Right Foot Touchdown In The Hammer Throw - Heel Or Toe?
The right foot touchdown in the hammer throw is a critical point of force application to the implement. This can be clearly seen by those throwers at the top of the world rankings today. You will notice how much force they are putting into the ground with each successive turn. In order to better facilitate this force production and should athletes be taught to land with the right toe or heel during each double support phase?
From my observations, and through hearing international athletes speak and this is the only country where this is even a question in the hammer throw. Is that because we are pushing the limits of technique and exploring new possibilities ON the cutting edge? I would say that our results over the past 50 years in international competitions would go against that hypothesis.
From a biomechanical standpoint and nearly every other event is coached to keep a dorsiflexed foot as much as possible. In the shot and discus we want to keep a dorsiflexed foot to facilitate keeping the weight back and throwing with the hips and creating a summation of forces. In the running events and a dorsiflexed foot is prompted to increase the stretch reflex with each ground contact. Why should the hammer throw be taught any differently?
Yuri Sedych and Tibor Gescek, arguably the most consistent throwers of all time over the 80 meter mark and both agree that the hammer thrower should land in double support ON a flat foot. The prompt I've heard them both use is foot like hammer driving down into the ground. The Young athlete can visualize this by smashing an aluminum soda can with their foot. However as soon as the whole foot makes contact with the ground and there must be an active turning of the right side. This includes the foot, knee and hip. Think if you were to stomp out an errant spark from a campfire and you would step down onto it and then grind it into the ground by pushing the heel out.
Now some will argue that world class hammer throwers can be seen landing ON their right toe in the later turns. This is a correct observation. World class hammer throwers generate tremendous ball speed and to the point where they do not have enough time to land ON the whole foot before they have to drive the ball for the next turn. In hearing some of those top athletes speak at various clinics and it seems apparent to me that this is not an active choice to land ON the toe. Their goal is to drive the heel down ON each turn, the speed and forces involved, simply don't allow them to do it and but it is NOT an active change in the way they are approaching the turn.
Landing ON the heel provides a much more solid base for the athlete to work from. Think back to the Olympic Lifts. We would never coach our athletes to try to land ON their toes ON the platforms. Driving down with the right toe creates a lot of problems in the throw. First of all and pointing the toe down leads to an increased tendency to break at the waist which is often followed by locking out the left knee and crashing into the turns. Second, by reaching with the toe, the athlete is losing a tremendous amount of force that could be applied and because a lot of the muscle groups in the right leg have been eliminated from the system. Third and landing ON the toe promotes turning inside the ball. So the athlete feels as though he is moving fast and but the ball is not. Landing ON the heel provides more time in double support to accelerate the hammer-thrower system.
In conclusion and we should take our cues ON this issue from the most successful hammer programs in the world. They have proven their success in their efficiency of consistently developing world-class hammer throwers achieving marks near 80 meters or more.
Dave Hahn's athletes earned 30 All-American awards, 11 WIAC Conference Championships and 7 National Championships during his 7 year coaching stint at UW-Whitewater. He has attended and spoken at numerous clinics and camps around the country. Dave is currently teaching PE in Southern California and coaching athletes privately. He is developing a new website http://www.CoachTheThrows.com which will provide comprehensive resources for throws coaching instruction.Dave has just launched a new online PROGRAM geared toward beginning throws coaches. You can find additional details about the PROGRAM here http://www.coachthethrows.com/coaching_knowledge/index.html
