Throws Report 2003

Submitted by Richard Collier

Pending ratification by Athletics Canada - BC throwers set two new National Javelin records. Senior Javelin thrower Alana Redfern set a new Provincial and National record of 55.31m breaking the old National record of 51.31m and the Provincial record of 50.89.

Junior Javelin thrower Krista Woodward also set a new Junior Provincial and National record of 51.76m breaking Roslyn Lundeen's old record of 50.89m. Prior to 2003 Roslyn Lundeen held both the provincial senior and junior javelin record. Alana is currently attending the University of Iowa and Krista is at the University of Georgia.

This years report will not focus on throws results. Results can be found on the Athletics Canada and BC Athletics websites. This report will compare our athletes to the top 10 Canadian rankings to see where we presently stand and end with a summary of how we can improve the throws in BC.

When analyzing the 2003 rankings I find that BC leads all the other provinces through out Canada with men and women's hammer and javelin. However, we fall far behind most of the provinces in shot put and discus.

Shot Put review:
BC senior women rank in the bottom half of 36 Canadian shot putters. We fair no better in the junior shot but the picture looks a little brighter in women's youth shot put with one of our athletes ranking 2nd.

We have one senior man who ranks 6 out of 11 Canadian shot putters and again we bring up the bottom in junior shot ranking 10, 11, and 12 out of 12 Canadian Jr. shot putters. In the Youth category we don't have any BC athletes listed among the 15.

Reviewing shot put in Junior Development we find that we have an abundance of athletes doing shot put but when they reach the Juvenile age they seem to drop off the face of the earth. It should be noted that this not only holds true for BC but for all the provinces. This shows when you look at the number of shot putters that participate in our Junior and Senior National Championships and Canadian National Legion. The numbers start to dwindle as they get older.

Javelin Review:
In Canada our BC senior women javelin throwers are ranked 1, 3, 4, 5 and 8th out of the top 13 senior women. We have the top junior javelin thrower in Canada and in the Youth category we have a thrower ranked 3rd out of the top 4 throwers.

Although we rank high in the nation in Javelin we must remember that all top 5 senior ranking javelins throwers are getting their training in the US at American Universities and are coached, for the majority of the year, by US coaches. That said, it should also noted that these athletes got their solid base in the event here in BC by BC coaches but refinement of their technique is being done in the US.

BC senior men are ranked 3rd and 9th in the top 10 out of 34 male javelin throwers in Canada. BC junior male javelin ranks 1st out of 25 and our juvenile javelin throwers are ranked 2nd and 7th out of 25 javelin throwers. Like our female throwers, our male javelin throwers are all trained in BC by BC coaches. It is most likely that in the future some of our male throwers will head down to American universities just like our female throwers.

This is not because they have better coaches but more a reflection of the fact that a lot of high schools in the US still don't allow the javelin in their meets so our athletes enter the University stage well ahead in the event.

Discus Review:
This year BC women's discus looked brighter with some of our up and coming athletes. In senior women's discus we rank 3rd, 6th, and 11th out of the top 13 women discus throwers in Canada. The 6th rank thrower is only a junior and our 11th ranked thrower did not practice at all this year in the discus throw. Our 11th ranked thrower was a hammer thrower at the Western Canada Games and was thrown into the discus competition and finished 2nd and that mark ranked her in 11th place.

Our junior women are ranked number 1 out of 7 and our youth thrower is ranked 1st out of the top 5 in Canada.

BC senior men discus throwers are ranked 13th and 15th out of 23 and we have no junior men ranked out of 13.

Hammer Review:
BC again did extremely well in both women and men's hammer as we have done in previous years. Senior women's hammer we are ranked 1, 3, 7, 9, and 11th out of 27 senior hammer throwers. In the junior category we are ranked 2, 3, 4, and 5 out of the top 7 junior female hammer throwers. In the Youth women's hammer we ranked 2 and 3 out of the top 4 in Canada.

Men's hammer did just as well. Senior men's hammer finds us ranked 1, 2, 5, and 8 out of 21 Canadian male hammer throwers. Our junior is ranked 3rd out of 8 and our youth is 4th out of 8.

Summary:
In shot put we lose a lot of our Junior Development athletes for several reasons:
1. The majority of them are not big enough to handle the heavier shot.
2. It's not a high profile, glamour event.
3. They don't see results as quickly as most of the other events. Their personal bests move up in centimetres not metres.
4. Coaches don't know how to properly take young shot putters to the next level.

Here are some of the things that need to be done:
1. Teach new techniques such as the rotational shot put to the younger athletes want to stay in this event.
2. Develop new periodisation programs for shot putters
3. Develop and define weight training programs for shot and at what age they should start.
4. Learn how to effectively observe throwers and identify corrections that need to be made to technique and training.
5. Coaches must be trained to see the value of training each shot putter as an individual with full programs tailored to the individual rather than lumping them all together as one.

All of the other events need attention and can benefit from the above but they are not as critical as shot put.

We have to start now. We have to collectively get our act together for the sake of our athletes and we need to invest now to pay dividends in the future.

As the Throws representative I am open to working with any and all of the many dedicated throws coaches in BC to make things better in the future. Please feel free to contact me.

rcollier@lynx.bc.ca
Ph/Fax: (604) 271-0851