The Perfect Discus Thrower

Well, at least in my personal, 25 year old perspective!

I suppose writing my thoughts and sharing my ideas outwardly helps me further ingest what I am thinking and to explain my thoughts to a reader will help me make my ideas more clear.

When I propose to write about my idea of the perfect discus thrower, I am not suggesting that anyone who fits my ideal mold will be the best thrower in the world. Rather, I am trying to portray a situation in which a thrower is able to compete at a highly efficient state of their physique and ability as applied to the throws.

First I must attack the notion that throwers need to be just merely "big". Yes, size CAN be a very positive attribute but only in rare instances when someone is perfectly neurologically connected to their bodies and are able to have a firm grasp of the bio-mechanics of the throwing motion...a situation in which I am positive a vast majority of young "big" throwers do not experience. Conversely, it is no surprise to me that smaller throwers (at least in the early stages of their career), enjoy more success than larger athletes (ex. NCAA discus record holder Hannes Hopley is only 6' ). I attribute this trend to the advantage of smaller athletes being able to utilize more body control and awareness at an earlier age. Bigger guys tend to have to develop that part of their athleticism with much effort. It is rare to find otherwise. Some big guys are blessed with the capabilities of a smaller athlete...but again, it is rare.
So in the world of discus, yes, size may matter. BUT if you ignore the obvious variables of a highly varied athletic motion then size alone will be inhibiting. Size is a variable that is equal to many other variables involved in throwing the discus.

So, what variables are there and how can they all come together to create the optimal thrower?

Now that I have attempted to portray my stance on the role of size, I will now endorse the variable of size as an equal variable to the ones that will follow. Height leads to more length which inevitably leads to the advantage of long throwing levers. But length alone will not help you throw the discus far. With length you are prone to the possibility of lower rates of velocity and slower orbital motion. So how will the perfect discus thrower combat this?

Speed, strength, agility, and an undeniably high level of physical fitness.

I've seen so many throwers who are just merely big and their size and lack of physical ability are too low and therefore their size is now a very detrimental attribute as their throwing velocities and balance have suffered a great deal. Just as in any sport it is size, speed, and strength that are important and must all exist within one athlete!

An informed thrower will realize the importance of achieving optimal body balance before they pursue "event-specific training" during the season. The off-season should be spent perfecting the ratios of strength throughout the body. Legs should be much stronger than the upper body. The back muscles must be in par to the chest muscles. The abdominal muscles must be highly trained. The arms muscles (which will almost be insignificant in a highly effective discus technique) must also be well developed for the sake of achieving balance. Balance is key in all aspects of life. The world we live in depends on balance. Human beings operate properly when balance is restored. What goes up must come down, hot/cold, happy/sad, breath in/breath out. To be highly developed athletes, our training must follow the order of nature.

What result is there if we do not? An inefficient use of your body.

What may result out of inefficiencies? Injuries and results that are well below an athlete's potential.

Many knee problems occur from imbalances of legs muscles, for example. Also, our bodies are made with many different muscle groups that all exist to compliment each other. To ignore the ultimate function of our bodies for an extended amount of time would serve as a pure detriment to peak performance.

The perfect discus thrower will work on both their lateral speed and their sprinting speed. Also much emphasis must be on the development of a high vertical leap to enhance explosion and also a very strong horizontal leap for the same purpose.

Much emphasis must be put on the squat exercise, dead lift, power cleans, and additional auxiliary leg work outs. The athlete must work on being strong at lit involving both legs and one leg as well.

Next, an informed thrower will realize that their core strength must reach abnormal levels of fitness.
Strength is important and is on equal importance as flexibility in the core. The thrower must be able to create as much torque as possible (also known as separation between the upper body and lower body through a "twisting" motion) and release their torque at very high levels of strength and explosion.
The core must be strong, flexible, and also be in balance to the size of the upper torso. If the mid-section of an athlete is too big in relation to the torso, then the twisting motions needed in the throws technique will be inhibited from reaching optimal function.

A great discus thrower will also have a very strong set of pecs that are crucial in finishing the whipping motion that is created in the technique. Legs are the most important genesis of power in the throw but the pecs and upper body muscles are what help you get an amazing finish to the throw. So despite legs being the most important, it is imperative that a thrower realizes that less important muscle groups will need attention as well. There must be balance. Same with the size argument. Being just "big" means nothing if the other variables of the throw are not present.

And lastly, a great discus thrower will have passion in their pursuit for farther throws. Passion alone sometimes makes up for blaring inadequacies with throwers.
Coach Dave Wollman of SMU put it beautifully when he said, " I am a firm believer in the human spirit. I believe we haven't even scratched the surface of what we are capable of as humans".

All of what I explain above doesn't necessarily describe someone who will throw the world record one day. I am merely pointing out the factors that go into helping someone reach a level at which they are most efficient. In fact, the pursuit of perfection in throws is the beauty of the sport...and it is something we will never achieve. The happiness of the discus throw can only come from the joy of enjoying such a beautiful sport. Distances only measure our progress but never help us achieve an end. The end does not exist. What is forever present for those who love to throw is the aspect of the spirit and passion measured by how far you can throw a metal plate. it's a beautiful thing.

An Idea

So, it will take a lot of money but I think I will save up for a once-a-year trombone/musical pilgrimage to happen every winter! I crunched some numbers together, and indeed, it will be expensive but I should be able to handle it if I save properly! There are some cities in this country (other than Houston, of course!) that have a high concentration of young, energetic, and prime time players!

The pilgrimage will include lessons with 3-4 players of that city and hopefully I can attend a concert by the local symphony. Luckily, I have friends in all of these cities and that will off set my housing costs (hoping that they are nice enough to let me crash)!

This winter I have decided that I should go to Washington DC. I have made a similar pilgrimage to the city of Atlanta and I think I will do that again for the winter of 2011. DC contains a very high concentration of fantastic players as there are a complete handful of extremely high quality ensembles there such as the Navy, Marine, Army, Air Force bands as well as the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Virginia Symphony, Kennedy Center/National Opera.

So some other cities I hope to go to for the same purpose are Atlanta, NYC, San Fransisco, Boston, and Los Angeles.

wow, this would be cool to do once a year..

Update + Things to Come

Well, the guy who showed me his house doesn't quite know it yet, but I have just written out a check for my first month's rent at a pretty cool house in the Heights. I'll drop it off tomorrow and then he will have a new room mate! The house definitely has that "modern/boxy" architecture that can weird me out sometimes but it's a deal well worth it. I must admit, I have never met the guy before today but he seemed like a good guy who enjoys working out as much as I do so that's nice. There is a huge 50" TV in the living room that I imagine will come in handy during the Texans and Rockets seasons.
I will move in on the first of June but...
I have an audition for the Milwaukee Symphony on June 7th. If that pans out well...looks like I'll be giving him a notice of a move-out! but I told him, at best, for even a top-notch talent, your odds of winning are rather low!

Which brings me to a thought...and that is the realization of exactly how insanely difficult it is to win an audition for an American symphony orchestra! I mean, being the best player is NOT what gets you in. There are at least a dozen factors that go into the choosing of a winner. It's not like you walk in with your resume, smile, and hope that your good looks can subconsciously trigger your potential employers urges to hire you! In the orchestral world, you are behind a screen and the only thing that matters is what comes out of your horn! In 2008, I made a run at trying to qualify for the olympic trials....which is something I actually accomplished. I then gained an appreciation of exactly how hard it is to actually make the Olympics...it is very difficult. But i'd imagine it is not nearly as difficult as being in a HIGHLY select group of individuals who have won auditions for major symphony orchestras. Skill and experience do count for a big deal but like I said before, there are at least a dozen more random ever-changing factors that lead to the choosing of one, unique candidate. With all that being said, I will do it one day...God keep me healthy!

Thaddeus, our new dog, has been quite a handful! I came home one day and my mom brought home a random puppy about 5 weeks old. I have no idea what it is but the vet said it will probably be no bigger than about 10 lbs...very small. I took Thaddeus to the Spring Woods clinic. The clinic is located right next to the high school that I attended and has been there my whole entire life. To me there was no dispute over where I was going...I had no doubt that I would go to the neighborhood gem. Thaddeus' play biting has gotten pretty darn strong so I'll have to get it to stop doing that!

My brother has been going crazy lately and it puts so much weight on everyone in the family...and it has for as long as he has been sick. But with all of the extreme heart-ache and all of the terrors that have crippled my mind, I am so glad that I have been able to be exposed to him and to deal with his ailments as my own. My brother really does help me gain a certain perspective that I am very thankful for. If it weren't for him, I truly would not be the same person.

-James

Welcome Thaddeus

We have a new member of the family...a little puppy now named Thaddeus!

The Best Meal

I originally wrote this about a year ago and I find my own thoughts from the past to be particularly helpful again for me now. No matter what happens, true happiness is still possible.

Here it is, re-posted:



5/16/2009

The Best Meal

I don’t have a lot of money. I barely am able to pay my bills. My apartment, whose anti-luxury I can barely afford, looks like a dungeon of doom. I still owe my university some money. I still owe my bank some money. My body aches. My brain is tired.

My career is getting started but is not quite what I want just yet. My ambitions are high and will only get higher as I achieve them. My mind dreams forever…too much for anyone to ever gain any type of contentment.

But somehow…today…happiness has never seemed so clear to me like it has just now.

After a week of intense training and bodily torture I stumble into a Chipotle after a nice long hot shower. My body is cooled, clean, and fresh. Before I eat my one of must be hundreds of burrito bowls filled with all the ingredients to my liking I remember two things:

First, The homeless guy I passed on the walk from my car to the door of the restaurant.

And second, a picture that my dad put on our wall as I was growing up of a man with his hands folded praying as a piece of bread lay in front of him.

It was then, all the sudden, an overwhelming sense of thankfulness nearly paralyzed me.

I wanted to cry.

I must admit that I have felt these sensations before but now I am determined to remember them by writing. Maybe this time I can look back and remember all the emotions I felt.

Being a second generation child who knows only comfort provided by hard-working parents I never knew how profound my dad’s favorite painting could be. Yes, on the surface it was about a man being thankful for his supper. Who the man is or what the man does is completely beyond me. But for my dad, it was a man thanking his God for his life. His life…his life. What is in front of him guarantees not the future, or prosperity, or success…it only reminds him of living and being in a true sense of thanksgiving off just a loaf of bread…but that is more than enough to be inspired by. He may be rich, he may be poor, he may be happy, he may be sad…there’s just no way of telling. But the idea that anyone can be thankful and humble for just a piece of bread is what makes it so beautiful. It means a lot to my dad considering the hardships of immigration, language barriers, economic instabilities, fear, and anxiety.

The homeless guy who no matter how bad of a day I (a “suffering” human being ) have would love to spend time in my shoes.

So before I ate, I prayed. I had to…the humility at the time was over bearing.
I’m not sure to what or whom I prayed but I prayed. Not out of service or ritual but out of the pure gravity of my emotions. With every exhale of my breath my eyes watered. I closed my eyes and said,
“Thank you for this food. Thank you for my life. Thank you for letting me pursue what I truly love. Thank you for everything”.
Maybe it was the fact that I was just so truly exhausted. That nourishing my body was so important at that point and the fact that I could do so at will is what made me so thankful.

And then I began to ponder. What is making me so happy right now? Despite everything in my life that no one would be willing to take on aside from their own hardship. Why do I feel this happiness? At least for now…why am I this happy. Why couldn’t my happiness wait for after I win a job in a symphony orchestra? Or after I make the Olympics? Or after an NFL team decides to sign me to a contract? Or after my brother sheds off his mental illnesses? Or after my family is able to not worry about being poor? Or after I get a car that doesn’t rattle in the back for whatever reason (damn)?

Then it came to me. Thoughts that we’ve (you and I) had all the time. Thoughts we never seem to put together. Thoughts we never quite commit to. Well, here’s my shot.

Happiness is impossible to attain.

Maybe in the future I can make enough money to provide for myself and for everyone that I love (a deed above everything else that I’ve always aspired to do…something I thought would make me happy).
But even that won’t make me happy.

Once I achieve that, my thoughts will be “well, there’s more to do”. It’s human nature. Its what helps us better ourselves. Its how we advance, its how we survive, it’s how we work. When Mahler wrote his second symphony saying that “ I have put all of myself into this work” do you think that it was the truth? Why did 8 ½ more symphonies poor out of his creative life? There is always something more. There is never a moment of complete arrival. This is why artists never stop their craft, why musicians play and learn constantly, why philosophers never seem to come to their absolute decision, why scientists only know a chip of reality, why we will never live a day when we can’t learn.

This is why humans cannot “attain” happiness.

Happiness is a state of mind. Though we may attain objectives, the only role of our successes is to feed into what we hope will contribute to our state of mind. That is why we cannot depend on our success to give us happiness. Happiness is a much more personal, introverted affair. Happiness is universal and can reach anyone no matter their circumstance. A poor mother who sees their child walk for the first time will be just as happy as a rich mother with her child. Thankfulness lately has helped me attain happiness these last few moments. I feel that it can stick.

Thankful for what? I’m thankful for many things just as much as anyone else can be. Even a wheel chair -bound person can be thankful for so much. I can bet that many handicapped people are thankful for so much more and have a greater grasp of happiness than people who march up and down schools, buildings, and streets who claim to be in the pursuit of something that they are ironically ignoring…happiness.
Why are such high-end jobs leading to stress and amazing amounts of suicide. I would say that the leading cause of that (aside from high-stress occupational demands) is that people forget that the sun comes out, people are alive, and that beauty is there for us every day…not something we have to struggle to see.

Whether you are a spiritual person or not, it really doesn’t matter. I really do hope that every once in a while, no matter what is happening in your life…no matter what…., that you can take a few moments and just meditate on how beautiful it all really is. All of it. Our country is always in war, our economy sucks, relationships are hard, your family may not be what it should be, your school work is giving you hell, no matter how hard you work at something progress seems to escape you…whatever else you can think of. Happiness is dependent on none of those. Not even those you love.

But where are you now? What has gotten you there? Who have you met that has been a special blessing to you? How easy is it for you to pursue your passions? What makes you happy? Can anyone take that from you?

You’re alive. The day is yours.

The fact that I have this happiness today (and hopefully forever) stems from the fact that nothing or no one can ever make me or you happy. Our happiness as related to objects or people occurs when we truly make a personal decision that the two are related. It is up to us to be happy and not what we achieve or who we meet. The role of objects and people are important but their impact to happiness is far less than your own genuine perception.
For instance, this beer that I am drinking. The fact that I am drinking this beer now makes me happy. Beer does not make me happy. I can do without beer. (and we should be able to do without anything or anyone) Having worked really hard this week, it feels nice to drink a beer on occasion. Now if I were to equate beer with happiness, I would be binge drinking every night…but what happiness is there to that…there is only alcoholism.

Jim Markey of the New York Philharmonic so beautifully stated that , “when you place all of the value of your existence in getting a job (success, or someone, or something) then you will be consumed by failure“. There are people who work hard to get on top. But when they get to the top…what’s next…why am I wanting more when I thought this would make me ultimately happy? Others will work harder than ever because of a gift that they are thankful for. When they get to the top, well, they don’t care…they pursue at the same rate because what they are doing makes them happy.

Nothing can give us happiness. Or no one. What do I mean when I say no one can make you happy? The idea of “having” someone will not lead to happiness. The need to have someone or the dependency. Never should our happiness be dependent. How people make us happy is when we come to love who they are and how what they are aligns with what makes us happy. Again, someone else cannot literally give us happiness. It depends on whether that friend, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, …etc provides us with much more than just possession. Simple concept, bad rambling of an explanation.


Where there is status, achievement, or possession there will always be the need for more. Neither of the three are bad but happiness does not result from them…it results from us. Lets be thankful…everyone can do it. Let’s pursue, lets work hard, lets have an undying passion for what we hope to achieve…but let’s be thankful!

Awesome

Alarm woke me up today, saw that it was sunny outside, felt that it was hot, so I put my shorts on, found a good athletic shirt to wear, stepped out the door, and went to work outside coaching. That is how I love to start the day. Gym cloths, lace up some athletic shoes, and get ready to bake in the sun while coaching and working out. Good on the job attire, great work.

I love my work

-J