider. MY2 best shot putters this year
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  are gliders. I coached an Allstate glider a
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  few years ago. I coached a state champion
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  glider, glider, my gosh, 20 years ago.
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  I can't even my brains breaking thinking about it.
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  It just makes sense though, from a logistical standpoint to start
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  everyone rotating. Now, if you're a glider looking
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  to spin or just anyone looking to spin, you start the same way.
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  But I want to toss out a couple disclaimers for our gliders
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  turned spinners #1 this is not something to do in May.
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  This is not something to do before your big meets.
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  This is a over the summer in January, February project.
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  If you want to learn to spend the summer, come find me throw
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  big throw forward.com. So this is this is an offseason
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  thing or an early season thing. That's one number two commit.
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  You can't be going back and forth.
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  We've all seen it Mayhem kid at a meet, they're mad, mom's
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  crying, they're doing a glide. It went bad.
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  Then they try to spin it was a better than they spin again and
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  it it just it usually ends bad. OK, you got to commit.
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  You can't have two girlfriends doesn't work out from a
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  technical standpoint. One thing I would caution
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  gliders turn spinners is you got to adjust your your power
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  position and your stand throw. You're probably going to need to
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  bring your feet closer together and you're probably going to
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  need to be more upright. David Storl has this wonderful
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  Instagram page where he is just like doing the there's video of
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  him doing these like beautiful glide drills where he's so bent
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  over and so wide and just pulls on the shot forever and it and
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  you can't typically you can't hit that position as if you're a
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  spinner. So narrow upright.
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  OK, now it's hard for me to describe a lot of these drills
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  in detail via podcast, so I'm going to speak in like really
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  broad strokes here. If you want to see this in more
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  detail, come find me or also check out my old high school
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  coach. Jim Aikens has some wonderful
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  articles online as well as stuff on on Coach Tube Thrower X with
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  Joe Frontier, Scott Capos, Ryan Whiting.
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  It's a wonderful resource. They also have a lot of these
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  drills that I'm describing on YouTube and like throws
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  progressions on YouTube. Check that out.
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  Speaking of Scott Capos, he wrote a book, the Shot put and
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  Discus Throws Manual that is on throwspro.com.
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  It is like this generations Bible for the throws, which is
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  pretty cool because his coach back in the day in high school,
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  George Dunn wrote a couple generations ago Bible for the
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  throws, the throws manual. Also, there was a throw big
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  throw far podcast where John Smith, who does an incredible
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  job, he talked about leg school go down that road.
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  Check that out. So just about every day in
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  practice we do unit turns and wheels.
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  Unit turns and wheels. In my program I tell the kids
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  that we need to do over 10,000 drills a year to become
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  proficient. You need to make a game of this
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  because there's nothing more miserable.
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  At least I I mean I enjoy it, but you know, I'm throws junkie.
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  But for a 16 year old kid to be doing drills in like a hallway
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  outside my classroom in February while it's snowing, that's kind
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  of a miserable thing. So keep them excited, keep them
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  interested and challenge them. Like how many throws drills we
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  got to do? Guys?
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  10,000 OK, I think my my group has actually changed that to
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  12,000. Love it.
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  OK, but you got to do those every day.
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  Those two drills are some of the cornerstones of just basic
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  rotational technique. So how do you blend this
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  together? One mistake I think some coaches
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  make is not taking enough full throws early.
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  Yes, they're going to be a disaster, it's fine.
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  But waiting until the stand throw is perfect before you
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  progress to the wheel before you progress to the the the full
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  throw is problematic. I had a a thrower who whose PR
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  was about 17010 or so years ago. He could not throw a stand throw
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  in the discus. He straight up couldn't.
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  It looked great when he was throwing a full, but I took too
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  much time trying to fix his stand throw in the discus when
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  like, dude could have just been throwing that whole time and
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  been fine. OK, as like an educator, I think
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  about this as kind of a spiraling curriculum, right?
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  Kids are going to learn about photosynthesis four or five
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  times from the time they're a kindergartner through their
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  senior year of high school. It's going to get more complex.
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  More is going to be expected of them.
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  The the work that the AP bio students are doing when they're
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  17 or 18 looks different than the, you know, coloring that
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  they did when they were seven. Same thing here in the throes.
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  You're you know, the freshman the first week is going to look
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  different than the the senior in May now getting them.
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  So get them playing around with with the the full movement.
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  And a useful strategy is this idea of like drill, drill,
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  throw, repeat, drill, drill, throw, repeat.
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  You're having your athlete work on some skill, you're drilling
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  that specific skill and then you're taking a throw, working
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  on that specific skill, drill, drill, throw, repeat, drill,
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  drill, throw, repeat. OK, so that you'll hear me
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  discuss that now. The full throw in simplest terms
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  is unit turn to a South African, step to the middle, do a wheel
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  throw, again, unit turn, step to the middle, wheel throw.
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  This is described different ways.
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  You hear some people say turn around the left, turn around the
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  right throw. It's all the same thing.
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  OK, Start with those basic movements that they can just
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  kind of step through and walk through this thing.
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  OK, so hit those positions and then try a full so unit turn to
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  South African position, step to the middle wheel, throw all in
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  discrete chunks. 2 drills, 1 throw.
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  Now we know that the throw is fluid.
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  We know that it needs to be smooth.
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  We know that there's rhythm. So how do we go from the peanut
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  to the peanut butter? How do we take it from chunky to
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  smooth? You start to blend this stuff
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  together. So after you do unit turn, step
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  to the middle wheel throw. You can do a unit turn just
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  straight to the middle wheel, then throw.
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  So you're skipping a step or you can do a unit turn to the South
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  African position and then throw all in one motion.
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  That is a helpful one for newbies.
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  Cause one of the challenging things for rotational shot and
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  and discus kids high school and anywhere is that initial part of
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  the throw. And if you can start them in
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  that in like a good South African position, a lot of times
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  that's helpful. OK, but different permutations
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  of like blending the thing together where again they do a
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  unit turn right to the middle and then just throw from there.
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  Or they do a unit turn to a South African and then just
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  throw from there. Watch them identify the weak
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  part. Usually they're tipping their
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  shoulders, usually their right foot's flat in the middle.
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  Usually they're leading with their eyes and upper body and
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  and not their their lower body. Sometimes their rhythm isn't the
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  nice. Watch them identify the weak
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  part, Drill, drill, throw. Find the weak part, work on it
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  in the drills, work on it in the full throws.
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  Drill, drill, throw. Break it in chunks, drill it,
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  blend it, throw, rinse and repeat.
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  This basic concept and progression as well as the big
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  picture, which is don't just teach the glide for no reason,
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  teach it only when you need to teach it.
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  If you adopt that, I think that's really going to help your
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  throws program. If you want more, go to throw a
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  big throw, far shot, throw a big throw. far.com, my good friend
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  Joe Frontier has created this awesome network of throws camps
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  throughout the Midwest. He is located in Madison, but we
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  also have awesome sites in Milwaukee, in central Wisconsin,
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  Wausau, that's God's country, central Illinois.
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  I've got a spot in the Chicago suburbs and we are opening up
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  kind of a a second location in Deerfield with my good friend
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  Cody Farrick, who is a phenomenal throws coach.
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  Coaches, if you're interested in learning more or visiting my
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  camp, just come and hang out. Watch.
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  Please reach out to me at TBTF Chicago on social media.
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  Last, I'd like to thank Mike Cunningham for this opportunity.
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  Thank you and throw a big throw far.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
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  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
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  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
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  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
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  The Gill 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
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  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
• 14:29
  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
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  there. So please get a hold of me,
• 14:34
  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
• 14:40
  and let's help create your episode of the Gil 1918 Project.
• 14:43
  Hope you enjoy the day, they will see you tomorrow.