Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Gary Aldrich-Carnegie Mellon...'Virtual Throws Conference' Episode #1 presented by MF Athletics

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BONUS: Gary Aldrich-Carnegie Mellon...'Virtual Throws Conference' Episode #1 presented by MF Athletics · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey gang, welcome to the Gila FedEx connections podcast, the
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  you our Instagram ways. I'm your host.
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  Mike Cunningham national sales manager, for Gila FedEx.
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  This episode, we've got some added value, our friends over at
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  MF Athletics and the NTC. A national throws coaches
• 0:40
  association run by our good friend, Rob Lowe sorsa, they are
• 0:44
  doing some virtual throws conferences and the very first
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  one they had was good friend of Gill Athletics.
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  Gary Aldridge Gary is the head coach of Carnegie Mellon, giant
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  Mellon University as well as being on the coaching staff for
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  the Anyone Olympic team. So we're so happy to bring this
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  broadcast to, you know, this is going to be a lot of value here
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  for you. So you know what?
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  I'm going to stop talking. Without further Ado, please help
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  me. Welcome the wise, the wonderful
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  Gary Aldridge First to say thank you to, you know, all these
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  coaches here who are helping us out with this and Coach,
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  Aldridge for being willing to present tonight is our first
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  presenter. And, you know, thank you to the
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  National throws coaches association and Emma for helping
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  us kind of broadcast this and get as many people involved as
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  possible and share these, hopefully share these
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  conversations with this many people as we can.
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  Anybody who's watching and listening feel.
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  Feel free to share this. You know, with anybody thinks
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  interested kind of our goals to just if if anybody else here is
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  like I am or missing track and missing.
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  Some of those interactions, we're getting it meets and with
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  our colleagues and athletes. So hopefully, this is an outlet
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  for us to kind of learn a little bit and get a little bit better
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  and come out out on the other side of this a little bit
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  smarter and well-prepared for Seasons to come.
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  So all intro coach. Aldridge real quick and then
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  turn it over to him. But coach Aldridge is the head
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  coach at Carnegie Mellon University.
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  He is also going to serve as the 2020 or I guess now 2021 men's
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  Olympic throws coach needs it served on, kind of a laundry
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  list of other national team. Coaching staffs, including World
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  Championships in 2016, 2017, his coach at the Pan Am games and
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  Couple of NACA, see championships and has served as
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  a coaches and Katha me instructor for the Brazilian
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  Olympic Committee. So pretty distinguished
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  distinguished record coaching it a wide variety of the array of
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  levels and we're excited to hear what he has to share with us
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  today. And with that, I'll let you
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  share your screen coach and I'll turn over to you.
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  Sounds good. Thanks a lot, everybody and
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  Brandon especially for inviting me to actually speak.
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  I really appreciate it. Just kind of go through a few
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  things. One of the things that I do
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  every single year not only has a throws coach, but I'm also the
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  head track and field coach for Carnegie Mellon.
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  Is I pick a saying for the Year that we kind of.
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  You know, build our season around, in past years, you can
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  see we've had together, passion, grit drive from it.
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  This year are saying, was care, and I picked it up from Devon
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  Crosby, who's the athletic director at Lynn University
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  coach Curcio will remember Devon because he was one of our former
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  athletes at Slippery Rock University and so Devon talks
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  about his Camp principal. As connecting adopting Reston
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  excellence and so it kind of really fit into what we do as a
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  program at Carnegie Mellon. So I just wanted to give a
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  little shout out, Devon who has done pretty well for himself
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  coming from Slippery, Rock and Coach Curcio and I myself were
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  his coaches at Slippery Rock. So just a little bit as Brandon
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  said, ivory Have a very wide background on things.
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  I've coached at the high school level, I've coached at division
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  two, I've coached at division. Three been assistant, coach been
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  head coach. And obviously I've been
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  fortunate enough to be a coach for the United States in seven.
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  International Teams now and what it all has done.
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  Is it has basically brought me to who I am today.
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  And so, as I was putting this together, you know, I think it's
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  important that you always understand where people come
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  from, so that you can have an idea where their philosophy is,
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  and why they do certain things. I'm from Massachusetts, Rob was
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  saucer myself, competed against each other, even though we
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  didn't know each other, But I was smarter, I went to Slippery
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  Rock University instead of Springfield to be a phys, Ed
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  major, I figured I'd get out of the state and go see what
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  something else was like besides Springfield and it really helped
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  mold who I was, I didn't do track except my senior year in
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  high school and that's a long story on how it happened.
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  Basically, I played football, I stocky and baseball but back in
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  the Of these, it was taboo to lift for baseball players.
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  And so, my AP biology teacher was the head baseball coach, and
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  he called me up one day during class in, like a, you going to
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  be lifting? I was like, yeah, I'm getting
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  more. Looks for football.
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  He said, well, you can't play baseball well, the best runner
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  in. The school was also in the class
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  and they said, well, why don't you come out and throw?
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  And next thing, you know, I did. And so that's how it all
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  started. So I didn't stop this whole
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  track. Thing until later on.
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  But then when I get to Slippery Rock just in football my
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  freshman year and then didn't go out and do track until my
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  sophomore year. But after that first year, I
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  started to realize that I was much better at tracking.
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  I wasn't football. So I put all my efforts into
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  being the best track athlete but I also knew that I was going to
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  be a coach. I I've always known that I
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  wanted to coach since Real young age and Coach Maxwell who was
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  the fourth best hurdler in the world in 1948.
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  And I say it was the fourth-best hurdler because he didn't make
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  the Olympic team because the top three hurdle is in the world,
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  where his teammates on the world, record shuttle, hurdle
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  team. And so coach match will use to
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  hang up all the workouts for the hurdlers, burners, and jumpers
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  underneath the stairwell. And so, by the time I was a
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  junior, I knew I was going to be coaching.
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  I used to take all his workouts. And every week, I take all those
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  workouts and I still have them to this day and I'm going back
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  and I referred to and so I knew right away that I want to coach
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  and it just ended up starting out as a football coach, and
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  it's gravitated to the track and I've been so fortunate.
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  And I think later on, we'll get into more and more about my
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  mentors and friends and we can really see how that helped shape
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  things. Swarming.
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  I think one of the big things that we need to do is coaches
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  especially in this day and age is, we've got to really get our
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  kids much more into the history of the sport and especially if
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  we're talking about throwers the history of The events that
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  they're doing. And so, this is just a quick
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  picture of some discus. Legends, John Powell J sub s and
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  Mac Wilkins that they were all their number of years ago.
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  When we had the national throws coaches association, Symposium
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  Clinic convention, if you will out in Columbus, Ohio, and the
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  one-year, these three legendary discus throwers were there.
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  So I was fortunate enough to get a picture of all three.
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  A of them and Rob was the big person who put them on.
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  So especially in this day and age, it's so easy for our kids
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  to learn about the history but sometimes they just need to be
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  prompted to go and do that. And but it's also to look
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  towards the future and this is from this summer at the neck,
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  ack, under-23 championships and on the picture on the left
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  there. That's myself with TJ crate.
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  And with Jordan and Sam to the best young throwers that we
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  have, especially in the shot put and then the picture on the
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  right is at the end all the throwers we got together for a
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  picture at the end. So I think it's important that
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  we also look to the Future on what we're going to be doing as
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  well. And I also believe that it's
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  important and why this is this is from 2017.
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  And this is myself and Mason and I love standing next to Mason
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  because he makes me feel like I'm a distance Runner.
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  And this is khadijah's Robinson, one of the best 800 meter
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  Runners ever in the history of our country.
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  And again, it's not just knowing the history of the events that
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  we do, but also knowing something about an 800-meter
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  Runner, like Adidas as well. So, Just a couple of things that
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  we can go into before we get some possible questions, all the
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  things that I have learned over my career both as a thrower and
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  as a coach is, it's all great. It's all information that I have
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  to my disposal but I have to Use my ability to shape what I know
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  is how it will work for me and the athletes that I'm actually
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  coaching. And I think one of the greatest
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  things that occurred for me by going to school at Slippery Rock
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  was my throws coach, Thomas Lambert.
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  He taught us not just to be throwers but in actuality he was
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  teaching us how to be coaches and I'm sure a lot of people out
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  on the web and heard of Michael Hambrick.
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  He does an awful lot of things and social media as well and he
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  was a teammate of mine and he was the one who actually really
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  started showing me how to throw the discus and so many of us as
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  throwers. That is what we are now.
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  Where coaches Jane Beatty who is one of the first-ever females to
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  use rotational movement in the shop Hood as a Western PA girl
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  and she threw 48 feet back in 1983.
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  And again, she was one of the first ever female else to throw
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  with rotational movement instead of gliding and Jane for years
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  has been a coach at local high schools.
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  Here in Western PA. And so here are just some of the
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  limitations that we have at Carnegie Mellon.
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  You know, the amount of time that ammo able to work with
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  people, the weight room are facilities that we have
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  multi-sport athletes, the academic and athletic ability,
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  and the perfect example is, and I'll show this Len Huang, He is
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  the best discus thrower that has ever come to Carnegie.
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  Mellon ever in the history of the school and as a senior in
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  high school, he was third in. The merging of elite at New
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  Balance and he threw 171 3 inches that year.
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  Two years ago, he was the number two hundred and thirty fourth
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  ranked discus, thrower in the nation.
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  Whereas, if we go back to that picture of TJ with joining
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  Geist, Jordan is probably the third best shot putter ever in
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  the history of the sport for the United States and even in the
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  world. And so, knowing the athletic
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  ability is really important what I can do and what I want them to
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  do, it may take them for years to finally be able to do that.
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  And so that's kind of where we do things but when we'll be
• 13:54
  making these the computer science major.
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  So his probably first job out of college you'll make it over a
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  hundred thousand dollars so a lot more than what I'll be
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  making. So with that way, I'd like to do
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  is just go ahead and open it up to some questions and then we
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  can lead into some of the other things that we'll talk about.
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  Totally I thank you coach for for that, for that start.
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  And we'll kind of get right back into it with some of these
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  background questions you mentioned how important it is to
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  kind of draw from other people and have people that you can
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  associate and help you in the sport who are your summit, some
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  of your major mentors, throughout your career,
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  Obviously initially it was my college coaches Bill Lennox,
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  Nick Maxwell, and Tom Lambert coach Lennox was the head coach.
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  But even in high school, one of the first person ever teach me
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  how to throw, he was an art teacher at Somerset, High School
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  joint you know. And then we get out of college,
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  I became very good friends with Steve Gardener who is one of the
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  best high school coach. Churches in Massachusetts
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  history. And he's now be well, actually,
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  he just retired from being the head track coach at UMass
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  Dartmouth and I learned a lot from him and the thing about it
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  Brandon is for me. I'm not specifically just a
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  throws coach my history and background in coaching has been
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  so very broad. I mean, my first job out of
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  college was that Bishops? High school and North Dartmouth
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  Massachusetts. It was me, I was the only coach
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  and we had 70 kids on the team and I was the only one there.
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  So I had to coach the distance Runners jumpers everybody.
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  And I think that was very good for me as things went on because
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  even Michelle will tell you for many years at Slippery Rock.
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  I was never the throws coach at Slippery.
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  Rock. I was along triple jump jump.
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  Rents and hurdles and multi-event coach at Slippery
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  Rock. And but the thing that those
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  things did was it gave me a different appreciation.
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  What I can also bring to the throws and how I can relate the
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  throws to some of those other events as well.
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  So I think those were my mentors but then my first real college
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  job was at Allegheny College. Ralph white hired me for my
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  first college job and he Me again so very much not
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  specifically about throws, but just about coaching at the
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  Collegiate level, you know. But then, you know, you go from
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  there and I've been so fortunate to have friends, you know?
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  And a lot of them are here on with Rob and Eric and Michelle
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  carrying Judd Logan. And, you know, the list goes on,
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  Mike Sergeant at South Carolina. Pat, evil.
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  Really got to know. Know him when he was coaching at
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  Oshkosh another division, 3 school and you just take from
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  everything that people have and you just fortunate to be able to
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  reach out. I've been able to reach out to
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  people like, John Smith and be able to bounce some things off
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  of him. And so I think for young coaches
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  out there, the more people that you can get to know and don't be
• 17:34
  afraid to ask questions of the better.
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  You're going to be B and it just as a great way to have
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  conversations about what things are like and it doesn't matter
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  if you're at a division three or the division, one school, people
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  are going to talk, you know, and that's where one of the best
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  things for me coaching at that International level is been.
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  I got to basically spent three weeks with art Venegas and
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  listening to him, how we was told coaching.
• 18:05
  Joe Kovacs and Darrell Hill. And it was, it was an amazing
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  thing because it was the first time I ever get down to really
• 18:14
  sit and know him, you know? But then I was able to see how
• 18:18
  Mitch krauser worked with Ryan and that was interesting because
• 18:24
  obviously I went up and asked Mitch.
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  I was like, hey, how are things working as a coach for your son?
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  And that's a whole different Dynamic than other things, you
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  know. And I've had a little bit of
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  that because my son He's currently a senior in college,
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  but growing up. He was a baseball player and I
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  worked with him through baseball, all the way growing
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  up. So it was neat, hearing about
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  that Dynamic of being a father and working with the Nath lead
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  as well, you know, so the more people you can reach out and
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  become friends with. And I think that's one of the
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  great things about our sport is that people are not afraid to
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  share with you. It's sometimes in football
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  basketball. Well, they may not want to share
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  because they think that you're going to beat you.
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  I would love to sit down and talk with Al to see how he's
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  been able to develop year after year.
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  After year, kids from Bates, a small little liberal arts school
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  up in Maine. Brandon understands because
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  we're Brandon went. But how many athletes has he had
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  that? That National level?
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  And I know they're not showing up and now that Backyard as the
• 19:39
  best throwers ever in the history but he's doing something
• 19:43
  right with his progressions and his teaching that there's got to
• 19:48
  be something there that we can all learn from to help make our
• 19:51
  kids better. So I think that's a great thing.
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  Awesome. And you kind of, you know, a
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  question we had submitted, it kind of goes to what you were
• 20:00
  talking about about coaching, all sorts of events and drawing
• 20:03
  from all that one of the questions is that we know that
• 20:07
  you've always coached a lot more events in the throes.
• 20:11
  This supposition that many coaches, especially High School
• 20:13
  coaches, find themselves in, how do you manage your time working
• 20:17
  with so many athletes? Yeah, well number one I Was A
• 20:21
  Bachelor so I didn't have anybody.
• 20:25
  I was living at home with my mom and dad so and I was at a
• 20:31
  Catholic High School where I could actually have like, kids
• 20:40
  stop practicing at 2:30 and then another group come at 4:30 and
• 20:45
  then another group even be there at 6:30. 7:00 at night and their
• 20:50
  parents would come and pick them up and a lot of public school
• 20:54
  situations. You might not have that
• 20:56
  situation but luckily for me as the only coach at Bishop saying
• 21:01
  High School, I was able to spread them out so I could work
• 21:05
  with the event versus the event group.
• 21:08
  The other thing was get to know your facilities people because
• 21:13
  the night workmen at Bishop saying High School his real job.
• 21:19
  During the day, was a carpenter. And I can't tell you how many
• 21:23
  boys he fixed in the gym after some of our guys through the
• 21:28
  shot put and lost it, and broke a couple of Boyd's on the
• 21:32
  basketball floor. So get to know your facilities,
• 21:37
  guys, and treat them right at Christmas time, and everything
• 21:40
  else and they will save your job for you and that so it's just
• 21:45
  again, in your situation trying to find the time, I'm but I had
• 21:49
  nothing else that I wanted to do but coach I wanted to try to
• 21:55
  make as the best but again it's always been my Mantra that I
• 22:01
  could be known as the next art. Venegas one of the best coaches
• 22:06
  in the world but unless the kids Trust and Believe In what I'm
• 22:10
  saying and asking them to do, it doesn't matter.
• 22:14
  You've got to make sure that you develop a relationship with Your
• 22:19
  kids, no matter what events they are, so that they Trust and
• 22:23
  Believe In what you're doing and then that's where success will
• 22:27
  be. So when I took that first time
• 22:30
  head job at Alfred University in Upstate New York and I was
• 22:34
  coaching distance Runners, for the first time in many years, I
• 22:39
  was very fortunate that people. Listen, and we have the first
• 22:44
  ever female to qualify for Cross Country Nationals and it.
• 22:48
  Because Liz listen to what I had to offer and say, but she put in
• 22:56
  the work and that's the key. Are you going to have kids who
• 22:59
  are willing to put in the work and then just trust and believe
• 23:02
  in whatever you have him? Do no matter how crazy they may
• 23:06
  think of it. And that's the key.
• 23:10
  Awesome. And we'll switch gears here a
• 23:13
  little bit. You know, you've got such a wide
• 23:17
  range of coaching experiences from high school to the world
• 23:23
  championship, level Olympic level and everywhere.
• 23:25
  In between, how have you taken? What you have learned through
• 23:28
  International coaching experience and implemented it
• 23:31
  into what you do with Carnegie Mellon and some of your yeah,
• 23:35
  that's a great question. One of the things that true my
• 23:39
  years Developing into a coach. I've always been a very
• 23:45
  progression oriented drill oriented person.
• 23:48
  I think that's because that's the way I was.
• 23:50
  When I was a thrower myself are even in baseball doing drills,
• 23:56
  after drills. It was just the who I was and so
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  it's it's things. I've developed a progression
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  that is work. Well for me at here at Carnegie
• 24:08
  Mellon and other places I've been.
• 24:10
  Ben, but spending like three weeks with art Venegas.
• 24:14
  He, he taught me some more drills that I can use one drill
• 24:20
  with, we call the Kovacs Hill drill and we were in Birmingham
• 24:27
  in England and watching them throw.
• 24:32
  And next thing I know Darrell Hill does this drill he set up
• 24:37
  in the back like he's going to do a full throw?
• 24:40
  And next thing I know is he spends directly towards me and
• 24:44
  I'm sitting off of The Circle at 9:00.
• 24:49
  So, if the toe board is at 6, the back of the ring is 12.
• 24:53
  He actually does basically a South African right towards me.
• 24:56
  And I'm like, around, what are you doing?
• 25:00
  And he's like, this is how we work on.
• 25:04
  Making sure we stay over the left leg, as we come out of the
• 25:07
  back. And I had never seen it before
• 25:11
  and then Joe did it. And I was like, dang well of
• 25:15
  course, as soon as I get back to Carnegie Mellon, what became
• 25:19
  part of the drill progression. And I just named it, the Kovac
• 25:22
  hilldrup. And so now if our kids are
• 25:26
  coming out of the back and they're not working over as a
• 25:30
  right-handed thrower that left side working over, that blocking
• 25:34
  leg coming out of the back. Then I automatically look at
• 25:38
  them and I was like, what are you going to do when they go
• 25:41
  Kovacs, he'll grow? I said, yeah, so you can work
• 25:44
  and feel that left side movement for right-handed thrower.
• 25:49
  So it's taking those things and then also just tweaking them.
• 25:54
  So making them so that it works in it understands for the kids
• 25:59
  that I have but keeping it within my progressions on what I
• 26:05
  want to do. And actually I'll share Go back
• 26:10
  to this here. And you can see here, this is
• 26:18
  again being a Carnegie Mellon, most of my throwers here the
• 26:22
  computer science Engineers science majors and they're a lot
• 26:27
  smarter and making Google Docs and Excel spreadsheets and I am.
• 26:32
  And so what you can see here is, you know, the name Bailey
• 26:35
  O'Malley. He was a freshman this year,
• 26:37
  local Pittsburgh kid, he's if he's 58 59.
• 26:44
  Nine. I'm seven foot tall, he weighs
• 26:48
  about 235 but a week or two about three weeks before our
• 26:53
  indoor conference meet, he was dead lifting 6054 triples.
• 26:59
  So he's incredibly strong, great strength out of high school.
• 27:05
  The big thing we're doing, he was a glider in high school.
• 27:08
  So we're turning them into rotational but you can see the
• 27:11
  drill overhead, drill walking. Drill up.
• 27:14
  Over to the corner. Mirror drill, took side step
• 27:19
  backs out there and so you can see me.
• 27:21
  And then one of the things that I really kind of learned from
• 27:25
  watching a lot of the throwers that John Smith would work with
• 27:29
  and Michelle can attest to this because she's been on a number
• 27:32
  of teams with me with them is they would mark their throats in
• 27:38
  practice and then they would measure.
• 27:41
  And so, that's where I kind of turn into. to the the idea of
• 27:49
  move the mark and in practice, get them to stop thinking about
• 27:55
  just not exactly what the technique is looking, but let
• 27:59
  them see that as the fall is going on, they're actually
• 28:03
  getting better. And so, it's those little things
• 28:06
  that I would see people do at that International level, that I
• 28:11
  would take over. Now, you know, after being with
• 28:16
  me. Some friendly for a number of
• 28:17
  years. I still don't let my discus
• 28:19
  throwers Spin The discus up in the air before he goes and
• 28:23
  initiates a throw. I don't think my kids are as
• 28:26
  athletic enough to catch it every single time, so, you know,
• 28:30
  but so there's things that are pretty unique to what they do.
• 28:34
  But even you'll see, there's I don't think a lot of his will
• 28:38
  actually teach kids to actually talk that discus behind their
• 28:42
  back, like, Mason does. But it works for Mason, but if
• 28:47
  you see where he puts the table up, when he hits the center of
• 28:51
  the circle with his right foot, you know, I talked about putting
• 28:55
  it up on the table, it's up there and he gets a great lift,
• 29:00
  where lots of times I've seen young throwers who talk it and
• 29:03
  they keep it right there at their hip Mason never leaves it
• 29:07
  tucked. He puts it way up on that shelf
• 29:10
  and get to huge pull on it, you know.
• 29:12
  So there was some things that I've I watch and I see that I
• 29:16
  don't use but then there are a lot that we have been able to
• 29:20
  bring over. But the key again is, how does
• 29:23
  it fit in with your kids? And one of the things that we
• 29:27
  did I finally had money to get one of the handheld lasers and I
• 29:33
  was able to make it so much easier instead of pulling a tape
• 29:37
  to mark, all these cones out there, how far the kids are
• 29:41
  throwing. I just had the laser in the
• 29:43
  center of the circle and Boom, boom, boom, boom.
• 29:46
  And it was so much easier to mark all these different
• 29:50
  progressions this year as well. So having that technology, aided
• 29:54
  it as well, Awesome. And to keep on that kind of
• 29:59
  connection between what you're doing at Carnegie Mellon and
• 30:03
  some of the elite. So as you've worked with, you
• 30:07
  know, as you work with all these different athletes of different
• 30:10
  levels. What characteristics, have you
• 30:12
  noticed? Successful athletes have that,
• 30:17
  you know, regardless of level that help them succeed, whether
• 30:20
  that's physical, whether that's mental, whether that's their
• 30:23
  approach that questions from Bill Richards.
• 30:27
  Yeah, I think there's I think, hey, that whole, first and
• 30:32
  foremost, I don't care if it's Ryan krauser, or if it's Mark
• 30:39
  Edwards, who Market, which is a one of my young throwers, it's
• 30:45
  how much dedication and desire do they have?
• 30:48
  You know, but there are major differences and I can show you
• 30:52
  real quick. Let's see.
• 31:09
  Let me see if I can get back to it.
• 31:15
  Trying to see. I had video pulled up.
• 31:24
  Here we go. So this here is where we throw
• 31:33
  indoors at Carnegie Mellon. This is Brandon Miller.
• 31:38
  He was a stock more last year and he was in National qualifier
• 31:42
  in the shot and discus, and you can see he's 66 67. 3:15, And
• 31:51
  you can see where we actually throw everything hits.
• 31:55
  A net comes down. This is where Derek.
• 31:59
  Now, you know where Nicolette is throwing one at, Derek your
• 32:03
  shoes athlete. She lives here in Pittsburgh and
• 32:07
  she'll come and she'll work out with me during Christmas and so
• 32:12
  she can get some workouts in then.
• 32:14
  So this is where she's throwing. But what we can see is So, that
• 32:20
  was Bram. And now, you can see the major
• 32:25
  difference. Now in this is Jordan Geist.
• 32:34
  And watch the speed at which he's going.
• 32:40
  And so, Now you can see some of the physical differences, even
• 32:46
  though G is so much bigger than Jordan, but look at the speed at
• 32:50
  which Jordan's doing Thing versus the speed at which G is
• 32:54
  going. And yet brand for a land myself
• 32:59
  you know, and Brandon. And for more having he is, you
• 33:04
  know, he's one of the better throwers in division three.
• 33:07
  Well, look at the speed in which he moves the ball compared to
• 33:10
  Jordan, it's not even close and that's Why Jordan's one of the
• 33:14
  best ones in the United States and even in the world.
• 33:18
  So, it's that muscles twitch, that speed.
• 33:23
  It's also the strength levels. I and again, I'm very close with
• 33:27
  Jordan because Jordans, mom and dad are slippery rock grads.
• 33:31
  I was Jordans mom's specific coach.
• 33:35
  When she was an All-American for his in the shop put at Slippery
• 33:38
  Rock. And here is dad was a four-time
• 33:42
  All-American. Looking for is Jim guys.
• 33:45
  And Jim and I it was like, we had Bible study classes but
• 33:50
  where were reading jurist arad's book on Javelin throwing and
• 33:56
  that's what we do when I was a graduate assistant at go down at
• 33:59
  Jim's room and we'd hang out when we just talked to his gym
• 34:03
  was a huge technical component as well.
• 34:07
  And it's so it's that speed of movement, but it doesn't matter.
• 34:13
  The key on everything is really trying to find how you can put
• 34:18
  no matter what level you're a fleet is in the proper positions
• 34:22
  for them to deliver the ball, The discus, the job, they Hammer
• 34:26
  no matter what. Because remember no matter how
• 34:30
  big or anything you are, there's three things that matter most
• 34:34
  height angle and speed of release.
• 34:36
  And how do you put the people in those positions to optimize
• 34:41
  those three? Aspects and that's one of the
• 34:45
  advantages that I have at Carnegie Mellon.
• 34:48
  My kids can tell me more about Newton's laws that I really need
• 34:52
  to know because they live them all the time, you know.
• 34:56
  So but that's what we're looking to do.
• 34:59
  So it's those physical capabilities that they have, but
• 35:03
  can you still get them in the right position?
• 35:05
  And that's the key. And so when Nicolette or joining
• 35:09
  come and throw it me in the winter, The very first question
• 35:13
  that I asked them both is, which coach shush doing with you this
• 35:19
  year? What's TJ doing with you this
• 35:21
  year, and joining his first throw?
• 35:25
  I when you're doing something different with your hip action,
• 35:28
  than what you did a year ago, what's going on.
• 35:31
  And he described it to me or I'll say something to Nicolette
• 35:36
  and she'll relate. Because for me, I don't want to
• 35:40
  say anything bad. Bad because I want to complement
• 35:44
  what Derek and what TJ are doing for Jordan and Nicolette.
• 35:49
  And I'm just trying to be their eyes so they can't be with them.
• 35:55
  So if I can be their eyes and give them little cues that I
• 35:59
  know from knowing TJ and Derek, and that's a great thing, you
• 36:03
  know, and giving them. But there is a sense, kids are
• 36:06
  home for vacation that working out every single day and that's
• 36:11
  the key. You got to have kids who want to
• 36:13
  do that type of thing, and that's why even now when our
• 36:18
  kids, and I'm sure a lot of you especially in the throes, it's
• 36:22
  really easy, the kids are home and as one linha Wang, the one
• 36:28
  kid, he goes, coach, they close the track.
• 36:32
  And I have a hurdler from his and so Anthony, can't go and
• 36:36
  hurdle you go but lingos, they don't care about the throws.
• 36:39
  That's not close. And so I told The Anthony that
• 36:42
  go shag lens discus and he can do the intervals.
• 36:45
  And I was like, what? Just make sure you, you can
• 36:47
  throw a high school one, every once in a while to make it go
• 36:49
  even further to make Anthony, go chase it, you know, so that's
• 36:53
  the key. I'm sure your throat, they're
• 36:56
  still finding ways to throw now. Brian Miller he he's a
• 37:02
  mechanical engineer. He built a shotput Circle that
• 37:08
  had an insert that he could pull out and make it into a disk or
• 37:12
  Circle. I posted it on Facebook and
• 37:14
  Twitter weakest to back. So that everybody could see it.
• 37:19
  And it was just him being a mechanical engineer knowing that
• 37:23
  he wanted to do work, and he can just put in the driveway.
• 37:27
  I just had to convince his mom. It was okay.
• 37:29
  That the grass would grow back when the shotput landed.
• 37:32
  In the front yard though. So grass, always grows back.
• 37:38
  Exactly. Yeah.
• 37:42
  That thank you very much, coach, a couple of years ago, you've
• 37:46
  got the opportunity to go down to Brazil and work with the
• 37:50
  Brazilian Athletics Federation, actually approaching coaches.
• 37:54
  How would how is the experience of coaching coaches and how do
• 37:58
  you approach something like that?
• 38:00
  And how was that experience overall?
• 38:02
  Yeah, that was well, again, that that really happened because of
• 38:06
  Rod was so awesome. So Rob was saucer was a big
• 38:10
  reason for me to be able to go there.
• 38:12
  Down there. But that was an incredible
• 38:14
  opportunity. Talk about a situation where,
• 38:19
  you know, I've always given, you know, different clinics and
• 38:23
  stuff and I'd have things set up where you we as coaches, when
• 38:27
  you do a clinic, you got like an hour block and you base your
• 38:31
  discussion on that our, but and Michelle and Eric will
• 38:36
  understand this really well because of them doing the
• 38:39
  academy stuff for the Sage track and field.
• 38:42
  Cross country is coaches association, all of a sudden.
• 38:46
  Now, I had to do four hours of teaching in the classroom and
• 38:50
  then four hours of teaching, out on the track for five days.
• 38:57
  So that was a challenge. It was a challenge to have, I
• 39:01
  don't speak Portuguese even though I grew up back home in
• 39:05
  Somerset, Massachusetts, southeast of masks used
• 39:08
  Portuguese Community. I wish I listen to Mandy
• 39:11
  covid-19. A lot more.
• 39:12
  He was a friend of mine who he spoke English to us, but when he
• 39:17
  was home he Sports, he spoke Portuguese.
• 39:19
  So I should have listened to many talk to his mom and dad
• 39:22
  more and but it was great because I get a chance to work
• 39:27
  with some of the Brazilian athletes as well.
• 39:31
  And even though there was a language barrier, the thing that
• 39:35
  was the best learning thing for me out of that, was that We
• 39:41
  don't have to speak a spoken word.
• 39:44
  So many of us we speak with our body language.
• 39:48
  So even if I didn't and my interpreter, he was a business
• 39:54
  major at Georgetown. He knew nothing about physical
• 39:57
  education. Athletic track anything weird
• 40:01
  white-phillips. He had a girl who went to school
• 40:05
  here in the states and was a long and triple jump, and her
• 40:09
  mom and dad were some of the best.
• 40:10
  Coaches in the jumps in Brazil. I was like Dwight you have a lot
• 40:14
  easier. Interpreter you know situation
• 40:17
  here. There was no language barrier
• 40:19
  just in the actual things I was trying to get across and then
• 40:25
  you had my New England accent. It really kind of threw people
• 40:29
  off a lot. So But the body movement so I
• 40:35
  could demonstrate. And even though the kid
• 40:38
  interpreting for me, couldn't interpret it, the athletes
• 40:41
  understood it. So it again, it really
• 40:44
  reinforced that me going back and even at the age of 60 now, I
• 40:50
  still need to be able to demonstrate and show what I'm
• 40:56
  trying to get kids to do. And I believe that even when I
• 41:02
  was He's working with the jumpers.
• 41:06
  Being able to do take off drills and show them some body
• 41:10
  positions. And luckily being large, maybe I
• 41:13
  couldn't, I can't now maybe show a jumper, how to get into a
• 41:17
  take-off position, but I can put them in that position and I can
• 41:20
  hold them up in the air so that they are in that position, you
• 41:24
  know. So I think one of the biggest
• 41:26
  things out of the Brazilian thing was Meeting the Brazilian
• 41:31
  people and watching for their love to be able to come and
• 41:36
  listen and then the kids love and how much I put a post out
• 41:42
  there. Using bamboo javelins for
• 41:44
  training devices because they don't have money.
• 41:47
  There's a specific guy in Brazil Who grip bamboo sticks and put
• 41:52
  points on them. And that's what these guys are
• 41:54
  using for Javelin for practice. And it's so, So cool to see
• 42:00
  things like that, but then learning about how important it
• 42:04
  is that I continue to demonstrate and be in a physical
• 42:09
  manner, not just in a verbal Manner, and that's huge.
• 42:13
  It really is awesome. I've got a to more general
• 42:17
  questions for you and that I want to get into some of these
• 42:19
  Technical Training questions that people have been asking
• 42:22
  one. Do you have a particular
• 42:25
  favorite throwing event to coach and if so, what's the Reason.
• 42:30
  Not really? I like the wall.
• 42:33
  I mean there's certain things, I love teaching.
• 42:39
  Kids who've never picked up a hammer.
• 42:41
  Before I love seeing that progression occur, I love being
• 42:46
  there but then I also really enjoy.
• 42:50
  Like I have a young man who played football and he didn't do
• 42:54
  track his senior year in high school because his high school
• 42:58
  didn't have anybody who could teach them how to throw the
• 43:02
  javelin and but now I've seen what Leland's love for throwing
• 43:09
  the javelin is because he's actually being shown some things
• 43:14
  and he's working so hard to do the things that he's never been
• 43:18
  taught progressions or technical aspects and he's just being the
• 43:24
  sponge so it doesn't matter, but I probably have you know, just
• 43:30
  mainly my best. Throw was The discus in college
• 43:34
  so that's always there but I threw the shot put long.
• 43:38
  Longer than I did. So it's all of them.
• 43:40
  It doesn't I don't really have a favourite so it's just phases
• 43:44
  that we go through and it really dealing with the kids.
• 43:49
  Awesome. And then final question from our
• 43:52
  original list. I know you've been getting this
• 43:55
  one a lot, but I think people would be interested to hear is
• 43:58
  how is the delaying of the Olympics, you know, going to
• 44:01
  affect some of these Elite athletes?
• 44:03
  Yeah. It's it's going to be curious.
• 44:06
  I there's a couple of thought patterns one, you know, which
• 44:12
  you have pleats are going to be able to deal with now all of a
• 44:16
  sudden, because they've been in a Four-year training program to
• 44:22
  get ready to make the team and then also to perform at the
• 44:27
  Olympics. So how are they going to adjust
• 44:30
  that four-year program and readjusted to this one year?
• 44:36
  I think some of the bigger questions are, how are our Elite
• 44:40
  athletes going to deal with and maybe not the very elite but
• 44:46
  some of the upcoming people because so many Have them go to
• 44:50
  Europe for Meats to make appearance fees, and make money.
• 44:54
  And so, how is that going to change?
• 44:59
  We're still in a, I don't know situation.
• 45:03
  What's going to happen this fall?
• 45:06
  You know, we saw re-release just today or yesterday in Forbes
• 45:12
  Magazine about hobbit is going to have classes.
• 45:16
  They just don't know if they're going to be in person. and
• 45:19
  somewhat in person or virtual, you know, if their virtual
• 45:25
  Probably not going to have that Flex.
• 45:27
  So how is that going to change? I think for us in the throes
• 45:33
  community I think the thing that is really important to know is
• 45:39
  that we have some amazing athletes and amazing coaches who
• 45:45
  I don't care what the adversity is they're going to find a way
• 45:49
  to get themselves. Ready and perform, I'm sure
• 45:54
  number of Probably saw the video of Joe Kovacs squatting with
• 46:00
  Ashley spotting him and as Rob and I talked about what was
• 46:05
  actually going to do. If Joe couldn't get 700 pounds
• 46:08
  up, I don't know if actually it was going to be able to help
• 46:11
  lift them up there but you know but here they are there in the
• 46:16
  middle of still training and we doing things.
• 46:19
  So I think it's a lot is going to be the mental aspect.
• 46:23
  I think the thing that's going to be interesting seeing though
• 46:25
  is maybe some of those younger throwers who maybe were a year
• 46:30
  away, maybe this puts them into a mix, you know.
• 46:34
  So maybe some things. It's a good thing for someone
• 46:37
  like a Sean Donnelly in the hammer, it gives him another
• 46:41
  year of growth and development. You know, to continue on to go
• 46:46
  up against a condom of color or does kit when Johnson come back
• 46:52
  into throwing again, you know, does this go?
• 46:56
  Hey, I got another year to prepare.
• 46:58
  So does their entice him to come back for one more year to make
• 47:03
  another Olympic team? So I think it's going to be very
• 47:06
  interesting, but I think the athletes the coaches that we
• 47:10
  have in our events. I think they're incredibly
• 47:13
  strong people. And they're going to find a way
• 47:15
  to be ready and perform at the trials and then at the Olympics
• 47:21
  in the best way that they can representing themselves in the
• 47:25
  United States. Awesome.
• 47:27
  Thank you. I'm gonna go and do a few of
• 47:29
  these technique and kind of event.
• 47:33
  Specific questions that people have been asking Joel on YouTube
• 47:36
  asked as a beginning throwers coach, where would I get the
• 47:42
  best resources for me to learn the Rotational events and then
• 47:47
  be able to coach it. I think one of the best ways is
• 47:51
  to reach out. I truly enjoy.
• 47:56
  What are you stfc CCA, coaches, association is doing with their
• 48:02
  academies and the classes and Derek and Michelle are big
• 48:07
  speakers for that. So they would be able to speak
• 48:10
  out even more back when I was a young.
• 48:14
  Rowing coach, there was no u.s. tfcc CA and so I was part of the
• 48:21
  USA Track & Field coaches, education program, I did the
• 48:25
  level one, the level to the level 2 for not only throws but
• 48:31
  also for the jumps. So I think those are two ways
• 48:35
  that you can definitely go about and start your initial growth as
• 48:41
  a coach, again, I know. No, I don't know, a coach who if
• 48:46
  you were to email them and just ask them some questions about
• 48:52
  rotation, that they're going to turn away from answering it for
• 48:56
  you. They're going to they'll answer,
• 48:59
  you know maybe during the season it might be a little bit
• 49:02
  delayed, but they're going to find a way to answer because we
• 49:06
  all were young Pros coaches at one times and I can remember,
• 49:10
  you know, Kevin McGill, who was, you know, Big name and, you
• 49:16
  know, coaching education and Kevin was Otto, vom, you know,
• 49:22
  Massachusetts I would ask Kevin things, Joe Donny, you at
• 49:26
  Northeastern, which I'm sure Al had numerous conversations with
• 49:30
  Joan and was Sandy Fowler's, throwing coach, when she was in
• 49:35
  college at Northeastern, you know, was a tremendous person
• 49:40
  for me to bounce and learn some things off.
• 49:44
  As well because Joe in that initial beginning he was
• 49:49
  actually doing things with rotational and Rob if I'm
• 49:54
  correct Sandy was a glider and Joe turned her into a rotational
• 49:58
  thrower in the shop. Put you know so don't be afraid
• 50:04
  to reach out to people, you know, and to kind of go on that
• 50:08
  question. One of the big question
• 50:10
  everybody will ask like, especially for me and recruiting
• 50:13
  is I'm a Glider will be you switch me to a rotation thrower?
• 50:18
  I don't know. I gotta watch, you throw and get
• 50:21
  to see how you work, what your movement ability is.
• 50:25
  And so that question doesn't happen right away.
• 50:29
  Bailey O'Malley. The kid that I showed on the
• 50:32
  Excel spreadsheet, I knew when he came in because he was a
• 50:37
  local kid. So I seen him throw a number of
• 50:41
  times because my daughter just graduated from high school a
• 50:44
  year ago as well and she's a freshman up at Slippery Rock.
• 50:48
  She's a distance. Runner, how that happened?
• 50:51
  I have no idea and you know, so Bailey I had seen throw numerous
• 50:57
  times. I knew I wanted to convert him
• 50:59
  to a rotational throw but I have been able to see him.
• 51:04
  Whereas some other people like Graham Miller, we haven't
• 51:09
  switched, although we're stunning to play with the idea
• 51:13
  of throwing. And during this time at home,
• 51:16
  he's been playing with doing some rotational stuff in the
• 51:19
  shop but you know so it's getting a feel for what your
• 51:24
  kids do can do they have the physical aptitude as well as the
• 51:29
  mental aptitude as well. Awesome.
• 51:35
  Let's see. Another one from the YouTube is
• 51:41
  Bob's asking how you approach your weightlifting programs for
• 51:45
  the year. What are some important things
• 51:47
  for you? Yeah, number one I'm very big
• 51:53
  into Olympic lifts. That is really the first and
• 51:59
  foremost thing that our kids will do.
• 52:02
  The other night I guess it's a week and a half or so ago.
• 52:05
  Mike Gitano from USA weightlifting did a webinar on
• 52:12
  with Dan McQuaid on his webinar podcast which was a great thing
• 52:19
  listening to him. Talk about Olympic lifts for not
• 52:23
  only throws but all track and field athletes, you know?
• 52:29
  And then again it goes to What I have here at Carnegie Mellon
• 52:35
  because of our academic structure and because of the
• 52:39
  weight room situation, we do things a lot differently.
• 52:43
  I do a lot of multi movement exercises.
• 52:51
  If we're doing some type of shoulder workout, I'll do like
• 52:56
  iy & Tea Rose, so we put them all together instead of One
• 53:03
  specific row and doing it multiple times.
• 53:07
  I try to group things because the amount of times that our
• 53:10
  kids have in the weight room as well as out on the track for
• 53:16
  technical work is very much different than what I really
• 53:21
  believe. You know people at division one
• 53:23
  they have you know because of the time that a len hewan is
• 53:29
  putting in trying to be a computer science major ER you
• 53:34
  know I have to be cognizant of that and so I do a lot of
• 53:39
  grouping of things. I've become a lot better as the
• 53:44
  years have come on and shortening are bouts in the
• 53:48
  weight room and focusing on more, the major aspects of
• 53:52
  things. And it's also been very helpful
• 53:55
  for me that when Nicolette or joining come home I get to see
• 53:59
  what Derek is doing. Them in the weight room, or I
• 54:03
  get to see what TJ, although I need magnifying glasses with TJ
• 54:08
  because he puts everything in a point.
• 54:11
  And I can't read it because my eyes are not that strong
• 54:14
  anymore, even with my glasses. So Derek, you'll have to ask
• 54:18
  Nicolette about that joke that we have every winter about TJ's
• 54:25
  list. I say does is because, you know,
• 54:27
  want anybody know what it is, you know.
• 54:30
  So I become very Good at shortening, the bouts in there
• 54:34
  and focusing on the major things.
• 54:37
  We definitely build things around our schedule.
• 54:42
  And we keep it in a phase format where the phases are basically
• 54:47
  four weeks long. I believe in testing, we do the
• 54:50
  max Jones quadrat one test. Every single fall will test
• 54:56
  three times in the weight room, fall winter and then at the end
• 55:01
  after the conference meets are over for actual Max's and we're
• 55:06
  doing front, squat back, squat clean, snatch incline.
• 55:11
  And Flat bench. So those six movements we test
• 55:16
  because I build myself on percentages.
• 55:20
  Mike Sergeant was a big Aid and me and what he was doing with
• 55:24
  his kids and also its developed. There are some things that you
• 55:31
  know, Jordan's mom you know Judy guys would be able to still
• 55:36
  recognize from things. I was doing back in the 90s but
• 55:40
  then there's other The things she would never have recognized
• 55:43
  because it's grown and developed.
• 55:44
  I don't think there's been one year where my weight lifting
• 55:47
  workouts have stayed the same. They constantly involved, and I
• 55:53
  think that's one of the things that they have to do.
• 55:55
  Is they have to constantly evolve so that you can make it
• 56:00
  better. But it also stops the kids from
• 56:04
  being bored and stale with doing the same thing over and over
• 56:08
  again. And then again, it's getting
• 56:10
  them to buy. Buy-in.
• 56:12
  And I think I've been very fortunate that we have a four
• 56:17
  day, lift workout before our conference me and our people
• 56:22
  think it is the best thing in the world.
• 56:24
  Then it will set them up to throw the further.
• 56:26
  So ever throw at the you a championship and they bought
• 56:30
  into it and I think it's physiologically sound, but the
• 56:37
  key is they like it and they buy into it and that's what makes it
• 56:42
  so good for us. So awesome.
• 56:47
  Another question we got from OC, was what advice would you give a
• 56:52
  high school athlete trying to transition to throw some of the
• 56:56
  college implements? Yeah, I think a great way to
• 57:01
  stop that. Especially, you know, in high
• 57:04
  school is a i you strong enough to handle the Collegiate,
• 57:10
  implements even when you're a senior in high school, do you
• 57:14
  have enough strength to handle it?
• 57:17
  But I think a great way that I used to do, especially when I
• 57:21
  was coaching High School is and I even do that now as a flea,
• 57:27
  like, for instance brand Miller, he does all his standing work in
• 57:32
  the shop, put with an 18 pound shop with.
• 57:37
  And then when we go into movement patterns, he goes back
• 57:40
  down to the 16. So I think a great way to start.
• 57:44
  It is in those standing power position.
• 57:48
  Places you can use those heavier.
• 57:52
  Implements. The key is also don't think that
• 57:55
  you have to get really heavy. If you talk to our Venegas art,
• 57:59
  Venegas doesn't believe a lot into doing a lot of multi
• 58:04
  weight, heavy, Implement stuff until there's major strength
• 58:09
  gains involved. You know where someone like
• 58:13
  Jerry Clayton up at Michigan. He's doing a lot of multi
• 58:17
  weights as Specially in the hammer and though the weight
• 58:22
  throw, he's got all kinds of heavy weights.
• 58:26
  That he's doing some of the key is, how much can you handle but
• 58:31
  start in power positions? Because you can stop pushing the
• 58:35
  ball moving things that way. Awesome.
• 58:42
  Thank you so much as a grantor have One of my graduating
• 58:49
  athletes actually is just tuned into the YouTube.
• 58:53
  And as asking when working with an athlete, use the Glide
• 58:56
  technique in high school. How do you decide whether or not
• 59:00
  to turn them into a glider or Rotator?
• 59:03
  And that's from Mike, yeah, it kind of hit on that a little bit
• 59:08
  ago. It's really a feeling it's
• 59:13
  watching, what they're like mentally.
• 59:17
  If you have a person who you know, he has one bad throw and
• 59:21
  it's like the world is coming to an end and they get mad and they
• 59:24
  stop cursing and you know throwing things, they may not be
• 59:28
  the greatest person to teach how to rotate.
• 59:31
  Because one of the things about differences between gliding and
• 59:36
  rotating is if you were to plot your throws as a glider, they
• 59:40
  tend to all plot together and then they get a spike and then
• 59:46
  they kind of Gradually move up and gather again and then
• 59:50
  they'll go higher. There's not a lot of deviation
• 59:55
  within that grouping where a rotational you can have a throw
• 1:00:00
  over here over here over here and they're all over the place
• 1:00:04
  and so if it's a person who you know, if they're throwing 50
• 1:00:09
  feet and they throw 40 feet is that they're devastated and they
• 1:00:14
  can't ever handle it. Then that Not be the best person
• 1:00:18
  to teach how to rotate and staying with a Glide and until
• 1:00:22
  they learn how to control that emotion, that may be the way to
• 1:00:26
  go, you know? So that's the actual mental
• 1:00:29
  aspect of it, but then it's the physical.
• 1:00:32
  Are they able to move? It's not about, you know, how
• 1:00:37
  big they are. It used to be, when I was young,
• 1:00:41
  you know, it was, you know, rotation was for only for that
• 1:00:44
  small thrower because the ring It was so small but people like
• 1:00:48
  Randy bonds. You know, he knew that Ryan
• 1:00:52
  Krauser's blowing that out of the water.
• 1:00:55
  You know the kid from Brazil, he's no small person either.
• 1:01:01
  You know. So we're seeing that rotational
• 1:01:04
  shop putting is not just for smaller compact people like it
• 1:01:09
  initially was thought of back in the early 80s and so it's the
• 1:01:16
  physical All and it's the mental aspect and it's knowing whether
• 1:01:21
  your kids can handle it. And so that's why I knew right
• 1:01:25
  away with Bailey, that I was going to switch them.
• 1:01:28
  But Bram, it's taken us two years to get to the point where
• 1:01:32
  we're starting to feel comfortable with him moving to a
• 1:01:34
  rotational, but we're still even feeling it out because I don't
• 1:01:40
  have any time with them in the fall because Is a good chance.
• 1:01:46
  He's going to be a preseason All-American this year for
• 1:01:49
  football. He's our starting left tackle, I
• 1:01:52
  think he's given up one sack his entire college career, you know.
• 1:01:58
  So I haven't had any time with them.
• 1:02:01
  So of course G thing about this is brims want to be back for a
• 1:02:05
  50 year and because he's going to get his master's and he said,
• 1:02:09
  hey coach, this is great. I get another year with you and
• 1:02:13
  I don't have to play football. And I said that's even better,
• 1:02:17
  you know. So so yeah.
• 1:02:19
  So I think it's combination of those things.
• 1:02:21
  Brandon met, you mentioned some of your students playing
• 1:02:26
  multiple Sports Ronnie. Yeah, I'm YouTube's asking.
• 1:02:29
  How do you combat overuse injuries with multi-sport
• 1:02:32
  athletes? Yeah, it's I think you've got to
• 1:02:36
  be smart. You a, I'm very fortunate here
• 1:02:40
  at Carnegie Mellon. That my football coaches, be at
• 1:02:44
  the head. No offense of coordinator
• 1:02:46
  defensive coordinator. When their kids want to do
• 1:02:51
  track, they do track. They do my lifting, they don't
• 1:02:55
  have to go to their lifting, they don't have to go to the 7
• 1:02:58
  a.m. workouts. They don't have to go to Spring
• 1:03:01
  ball, anything like that. They're with me on the same side
• 1:03:07
  of things. They also know that I'm not
• 1:03:10
  doing anything with them on the track aspect of things as well.
• 1:03:15
  you know, but so it's being able to talk but after football is
• 1:03:21
  over, the first thing I do is I have major sit-down meetings
• 1:03:26
  with every single one of the football kids, or I have a girl
• 1:03:30
  on the basketball team, I have a major sit down with them to
• 1:03:35
  really get an idea where they are at physically where they are
• 1:03:39
  mentally and try to start developing a plan for And to
• 1:03:45
  transition into track and field. And if they need time to
• 1:03:51
  recover, then we give them that time, you know.
• 1:03:54
  And so it's having those discussions with your athletes
• 1:03:58
  that will help guide you on what to do.
• 1:04:02
  The good thing is, is say you're coming out of basketball.
• 1:04:06
  There's a lot of Plyometrics activities there.
• 1:04:08
  So maybe that's an aspect of your training that you don't
• 1:04:11
  have to really concentrate on, you know what I mean?
• 1:04:14
  You know. So, So you know, for me the big
• 1:04:17
  aspect is getting the guys in a transformational weightlifting
• 1:04:22
  program, because so much of what they've done, especially the
• 1:04:26
  last month and football has just been all maintenance type
• 1:04:30
  things. There's been no strengthening.
• 1:04:32
  So can I put them right into the same phase that I'm having all
• 1:04:36
  the kids who are doing the fall track program?
• 1:04:39
  No way because they will break down.
• 1:04:41
  So I have a whole transitional Weight Workout They do for kids.
• 1:04:47
  Be it coming. I've had soccer players
• 1:04:49
  football, volleyball basketball. So, I've got to have separate
• 1:04:54
  programs to bring them in and get them up to speed, if you
• 1:04:58
  will, to what we're doing in our program.
• 1:05:01
  So awesome. We are eclipsing the hour.
• 1:05:05
  Mark, coach have a couple more questions, you okay.
• 1:05:07
  No problem. Awesome.
• 1:05:10
  The another one that we had here time, Tyler had submitted a
• 1:05:17
  question to us before and he's asking what specific strength
• 1:05:22
  exercises have the most correlation for each event in
• 1:05:25
  your experience. Yeah, not.
• 1:05:28
  So again I truly believe in the Olympic lifts or variation in
• 1:05:34
  the Olympic lifts of the clean and statues.
• 1:05:37
  I truly believe in them with javelin aspect.
• 1:05:42
  The things I like to do things where I'm doing pullover type
• 1:05:46
  activities to work on that stretch and get that flexibility
• 1:05:52
  in the shoulder girdle, numerous years ago.
• 1:05:57
  He some years ago, Tom puts his showed me.
• 1:06:00
  Just sit and they incline bench and take a real light dumbbell
• 1:06:07
  and just do dumbbell circles forward and backwards and really
• 1:06:12
  work on that flexibility and getting that full range of
• 1:06:16
  motion. So, that's what I like to see.
• 1:06:21
  In Jadwin things that are going to Aid in that flexibility of
• 1:06:25
  the shoulder girdle. Because a lot of especially
• 1:06:27
  Actually, like my guys coming into Javelin through football,
• 1:06:31
  they tend to be pretty bulky and they need that flexibility work.
• 1:06:38
  So they can convert the armpit when they throw the Javelin in
• 1:06:43
  the shot and discus again, the Olympic list of the key things
• 1:06:47
  because I'm looking at getting those triple joint extensions.
• 1:06:50
  The extension of the ankle knee and the hip and the Olympic
• 1:06:54
  lifts of the two major variations, Where you get that
• 1:06:58
  ankle knee and hip extension. So, I'm doing things there.
• 1:07:03
  But again, you've got to kind of also look at the athlete.
• 1:07:08
  Whenhe Wong, for instance, you know, did really well.
• 1:07:11
  But one of the things we saw, when he got to Carnegie Mellon,
• 1:07:15
  was he was weak. He wasn't very strong and with
• 1:07:20
  using the bigger implements. So that is one of the things we
• 1:07:24
  worked on in the fall and I can really remember You know, like
• 1:07:28
  he was dead lifting and he was like one, you know, and he
• 1:07:31
  wasn't dead lifting a lot as like Lynn.
• 1:07:34
  We got to put some weight on there and he looked at me and I
• 1:07:37
  was like let's put it on box and so we did dead lifts off the box
• 1:07:42
  so he's not pulling from the ground and so he was able to do
• 1:07:46
  more weight from that box position that he would have been
• 1:07:51
  able to do from the ground. And so it was a way to kind of
• 1:07:57
  The gap between getting in some more strength and so he's
• 1:08:01
  pulling more and then as he got to handle the weight, we pull
• 1:08:05
  the boxes out and drop them closer and closer to the floor
• 1:08:09
  and we saw the strength gains come.
• 1:08:13
  I like to do things that mirror. And again because of Carnegie
• 1:08:18
  Mellon, I like to do things that mirror.
• 1:08:21
  What we're going to do with out on the tracks alike and discus
• 1:08:25
  with flies, I like to do straight.
• 1:08:27
  Time flies, rather than doing regular flies.
• 1:08:30
  I like to do straight arm flies again.
• 1:08:34
  I'm not as concerned with how much weight you're doing in the
• 1:08:38
  fight, but getting that range of motion, letting them feel that
• 1:08:44
  the dumbbell is like a discus and you're holding it at that
• 1:08:49
  shoulder level. So those are the types of things
• 1:08:53
  that we like to do hammer, especially lots of core work and
• 1:08:59
  trying to work the hammer, you know.
• 1:09:01
  So those are kind of some of the things that we do event specific
• 1:09:06
  type things but they all kind of work for every single one of
• 1:09:09
  them, really Awesome. And I've got two more questions
• 1:09:15
  here. G-Man submitted a question ahead
• 1:09:20
  of time and what are drills that are good for improving explosion
• 1:09:23
  in the power position if there's a.
• 1:09:27
  Yeah, yeah. So we do a drill that we call
• 1:09:32
  walking drill and it's basically just thought in the back of his
• 1:09:37
  shirt outside the circle and you take a couple of steps and you
• 1:09:41
  Walk into a power position and get that wrapped position and
• 1:09:46
  then you drive out of it. And whenever the young and
• 1:09:50
  again, it was something that I Darrell and Joe was doing and I
• 1:09:55
  picked up and I had never done that before, and I'll write this
• 1:09:58
  pretty cool and it was great because a you could see how the
• 1:10:03
  kids never really wrapped when they got into a power position.
• 1:10:07
  But when they did start to wrap, they would pull Wasn't hesitate
• 1:10:13
  for like a second or two. Whereas, if you watch the Rel or
• 1:10:18
  Joe do the drill, they would wrap and explode right out of
• 1:10:22
  it. And so I was like, okay now
• 1:10:25
  we're rapping but let's move, let's quit taking a lunch break
• 1:10:29
  in there and so again and Aiden especially for Mike whiners in
• 1:10:35
  that concept of hitting and stopping in the power position
• 1:10:39
  and then moving instead of Hitting and reacting right away.
• 1:10:43
  So the walking drill is something that over the last
• 1:10:46
  couple of years, I've really been able to see as aided in
• 1:10:50
  developing, that explosive movement pattern.
• 1:10:55
  The other thing too, is just in the standing throws.
• 1:10:59
  I like to do a lot of non-reverse type things because,
• 1:11:03
  again, young throwers, they will reverse so fast that if you
• 1:11:08
  actually plot it and saw where they East the shot.
• 1:11:12
  The shot is probably releasing before they even get to the toe
• 1:11:16
  board, you know. So the tote board is here and
• 1:11:19
  they're released in here instead of reaching out way over the toe
• 1:11:23
  board to release it because they're so far back.
• 1:11:26
  And so having that non-reverse we keep that walking foot down
• 1:11:33
  on the ground and we drive the hips into it.
• 1:11:36
  And again if you go back to the video that I Had of Jordan.
• 1:11:44
  You can really see him even though this is a full throw, you
• 1:11:49
  can see him driving that right hip into the throw.
• 1:11:55
  You know, and you can see how he's really whining it up and
• 1:12:00
  driving out. And you can see that drive in
• 1:12:04
  that explosion. So that's one of those
• 1:12:09
  non-reverse and that walking drill has been really good for
• 1:12:14
  us at Carnegie Mellon to work on that explosive action.
• 1:12:17
  Awesome. And then I believe the last one
• 1:12:19
  that I have on my list. It's from dr.
• 1:12:22
  Zachary Hood. What are if you had to pick
• 1:12:25
  three? Must do drills for kids.
• 1:12:28
  Just starting to throw. What would they be?
• 1:12:34
  Well, if we go to the very beginning part where they're
• 1:12:40
  never thrown before, I think they have to do some type of
• 1:12:43
  release drill so that they learn.
• 1:12:47
  And I'm assuming we're talking shoplet here he did Miss
• 1:12:50
  posterize so you can you can pick your own and if we're
• 1:12:53
  thinking shot put I want to do some type of release drill so
• 1:12:57
  they can work on keeping the elbow back behind the shot and
• 1:13:02
  not letting the The elbow rotate in front so that they can stay
• 1:13:06
  behind and push and I always use the analogy.
• 1:13:10
  When you guys bench press where your elbows, our relationship to
• 1:13:15
  the bar, there behind the bar, and you're pushing it well, in
• 1:13:19
  shop, put, you'll watch younger kids, especially when they go
• 1:13:22
  into rotational, they'll rotate and that elbow will lead up in
• 1:13:26
  front and then they going to drop the elbow and then throw
• 1:13:29
  the shot and their thumb comes up.
• 1:13:32
  So I want to Have that chocolate back and I want to drive the
• 1:13:36
  ball down. So Rob the sorcerer many many
• 1:13:41
  years ago with him myself, Bruce manhole one were traveling
• 1:13:46
  around the country. Doing clinics Rob came up with a
• 1:13:50
  progression, where we would be doing kneeling release drills
• 1:13:54
  drills just throwing straight down into the grass.
• 1:13:58
  Where you getting that pushing action.
• 1:14:01
  And one of the Best analogies I ever heard was, you can see the
• 1:14:06
  back of your palm, watch it disappear, you know, and the
• 1:14:11
  thumb is still down to the ground, you know?
• 1:14:13
  So it's like that throwing you know, the daughter, the football
• 1:14:17
  type of action. So I think that's one thing for
• 1:14:20
  young throwers. How to actually get a proper
• 1:14:23
  release. I'm very big in again.
• 1:14:27
  When I was in high school, lots of times might young kids, they
• 1:14:32
  go to mean to them. Like why am I not throwing Glide
• 1:14:35
  or rotating yet as I because you still can't throw out a power
• 1:14:38
  position. I want to make sure that they
• 1:14:41
  understand and they have that movement pattern first.
• 1:14:45
  So I want them to do a Power position type thing and then
• 1:14:51
  probably the third one would be some type of transition work be
• 1:14:56
  step back or a Glide hesitate, so that you can take inventory.
• 1:15:02
  If you are Are hitting it, a good power position in wrap and
• 1:15:06
  then throw a discus. Same type of thing bowling
• 1:15:10
  because again when you go, as the disk you learn really fast
• 1:15:14
  wherever you point your thumb, The discus will go.
• 1:15:18
  It will also allow you to realize that pendulum action of
• 1:15:22
  what the alms should be doing again.
• 1:15:25
  Doing standing work in The discus and I like the wheel or
• 1:15:33
  As Rob term, that mirror drill. I like that as well for discus
• 1:15:39
  action hammer. Whines and turns foot movement,
• 1:15:45
  whatever you can do there, Javelin type things.
• 1:15:50
  I like to work. Throwing balls, putting them in
• 1:15:56
  inverted positions and then coming out of it.
• 1:15:59
  So they invert the on put armpit and then pull.
• 1:16:04
  And I like doing again. Tom puts his long time ago,
• 1:16:08
  taught me this, we call it the towel drill.
• 1:16:11
  Um, where you'll stand like, it's perfect like for us to go
• 1:16:17
  from our walkway, underneath the stadium, we can use a towel and
• 1:16:21
  we can snap and hit the towel directly overhead and will be
• 1:16:26
  fully extended if you don't have that, doorway type situation
• 1:16:30
  like at Slippery Rock. We didn't have that situation.
• 1:16:33
  So Tom, put a kid in the stands with a stick hanging out over
• 1:16:39
  and then he would have the person with a I will set up like
• 1:16:43
  he's going to do a standing throw and then he would drive
• 1:16:46
  his heel over drive the knee Drive the hip, and then he would
• 1:16:50
  invert and he would smack. And he get that real tall
• 1:16:54
  position where he's getting bicep2 year position.
• 1:16:59
  So those drills were really good and I still always go back to
• 1:17:05
  one of the things that Tom puskás told me at Slippery Rock
• 1:17:10
  when he was there for Or a camp which was pretty incredible
• 1:17:13
  Camp. Had put skis Brian Oldfield,
• 1:17:17
  John, Kennison, and Randy Heisler.
• 1:17:22
  We're at Slippery Rock for this camp.
• 1:17:23
  And Tom said, He just took the job on throws and I'm like we
• 1:17:29
  going, he's like there's a pond and he's like, we're going down
• 1:17:33
  to the pond. I was like, what are you going
• 1:17:34
  to do? The pain, will go throw rocks
• 1:17:35
  and he's like, we're just going to have kids, throw, try to get
• 1:17:41
  them to use proper throwing mechanics.
• 1:17:43
  And so, we took him down, had a whole big bucket of rocks and he
• 1:17:48
  just threw rocks into the pond, you know, so things like that.
• 1:17:51
  I think those are some of those basic movement patterns for the
• 1:17:55
  various events, which I think would be Really good to start
• 1:17:59
  your novice kids out with awesome.
• 1:18:03
  Thank you so much coach. It has been awesome, hearing
• 1:18:07
  your insights and answering a lot of these questions.
• 1:18:11
  I you know can't can't thank you enough for getting us kicked off
• 1:18:14
  of this series on the right foot.
• 1:18:18
  One thing I will say MF was giving a randomly giving a fifty
• 1:18:25
  dollar gift card to one of our people.
• 1:18:27
  Who submitted questions in the winner of that is dr.
• 1:18:30
  Zachary Hood. So you can send a email the
• 1:18:35
  Robles sorcerer or myself. I can put my email at the end
• 1:18:39
  and we'll get that sent out to you again.
• 1:18:42
  Really big, thanks to coach Aldridge today.
• 1:18:46
  This has been awesome. And if you have anybody that you
• 1:18:49
  would like to share this with you think would help, or would
• 1:18:52
  enjoy this, this will be available to replay on this
• 1:18:56
  channel. Be coming out with this some of
• 1:18:58
  this stuff weekly for the next couple of weeks and thank you
• 1:19:02
  very much. And it's rated if I can say, a
• 1:19:06
  big thank you for reaching out to me.
• 1:19:08
  This is a tremendous thing. I heard a cross-country panel
• 1:19:14
  discussion that math pero from Lewis and Clark did with Jeff
• 1:19:18
  Styles. And Bobby Van Allen from Johns
• 1:19:23
  Hopkins, Jeff from Washington University in st.
• 1:19:26
  Louis. And some other coaches and I as
• 1:19:30
  I'm watching that I'm going ha this would be pretty cool if we
• 1:19:34
  did something similar in the throes and then not much later
• 1:19:38
  you reached out to me. So this is a tremendous thing
• 1:19:41
  and I can't wait to hear the other people because like I
• 1:19:45
  said, so many, you know, the people that are here, I am
• 1:19:50
  incredibly huge fans of and just think the world of what they do.
• 1:19:57
  With, you know, everything that they do in the throes but also
• 1:20:01
  in track and field and, you know, there's so much experience
• 1:20:06
  that we have here, and I can't thank you enough.
• 1:20:10
  And then obviously, Rob. And I go way back to our one
• 1:20:16
  o'clock in the morning calls when he was coaching at Kent
• 1:20:19
  State and I was at Slippery, Rock is the only time we could
• 1:20:22
  actually know, we would be able to talk.
• 1:20:24
  This was before, there was any emails or computers?
• 1:20:27
  And you know, Rob and I go way back with it, the things that
• 1:20:31
  Rob is done for the throwing Community, it's incredible.
• 1:20:35
  And I'm talking from the group, The Grassroots level to the
• 1:20:42
  elite, you can't believe what the elite throwers say, and what
• 1:20:47
  they think about, what Rob was Source, it does for them, and
• 1:20:52
  it's an incredible thing and be it with mff, Let It Come.
• 1:20:57
  Company or the national throws, coaches association.
• 1:21:00
  Its We're very fortunate to have someone like Rob doing the
• 1:21:05
  things that he does for our real special Sport, and also we
• 1:21:10
  event. So, thank you to you guys as
• 1:21:12
  well. Awesome thanks coach.
• 1:21:15
  I'm going to end the live stream, but I will just say, if
• 1:21:18
  you are watching out there, please subscribe to our Channel
• 1:21:21
  and keep tuning in, in the next couple of weeks as we push out
• 1:21:25
  some more great presenters for you guys.
• 1:21:28
  Awesome. And thank you for tuning in.
• 1:21:30
  Thank you, Brandon. Well guys, that's it for today.
• 1:21:36
  Certainly hope you received as much value from this episode as
• 1:21:39
  we did making it. If you've made it this far,
• 1:21:42
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