Off-Season training for a thrower

[Sqeezemasterflash]

I had my last games of the season today, and will be starting on a month of low intensity training, giving my body a chance to recover. When I'm done with that I plan on staring in on the off season. I was thinking about 3 months of volume, higher rep squats and high set, low rep, olympic lifts, followed by 3 months of building power. Throwing drills would make up part of this as well, especially since I might do a little indoor track. Any thoughts on developing this plan more fully?

[Bert Sorin]

Depending on the length and intensity of the season you are finishing right now, and when the next one will start should dictate the re-building phase. I always take 2-3 weeks completely off from training after a big season to let my mind, body, spirit, adrenals, family, business, and hobbies recover. Do not overlook this. You must prioritize.

After that, make a list of goals of what you want to throw the next year, and to what level you want to reach. From that you can start to make a road map of how to get there. If you are bad in the stone throw, make an effort to find someone to coach you, buy some videos, Adam Nelson has a good one, www.throwclean.com, and hit a few track meets, where guys will be throwing FAR. Enough cannot be said about being around good throwers. You have to see it go far to realize that you too can make it fly far.

If body size is your problem, do some hypertrophy work, which is usually how I start my training macro cycle. I test all of my abilities (jumps, speed balance, strength) and work from there. Do not go into it blindly. You may already be good a some stuff, work on your weaknesses.

Get a base of general strength, throw in some specifics, and throwing drills. Wehn you are throwing, look on a ranking list, like www.nasgaweb.com, and see what your "weakest" events are. Work the heck out of those. That is how you will win games, and get confidence level up. The key is not have a weak link in the chain. Look at Ryan Vierra (5 times World Champ), he will get 1-3 all day long, and wins a ton of games.

The closer you get to the season, start honing the skills you built up in the winter. Don't forget to back off of the training to let the body recover, so you can go out and kick some butt!

best of luck.

Bert Sorin

[Sqeezemasterflash]

Thanks Bert. I'm going to start resting up for a few weeks, then hit up a quad test to see where I am. I figured I'd start with some hypertrophy, just to balance things out from the season. I'll start working on a plan for off season, focusing on drills for my weak events (caber, wob, and stone) and lots of olympic lifting and squats. I'll post it here for feedback when I'm done.