Walter Henning

LSU Invitational

2011-04-02T19:39:00.002-05:00

Today was an, let just say poor so this post can be rated under 'R'. I threw 66.08m with the 16lb hammer and the team lost to....you guessed it, Texas A&M. This is a normal occurrence for us so it was not unforeseen. My technique was good, just hesitant and slow. After I finished lifting after the meet, Coach Yush and I talked about my schedule for the rest of the year. As of today my schedule looks like:
Texas Relays Austin, Tx 4/9/2011
LSU Alumni Gold Baton Rouge, LA 4/23/2011
Penn Relays Philadelphia, PA 4/30/2011
SEC Champs Athens, GA 5/12/2011
East Regionals Bloomington, IN 5/26/2011
NCAA Championships Des Moines, IA 6/10/2011

After the season is over I am going to work in the oilfield for a few months. Training will be on the back burner then and will come down to distance this year. A lot of people have asked me what my plans are and I thought I should be honest about it. Like I said, I am going to work in the oilfield from June-October and then I am going to be testing for a few law enforcement agencies for my career. I told Coach Yush that this year is going to be a 76m year or bust. IF you want to know more, I will update this periodically or send me a message on facebook.

GEAUX TIGERS!

An Official Announcement.

2011-03-15T14:59:00.003-05:00

In March of 2003, I picked up the weight for the first time at Weight-A-Rama at Brown University. On March 11, 2011, I picked up the weight for the final time. I am officially announcing my retirement from the weight throw (he said with a grin from the Sun to Pluto... and for you young ones, Pluto used to be a planet). I have been waiting for this day for years to finally come and pass. I am overjoyed that I will never have to pick up that demon child event ever again! I thought I would write a short summary of my career in the weight throw and then print a copy out and burn it in the fireplace. :). SO without further adieu, I present to you the history of the Walter Henning weight throw experience, please do not enjoy.

2003 (8th Grade): I picked up the 25lb weight in a feeble attempt to qualify for the high school national championships at Weight-a-rama at Brown University in Providence, R.I. I threw the 25lb weight about 38'...I think. It could be 34 feet but I really do not remember. (I did not qualify for Nationals).

2004 (9th Grade): I threw a personal best of 56'6.50" to break the Freshman National Class Record in the 25lb weight throw. However, it was not recognized because it was not attached to a meet that had running events. Oh well. At the National Championships I placed....11th? and did not make the finals. (This was the last time I failed to qualify for a final in a hammer/weight throw meet.)

2005 (10th Grade): I threw a personal best with the 25lb weight of 75'0.5" to break the Sophomore National Class Record that stood since 1974! and the New York State Record. Since there were two Indoor High School National Championships, and most weight throwers competed in both, I placed 4th at the Nike Indoor Nationals in Baltimore and I won my first National Championship in the 25lb weight throw the next day at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships with a throw of 69'8.75". (First High School National Championship).

2006 (11th Grade): I threw a personal best of 85'6" with the 25lb weight which also broke the National High School Record of 82'10" set by Leif Arrhenius in 2004. (Side note, Leif and I won the Shot Put and Weight Throw respectively at the 2011 NCAA D1 Indoor Track and Field Championships to become the first throwers to be former National High School Records holders in the 25lb weight throw to sweep NCAA throwing crowns). I also swept the National Championships that winter while setting National High School Records in both meets in the same weekend! I won the Nike Indoor Nationals at 83'2.5" and the National Scholastic Indoor Championships at 85'6". This year, the New Balance Armory in Manhattan, New York, revamped their throwing area to include the weight throw. Formerly, Manhattan College would host the weight throw at the National Meet. I also threw the 35lb weight for the first time because I was throwing too far to throw at West Point and threw it 59'7". (Two National High School Championships and New National High School Record).

2007 (12th Grade): This year the Armory spent even more money on their throwing facility to accommodate the weight throw because I was throwing too far. They spent about $25,000 to extend the weight throw cage, move the ring, and put up higher fencing at the end of the cage. To, in my opinion, thank the Armory for their generosity I threw solely at the National Scholastic Indoor Championship which is held annually at the Armory. I felt it was the right thing to do because if they did not extend that weight throw area, I would have decided to sit out my senior year in the weight throw. So, to repay them I threw the shot put and the weight throw at the NSIC meet at the Armory and I won both of them! I threw the 12lb Shot Put a indoor PR of 64'1" to beat heavy favorite Jimmie Pacifico and threw the 25lb weight a National Record 86'5.5". I still consider this meet to be my second best meet of all-time behind the 2008 World Junior Championships. Also this year I threw the 35lb Weight 62'3".(National Champion in the Shot Put and Weight Throw, National Record).

2008 (Freshman North Carolina): This year I threw a personal best of 72'3" in the 35lb weight throw which is still a World Junior Record in the event when I placed third at the NCAA D1 Indoor Track and Field Championships. I only had one meet under 70' this year, ironically at the Armory, when I threw 68' something. That meet at the armory would be the only time I ever threw under 70' as my best throw in a meet. This set a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill school record by one quarter inch. I also won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships in the weight throw. This would be my first of four conference championships I won in the weight throw while in college. I have never lost a conference championship. (ACC Champion; All-American; World Junior Record)

2009 (Sophomore LSU): I threw a personal best of 74'5.5" at the Southeastern Conference Championships to establish a new LSU School Record. This makes me the owner of weight throw records at two Division-1 Universities. I placed fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships that year and would be my last loss in the weight throw. (SEC Champion; All-American)

2010 (Junior LSU): I threw a personal best of 78'1" at the Southeastern Conference Championships to establish a new SEC Record. The old record was held by Cory Martin of Auburn at 76' something. I also won my first National Championship in college that year and went undefeated. (National Champion; SEC Champion: SEC Record; Undefeated).

2011 (Senior LSU): I threw a seasonal best of 76'6.25" at LSU to set a new Carl Maddox Field House Record. This was the only meet I threw over 74' at my senior year. This year would definietly be a colossal dissapointment if I did not repeat as SEC Champion for the third straight year and win back-to-back NCAA Championships. I also went undefeated to collegiate athletes. Jake Freeman, '03 Graduate of Manhattan College and 2011 USA Indoor Champion, beat me at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in February. I do not care about losing that meet because my team won the championship at that meet and so far is the only time I have won a team event in college.

Summary: National High School Record, New York State Record in the 25lb and 35lb weight throw, LSU and North Carolina Records, World Junior Record in the 35lb weight throw, four-time High School National Champion in the 25lb weight throw, four-time indoor Conference Champion (three-time SEC; One ACC) in the 35lb weight throw, Two-time NCAA Division-1 Champion in the 35lb weight throw.

Before I have some closing remarks I would like to thank everyone who helped me have such success in the weight throw as I did. Marty Engel, John McCree, Don Buckley, Brother Gary Cregan, Derek Yush, my Mother and the rest of my family (especially my Aunt Eileen), my girlfriend Rachel and her family, my St. Anthony's teammates, my UNC teammates, my LSU teammates, training staff and everyone else who I have failed to mention. It means the world to me to have you all in my life and could not thank you enough for all the love and support you have extended to me in the last 9 years of my throwing career.

Quick Summary of my final meet: I won the NCAA Division-1 Weight Throw title at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Since it was so close to Baton Rouge (~6 hours) I had plenty of teammates come and watch as well as some family members. My Mom flew down from New York to watch, my girlfriend and sister drove from Baton Rouge, my teammates Ross Roubion and Ryan Roubion drove in, and most of all my cousin Brian drove up from San Antonio, Tx, to watch. It was the first time he has seen me throw since 2001 or 2002 when I threw Javelin at a regional USATF meet. Brian is a specialist in the US Army Rangers and was wounded in June of 2010 when he stepped on a land mine which cost him his left leg and two toes on his right foot. It is amazing how such a tragedy can bring people together. Brian grew up in South Carolina and with track and school I rarely got to see him and the rest of my family there. I saw him maybe four or five times since 2000 until he was hurt in Afghanistan. Since he was injured I have seen him five times in the last 8 months and will see him again next month in Austin, Tx and at least three more times before September. I know I do not say it too much but I am very proud to have the family that I do and am thankful to the McGuire angels and God for strengthening the love in my family through all the hard times my family has had the last two years and most importantly for keeping us together.

I hoped you enjoyed reading that as much as I will love to print this out and watch it burn away in the fire! YAY OUTDOOR SEASON!!!!

GEAUX TIGERS!

2011-02-21T17:44:00.002-06:00

Just in case you don't know what quote I was referring to in my previous post... fast forward to 3:55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvgGDQ58iq0

"Its about damn time...I'm sick of throwing like crap"- Andy Bloom

2011-02-19T02:39:00.002-06:00

Today was the LSU Twilight meet at the Carl Maddox Field House. The men's weight throw started it off big to combine four weight throwers over 80m total. Freshman Daniel Obioha threw 16.66m for a personal record, Senior Ross Roubion threw a personal record of 19.66m, Junior Max Lauro threw a near personal best at 21.22m, and I threw a seasonal best at 23.32m. We combined for 80.86m which exceeded our goal of 80m. It was a great day for LSU Men's Track and Field as we continue our quest to become National Champions. It was a great day for me. I finally got my head on straight and decided to throw well. I had four throws over 75 feet and had a sector foul at 79'11". Max also had two sector fouls over 70 feet. We are both peaking at the right time as the championship season starts next week with the Southeastern Conference Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Two weeks after that, the NCAA Championships will be held at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. We have a very good team this year and I would like nothing greater than to come back to Baton Rouge on March 12th as the 2011 National Championship Track and Field Team. I would be able to retire a happy man if that happens.

GEAUX TIGERS!

Best Meet EVER...EVEr....EVer... Ever...ever

2011-02-07T15:20:00.003-06:00

NCAA#2 LSU Men's Track and Field accomplished one of our goals this season in winning the 2011 New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City this past weekend. Although, I did not have a good meet for my standards the LSU weight throwers were able to score 21 points for the team. We were able to win the team championship over NCAA#3 Texas A&M, who beat us in a close head-to-head competition two weeks ago, by 17 points. However, there were things that were still behind the scenes that make us even stronger. Junior Barrett Nugent and fifth year Senior Josh Dominguez both did not compete for us this weekend and we secured the win before the last race of the meet and did not field a 4x4 team. Barrett ran in the prelims but did not run in the finals. Josh cut his hand open last week after breaking a pole at practice and will be out this weekend in Arkansas also. Barrett and Josh both placed 2nd at the NCAA outdoor championships last year and are hoping to add those extra 4 points collectively to help us at the indoor meet next month. This was definitely the best meet I've had as a Tiger yet(hopefully with a emphasis on the yet). I am all about winning as a team and I always said that I would rather win the team championship than the individual title, and here is a perfect example. I threw horribly but was still able to get 2nd (top collegiate) and secure points for the team. The team is the ultimate champion and I think everyone really has a great grasp on that this year. The team will be traveling back to Fayetteville....again, this weekend. I will again stay home and train through the meet. Last week at the Arkansas Razorback meet the University of Arkansas closed their practice facility for the throwers. We had to go to Home Depot and buy a piece of plywood and throw in the hotel parking lot. Good thing it wasn't the football team getting locked out or it would have been some bad press for Arkansas Athletics. Here come the LSU Tigers!!

GEAUX TIGERS!

LSU Men's Track and Field Ranked #1

2011-01-28T20:13:00.003-06:00

In the first NCAA Indoor Track and Field rankings released by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, our men's squad is ranked number one. The University of Florida is number two and Texas A&M is number three. Another cool thing to note is that the SEC is the number one conference on both the women's and men's side. We have a very good team and we are all really excited about our road to becoming National Champions. We already have three males that have exceeded the NCAA Automatic standard and a few others that will surely get in at-large with their current marks. Of course, we are all looking to improve in the next 42 days.
There has been a lot going on in the last... how ever long it has been since I posted. I had a TERRIBLE, I mean quite awful... really bad... kind of pathetic... atrocious fall training. Let's just say I was excited when I threw over 65m in practice with the hammer. However, it is exactly what we were expecting. I took off two months after the end of my season last year... well, after the NCAA meet. I competed in two meets, USATF National Championships and the NACAC U-23 Meet, after the NCAA Outdoors but I did not really train hard. I was coming off the high of my great season. I was burnt out and really did not want to do much besides relax. And that is exactly what I did. I didn't lift a single weight, throw a hammer/weight/shot/discus... I may have thrown a javelin. I even went as far as driving the longer way around campus just so I did not even have to look at the track! I wanted nothing to do with track and it was AMAZING! In reality, this was my first long break since I started throwing the hammer in 2002. I took one week breaks before but how much does that really do? So I did not really know what to expect when I came back but Coach and I figured it out pretty quick. I think my first practice I threw something like 195 feet, haha. BUT its getting better. We just recently switched up my cycle because I had a few good practices in a row. Yeah, I know, you start throwing well and then boom, lets do something to make you suck some more, lol.
Like I said, practices have been going well and I am excited. I threw in my first meet of the season last weekend in Texas. We had a dual meet vs. Texas A&M in College Station and we did alright. We lost but overall had an alright meet. We definitely need to improve if we want to reach our goal, myself included, and we will. Since it was a scored meet I threw the weight throw and shot put. The weight was first and I took three throws for different purposes but was able to secure points for the team on my first throw, qualify for NCAAs on the second one and I tried out our new Dominator weight on the third one but it slipped out of my hands on the release. I also was able to win the shot put on my last throw. I was trailing the Texas A&M thrower going into the sixth throw. Before I got into the ring I said to myself, "You won the NCAA meet on your last throw, why can't you do it here?". And I did. I was happy to get some unexpected points for my team. Losing sucks and I don't want to do it again.
The team is in action today and tomorrow in (sigh) Fayetteville, Arkansas. I stayed home to throw some more hammer and catch up on some school work. I was toying with the idea of driving up there to support the team but it ended up being too much. It really sucks not being with the team but I'm going to have to get used to it if I want to throw professionally next year. That is the one thing I do not think I will like, about becoming a pro... I won't have a team. I love being a part of a team and I will definitely miss it. Lesson of the day: cherish the moment because you will miss it when its all over! GEAUX TIGERS!

A worthy reason to write a post.

2010-08-18T20:20:00.003-05:00

I know that I haven't posted in a very long time just because I didn't really feel like it. Now, I have a real reason to post something. I received word from Conor McCullough, 2010 World Junior Champion, that Harold Connolly passed away today. He said he didn't know what from yet but regardless we, in the hammer community, lost a great one today. For those who do not know who Hal was, he was the 1956 Olympic Champion in the hammer throw for the USA and former World Record Holder. Hal is the creator of hammerthrow.org and is the reason for the recent surge of american youth hammer throwing. I really don't know what to say about Hal but I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. He personally got me onto the 2005 USA Youth team that participated in the World Youth Championships in Marrekech, Morocco after a fight with USATF. He boosted american youth hammer throwing to the dominating force it is today. If you have speculation that it is not a dominating force, think of this: we have had a finalist in every world youth/junior competition since 2005; the US youth record with the 5k went from non-existent to 79m to 81m; the US junior record went from 71m to 77m to 81m; EVERY SINGLE MALE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS RECORD HAS BEEN BROKEN IN THE LAST 8 YEARS!; A world junior record in the 35lb weight throw; a 1-2 sweep at the world junior championships in 2008; a gold medal in the 2010 world junior championships with a championships record. In addition, Hal has sent athletes all over the world to train with top level coaches via USATF. He has also secured funding for youth hammer throwing through training grants. In addition, he convinced USATF to include the hammer throw in the USATF junior olympics and USATF youth nationals. I can't think of anymore off the top of my head at the moment but the list surely goes on. It is still shocking to me to think that he is gone but he will never be forgotten. It came as a huge shock to me that he passed away as I was thinking about calling him tomorrow not more than 15 minutes before Conor called me. Hal was 79. Rest in Peace Hal.

Also, this past week Antonio Pettigrew passed away. Coach Pettigrew was the sprints/hurdles coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was 42. Coach P was the Olympic Gold medallist in the 4x400m relay in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics but was stripped of his medal after confessing to taking performance enhancers. Regardless of his past, Coach P was a man of his word and always told me how important it is to do your best especially when its all on the line. During my freshman year at Carolina is when all the news about his steroid allegations broke press. I never had a formal talk to him about it but you could see how strong he was being about it. I never lost an ounce of respect for the man during the whole ordeal because unlike other athletes, he took it like a man and didn't let it be drawn out. He was a tremendous inspiration to the athletes he coached and even the athletes he did not coach, like me. When the news was broken to the team that I was leaving Carolina to go to LSU he was the first to wish me the best of luck and told me to never look back or regret your decisions. He told me that nothing is ever perfect but I needed to get to a better place. I always enjoyed seeing him at meets after I left Carolina and would specifically try to find him to say hello. While everyone else at Carolina was giving me the cold shoulder he made sure to talk to me and see how I was doing. He is another that I will truly miss seeing and talking to. Rest in Peace Coach P.

Good to have a bad one now rather than later.

2010-04-18T18:03:00.005-05:00

This weekend we stayed in Baton Rouge and played host to the LSU Alumni Gold Invitational. It was a great weekend where a lot our our Alumni Track and Field athletes come back into town to celebrate the history of our program. We started the weekend off on friday(4/16) night with our Inaugural LSU Track and Field Banquet where we had over 500 guests including over a hundred former athletes spanning SIX decades including 1962 NCAA Champion and Olympian Billy Hardin. The oldest guest was Paul Adams and Larry Brooks who graduated from LSU in 1954. It was a fantastic ceremony where we honored past and current athletes with a wide range of awards from Community Service to Most Outstanding Athletes. I received the Glenn "Slats" Hardin award for the Most Outstanding Male Athlete which was presented by his children, including Billy Hardin. Slats was the greatest athlete to ever wear the LSU uniform and I feel extremely blessed to be awarded something that recognizes someone so special to the Purple and Gold. If you want to know more about Slats, simply google him... he was truly amazing. Saturday we had our track meet. In the hammer, I had a mediocre day for my standards but my teammates did well. Max Lauro set a new personal best by almost a meter, 66.35m, and Chris Bless set a new seasonal best at 60.02m. Chris' PR was set last year at 60.10m. This is the first year that he is doing four turns so he is finally coming to form and adjusting well to the throw. My series was very poor until the final attempt where, by the luck of God, I threw 71.04m. It felt horrible and I am surprised it went 233 feet. When it left my hands I thought it was about 67m so I am very happy I didn't walk out the front, haha. Today's lesson to throwers: NEVER INTENTIONALLY FOUL A THROW! My series was: 67.78m, Foul, Foul, 66.64m, 69.58m, 71.04m. I felt unconnected with the implement the entire time. I don't know what happened. My coach thinks it was because I saw the chiropractor right before I threw and that could have been part of it. I have never seen him right before I have competed so that may have been part of it. Regardless, I am happy I was able to salvage it and keep one of my goals alive (every meet over 71m). After the meet we had our annual crawfish boil (I love them mudbugs) to honor our Officials for their hard work and dedication to our program. We are truly blessed to be surrounded with such great people that really care about us. A bus load of them came to Fayetteville, Arkansas for the outdoor NCAA meet last summer and we brought south Louisiana to town. We had a whole section that was throwing around Mardi Gras beads and screaming for the Purple and Gold. They really are fantastic. At the crawfish boil we received our rings from the 2009 indoor and outdoor seasons. The highest award you received is what the ring is for. My ring was for being the SEC Champion in 2009. Next year (2011), I will receive a ring for being NCAA Champion regardless of what happens outdoor season. Even though I won the SEC Championship indoors, I will not get a ring for that. Team rings are even more difficult to understand but I will explain that when the time comes (fingers crossed). We travel to Penn Relays this weekend for our last regular season meet and then it is the time of the year we all wait for!

GEAUX TIGERS!

Texas Relays and Miami

2010-04-12T09:53:00.002-05:00

The last two weeks have been very exciting/relaxing. We just got off our spring break trips to Austin, TX and Miami, FL where we competed in the Texas Relays (March 31) and the Miami Alumni Invitational (April 10). Both were very successful for our program. We set a few PR's and are seeing great improvement with 56 days remaining until the National Championship in June. Most recently, we posted eleven NCAA top 10 performances at the Miami meet in addition to the marks we posted at the other three meets; Lafayette, LSU, and Texas. I am very excited with the improvement that I have been seeing personally also. I set two PRs in two meets and currently rank number two in the NCAA behind Reigning NCAA champ Marcel Lomnicky. This week coming is my rest week so I am hoping for another big mark at home on saturday. I don't have too many complaints about my throwing in Miami, except I wish those two fouls weren't fouls, haha. In Miami I had two of my cousins come to the meet to watch and that was absolutely awesome. This weekend, my mom and my sister are coming to Baton Rouge for the weekend and I am very excited about that also. We have our LSU Track and Field Banquet friday night and I finally get my SEC Championship Ring! This is going to be a great weekend!

GEAUX TIGERS!

Side Note

2010-03-22T21:08:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to put something up here quick acknowledging another blog post. Dave Hahn has a website called Coach the Throws (www.coachthethrows.com/blog) and he put up an article about the 'Max Jones Test'. If any of you are familiar with my posts I wrote about the Pentathlon that we do at LSU every year. THIS IS THE MAX JONES TEST! It is a great indicator of elite performance and I think you all should read the article.

http://coachthethrows.com/blog/the-max-jones-test/

GEAUX TIGERS!

NATIONAL CHAMPION!

2010-03-18T15:15:00.006-05:00

After a long week of "celebrating" aka studying for tests and catching up on sleep that has been deprived of me from daylight savings time I finally have a chance to sit down and put my thoughts from this weekend on here. The nine tigers that competed this weekend showed a ton of heart. Every single Tiger that competed stepped up and either ran a PR, placed higher than they were supposed to, made finals that they were supposed to get last in..etc. WE are very eager to get started with the outdoor season and show what we can do in the important season. I'd especially like to point out two people who really stepped up to the moment in my opinion; Zed Thomas and Barrett Nugent. Zedric did not really jump well, for his standards, in the long jump on friday and placed fourth (He would have placed second if he jumped his PR which he jumped in two different meets this year). He was very disappointed friday night and I knew he would have a good meet the next day. Saturday he placed second in the Triple Jump where he was supposed to place 8th, I believe. Not only that, but he set a new PR in doing it. Zed has really stepped up to the plate this year and has shown that he is someone that we can rely on meet after meet. Barrett Nugent also has had that type of year. He had a "disappointing" final race on saturday where he placed fourth at his first indoor NCAA meet with a time that TIED his PR coming into the meet. Barrett ran a new PR by .05 of a second in the prelims unchallenged in his heat. Barrett has also shown to be one of those guys who you know what your going to get meet after meet and I would like to thank both of these men for being such catalysts to our success thus far.
I don't think there is too much I need to say about myself. I won the National Championships and I am happier than ever to be able to call myself a National Champion again. Winning this meet is probably my fourth or fifth most proud moment in my athletic career thus far and I am hoping to put it further down the list in years to come. Till next time...

GEAUX TIGERS!

It's Official

2010-03-08T21:35:00.004-06:00

Nine Tiger entries in the NCAA Meet this weekend. They are: Caleb Williams in the 400m, Richard Jones and Jamaal James in the 800m, a 4x4 team, Barrett Nugent in the 60m Hurdles, Zedric Thomas in the Long Jump and Triple Jump, and Max Lauro and Me in the Weight Throw. Jamaal and Max squeezed into the national meet as the last accepted entries but I feel both can make a significant impact on the outcome of the meet on saturday night. We have a very strong team going into the meet, or at least that is how we feel. It may not look like that on paper but I know where the hearts of these men are and I know big things are to come to us. Todays practice was nothing special. It was our first REALLY light day in the weight room. I think the heaviest weight I lifted was 205 lbs for clean pulls. Before that we did turns with the 35lb weight. It is nice to have Max to train with now. Last year I was the only one still throwing weight after the last chance meet and it was very lonely. Actually it was more of a tease because we threw in the outdoor ring last year (NCAA's were at Texas A&M and they have a indoor concrete ring so we wanted to simulate that) and I had to watch all them throw the hammer which was really depressing because I had to throw that stupid heavy thing, haha. Oh well, five more days and then I don't have to touch a weight until 2011!!! Entry list for the men and women can be found here. Good Luck to all the Tigers and Lady Tigers. LETS DO THIS!

GEAUX TIGERS!

Importance of daily support systems in athletics

2010-03-05T21:26:00.004-06:00

Support systems are not limited to your coaches and trainers. Your support system is your family, your teammates, your friends, your fans..etc. However, the most important tool to becoming successful is the role of coach. Anyone can throw the hammer or weight or do whatever sport but the coach is pivotal in becoming successful. I personally have been truly blessed with great coaching. My high school coaches, Marty Engel and John McCree brought me to levels in throwing that I could have only dreamed when I first started. I came into St. Anthony's High School small, weak, and technically disgusting. In the shot put, Coach McCree would wake up in the wee hours of the morning to come to school to coach us. He was also a great motivator and always had great stories that I just loved to listen to. He brought be from a middle school thrower with a PR of 52' with the 8lb shot to a National High School CHAMPION as a senior in high school with a PR of 69 feet with the 12lb shot put. Not only that, but he knew the importance of preparation and training to perform your best when it mattered. After a freshman year with a mediocre PR at the Long Island Catholic Championships of 47', to a average PR at the Catholic State Championships my sophomore year of 57' to a PR of 60' my junior year the week before outdoor states( I always opted out of competing at the outdoor state meet for other hammer meets) to setting a PR of 64' indoors at the National Championship and then a State Record of 69' at my school's big invitational, he continued to motivate me to be the best I possibly could. He would always tell me how there were no short cuts and sacrifices are important. He truly knew what it meant to be great and how to get there mentally. I feel honored to be able to say that I won a National Championship for him and to be privileged enough to be under his tutelage for four years. Most people do not know about Coach McCree because people know me for the hammer throw and not the shot put. However, I am truly sorry if anyone has gotten the impression that I had one coach in high school because Coach McCree is honestly one of the most important people in my progress to the elite level. Also in high school I had the expertise of Marty Engel, a 1952 Olympian and former American Record holder, since day one. I still communicate with Marty frequently about training and ask his opinions about things. It is not that I do not trust my coach, Derek Yush, but when you have such a strong relationship with someone who has such a great hammer mind as Marty you should try to pick every little piece of information out of it. Often times what Marty will say in our talks is exactly what Coach Yush is saying to me and that solidifies everything to me. When I have Coach Yush, Marty and Me saying the same stuff I know it is exactly what I need to be doing. Like I have said earlier I have been blessed with fantastic coaching both in the ring and off the ring. Marty has been there and done that and he has the insight to be able to tell me what an elite hammer thrower thinks in every situation. No matter how well I do, Marty is great about bringing back to earth by telling me how much I sucked at keeping my low point correct or my 'lean' not being in a good position. I would not change a thing about my coaches in high school because they gave me the life I love and I am forever indebted to them for that. Continuing on my career after a unlucky start of college I had the opportunity to train with, who I personally think is one of the best if not the best, overall hammer coaches in the United States. As great as Marty was with the hammer, and he will be the first to admit it, he did not know much of anything about weight lifting training, supplementary work, periodization or any of that junk. Coach Yush has the complete hammer perspective down pat. Even though he wasn't an Olympian or have the personal stats of my previous hammer coach he knows what it takes to work hard to become the best you can be. He also has the technical eye that takes coaches years and years to develop. From what I have just said he is equal, in my opinion, to having the expertise of Marty. What Coach Yush does to bring him to the next level is also having the expertise in the weight room and in training methods. I mean, think about it. In our first year together, which I always think is the hardest because of technical changes and different changes in training, I set a PR by two feet in the weight and in my second year set a PR by four more feet. I feel grateful to be under his tutelage and I respect his opinion far greater than most world names in the hammer.

In other news, today was our last chance meet at LSU. On the guys side Max Lauro set a new PR in the weight to move him into 13th place on the NCAA Division 1 list. I honestly believe that Max is capable of going 70 feet next week at the national meet. Senior Will Coppage moved up to 15th on the NCAA list with a jump of 25'5" in the long jump which should get him into the meet. Freshman Damar Forbes also set a new PR of 25'1" but is not in contention to make the trip to Fayetteville next week. Also, freshman Joseph Caraway set a new PR of 16'11" in the Pole Vault. He and Damar are going to be great assets to this program in the future. The NCAA will declare their list of participants on monday night and I will be sure to post the LSU athletes who will be traveling to the NCAA meet next weekend.

GEAUX TIGERS!

Nothing Fancy

2010-03-04T19:48:00.002-06:00

Today wasn't all that different than what I've been writing about. Threw about 10 throws with the 35lb weight then went and threw 4 throws with the 30lb weight just to go fast. We are still using the slow circle which is helping a lot. After throwing I did some jump rope and a throws circuit as a cool down. Again it was low reps and I used a 4k shot so it was light and fast. After practice I spent sometime with my best friend, the ice tub and went on with my life. We actually got good news from the NCAA today. Last year, the NCAA decided that it would be a good idea to allow shot putters to bring their own implements to the NCAA meet but forbid weight throwers from doing the same. Last year they provided six Gill Orbiter weights. These are not very good weights to throw far with because they have a very large shell and the metal inside the ball is not compact. (The further the weight is away from you the better) This year they will have 3 MF athletic tungsten weights and 3 MF large shell weights. The tungsten is the material that they use inside the ball. It is more compact and can fit into a smaller shell than iron and thus is further away from the thrower creating more force and able to move the weight faster. The MF Tungsten is what I throw with during the season and now I do not have to switch from what I like at the National Championship. In other news, the SEC announced today their athlete of the year awards and I was named the Male Field Event Athlete of the Year. Rachel actually got named Female Freshman Field Athlete of the Year last year indoors so I am basically playing catch-up to her, haha.
Today I actually got to do something different which I really enjoyed. As some of you may know, I am studying to go into Law Enforcement once I graduate from LSU and finish my athletic career. I got the opportunity to visit the Baton Rouge City Court this morning in the courtroom of Judge Kelli Temple. It was really interesting to see what went on in the city court compared to the 19th Judicial District Court here in Baton Rouge which I have been to before for another class.
We have our Last Chance meet tomorrow at LSU, however I wont be competing. Good Luck to all the Tigers and Lady Tigers who are hoping for that final bump to get into the NCAA Meet.

GEAUX TIGERS!!!

NCAA Preparation- Day 3

2010-03-03T16:01:00.007-06:00

Today at practice I only did lifting. I did some light box jumps, hang clean pulls and russian twists. I followed that up with some supplementary hurdle work: 60 hurdle hops and 24 hurdle walkovers. This may seem like a lot but it is nothing compared to what we normally do. I felt really explosive and alert during the lifts and jumps which is surprising. I did not really sleep well last night and woke up early to catch up on some school work. I followed practice with another dip in the ice tub and took my usual supplements. Thats another thing that I need to keep track of. Just like any lifting or throwing you need to change it every once in a while so your body does not get used to it. I usually take the supplements for 3 weeks and take a week off. It is not anything special: Glutamine, Creatine and Protein. I was actually talking to Adam Nelson, three time Olympic Silver Medallist for the United States in the Shot Put and 2005 World Champion, about what he thinks is good for pre workout. He told me "to be completely honest... dark chocolate". I have never been a fan of dark chocolate or even thought of candy to be a good thing for athletes but I can definitely see myself having more energy at practice when I eat some before. I would also guess that any type of sugar based product would be a good thing before a workout in small amounts to get some energy.

In other news, today I got named to the Bowerman Award watch list. According to their website the Bowerman award is "awarded each year to the top male collegiate athlete and to the top female collegiate athlete in the sport of NCAA track & field." It is named after former Oregon head coach Bill Bowerman who is also a co-founder of Nike Inc. You can view todays article by clicking here.

GEAUX TIGERS!

Pictures and Videos from SEC's

2010-03-02T17:17:00.010-06:00

16.48m (54'1") Shot Put

17m ish (56'ish) Shot Put Foul

23.80m (78'1") Weight Throw

I really like what I did on the throw all the way up to the finish. I pulled the finish around (you can see my left shoulder is lower than my right and it looks like my upper body is leaning to the left). I also don't like how short my radius is on the left side of the throw. I think if I stretch that out longer down the right sector line I will be able to add more distance to my throw. Fingers crossed!

I took yesterday off and threw the weight about 15 easy throws today as a shakeout. I went into the ice bath after watching video from the meet. I will keep you updated almost daily over the next two weeks about what I am doing leading up to the National Championships next weekend.

I was also named thrower of the week by Collegehammer.com for my performance at the SEC Championships.
View Here

GEAUX TIGERS!

SEC Championships

2010-03-01T14:27:00.002-06:00

This weekend was the SEC Championships. The meet started on Friday the 26th with the multi events and ended on Sunday the 28th. As a team we did considerably better than last season placing third with 108.5 points. The jumps group led the way with 34.5 points with athletes scoring in 3 of the 4 jumping events (We did not bring any high jumpers). Next was the Distance group, 30 points, with athletes scoring in 3 of the 5 events. Following the distance group was the Sprinters, 25 points, who scored in 3 of 5 events. Scoring the least amount of points was the throws group with 20 points scored in two events. I am very proud of our field event athletes, the distance runners and a few of the sprinters. Everyone who competed on sunday really stepped their game up and competed tremendously. However, we dug ourselves a pretty big hole on saturday and needed those kind of performances on sunday to get back in the meet. We were trailing the eventual champion Razorbacks by 34 points at the conclusion of the saturday events and made up almost 20 points on sunday to finish 14.5 points back of Arkansas. Some great performances were: Max Lauro in the weight throw who was five inches off his personal best; Chris Bless in the weight throw who set a new personal best by almost four feet to place ninth; Zed Thomas in the Triple Richard Jones in the 800m, and Barrett Nugent in the 60 Hurdles set new personal bests and automatic qualifying marks; Freshman Damar Forbes jumped 52' in the triple jump for a 2 foot PR; Freshman Sadeki White in the 800m and Freshman Thomas Reinecke in the Pole Vault placed second in their events with new PRs; Freshman Caleb Williams set a new PR in the 400m by almost half a second to place fifth in a amazingly fast final and anchored the 4x4 in 45.64 seconds; Freshman Joseph Caraway set a new PR in the pole vault to place fifth; and the DMR and 4x4 placed second on sunday in which the 4x4 is now automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships. On top of that we had three male SEC Champions: Barrett Nugent, Richard Jones and me. The competitiveness and support that the team showed on Sunday was very motivating to me and I can't wait for the NCAA Championships because I honestly feel that we are going to have a stellar meet. The NCAA Championships will also be hosted by the University of Arkansas on March 12-13.
I personally had a great meet. I started the weekend with the weight throw win on saturday and finished sunday with a season best 54'1" in the shot put to place fifth on my last throw. My series in the weight was awesome. After my first throw, which I took easy to get a legal mark for finals, I had five throws over 23m with a new Personal Best, SEC Meet Record and LSU Record of 23.80m or 78'1". If you average my throws from the meet it is just eight centimeters or three inches short of my personal best going into the meet. I did a few things different this week leading up to the meet than I normally do. We put a new, well..old ring, down in the field house at LSU which is very grippy and slow to get used to the ring at Arkansas. It actually made the Arkansas ring feel fast. I also used brand new shoes at the meet which helped make the ring faster. Throwing shoes take some time to break in. They come with very hard rubber on the bottom and eventually wear down to be slower and grip the ring better as you use them. Because the shoes were not worn in they were much faster and I think that helped me out big time. I am very excited about the possibility of throwing farther at the NCAA Championships in two weeks when I am peaked to throw far. We will back off of our weight lifting program and throw the light ball for some speed work and come back ready to compete well.

GEAUX TIGERS!

Championship Season

2010-02-24T17:23:00.002-06:00

If you have been following NCAA track and field or my blog you will know that the SEC Championships this weekend and the NCAA Championships in two weeks are both at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. These meets are always very exciting to follow and be a part of. I think they are even more exciting to be a part of because this is the time of the year that you train all year for. The regular season is fun to compete in but the whole purpose, in my mind, of the regular season is to get to these meets. With that said, these meets are a little different than the others. There is a different mentality and a little different preparation process that the athlete will go through. Most athletes will not be in peak performing form for the regular season because of heavy training loads. The championships is where you want to have your best performance because everyone is competing for one goal. The difference in mentality is based primarily on your focus for performing well. The regular season helps you as an individual prepare for the championship season so that you can perform well and score points for your team. Even though I said this is where you want your best performance that does not necessarily mean your furtherest throw or jump or fastest time but your most competitive performance that will score major points for your team. The championships are all about the team. I couldn't tell you who won the 200m at the NCAA indoors or SEC indoors last year but I can certainly tell you which teams won. The accolades that the team accrues during these meets is the most important and that is where the shift in focus should be. This mentality of competing for the other athletes on the roster is what brings out the best in people. However, the excitement of having the privilege to compete in these meets should also be important. If your the type of person that needs to downgrade the importance of these meets to get your best performance, do it. For me, I love being in the competitive spirit of the big meets. In the past I have had problems getting pumped up for the smaller meets after I got one good throw off. This year I am trying to take every throw like a one throw final. What if this is the last throw I take this year and it going far depends on me winning. The past two years at the NCAA Indoors I tied for third place. The tie breaking rule in the throwing events is to go to the next best throw. My freshman year I did have that better second throw and placed third but my sophomore year I did not and placed fourth. This was sort of my wake-up call that its not over until its over and I need to have every throw be my last. That is what the championships are about. People will set personal bests, people will foul out, people will throw mediocre. It is all about being the best on that day and the glory of being a champion!
My week has not been different leading up to the SEC championships because I am not trying to peak for this meet. However, the other throwers in my group are peaking for this meet because they aren't guaranteed to have another day. They have lowered their workload in the weight room, are starting to take less throws at practice to let the body recover. I have been nursing a sore groin/hamstring for the past couple of days but it is starting to get better and my throwing is back to where I want it to be going into the championship season. I haven't seen improvement in distance but it is back up from a lull that I was in after the New York meet. I have been in the cold tub every day so far this week and I got on the chiropractic table on tuesday. We have a great chiropractor/deep tissue guy that comes and works with the LSU track and field team. Just having a guy like Dr.Corbin working on your injury will cut your recovery time in half. He is amazing at what he does and if it wasn't for him we would not be able to support the workload that we do. In throwing news, we pulled out one of our old rings that is pretty beat up and slow. We started throwing on that because our ring is so much different than the one at Arkansas and Coach Yush feels it is a good ring to practice in to get used to a slower surface. Our first practice went well on it. We will travel tomorrow afternoon to Fayetteville and practice on their ring tomorrow and friday before the competition on saturday. If everything goes well, look for the LSU throws krewe to have a great meet with far throws!!

GEAUX TIGERS!!

Tyson Invite- Weight Throw

2010-02-13T09:11:00.004-06:00

My series was 21.13m, F,F,F,22.25m, 22.0xm. Here are the reasons that I could use to excuse my poor performance: I have been sick all week; this is my fourth competition and third travel meet in a row and I'm tired; the University of Arkansas meet administration/ track and field program in general doesn't care about the weight throw so 1. the building where the weight is being contested is about a mile from the rest of the events. 2. that building is not heated so it was about 30 degrees inside. 3. the meet administration was too lazy to figure out a start time for the mens weight so they said "to follow womens" which meant 930pm (which meant I was awake for about 13 hours before we started to compete. 4. who ever though it was a good idea to paint the ring to make it slower succeeded. (I used to love the ring here but now it is very slow and grippy. We are actually going to paint over one of our spare rings at home so we can get practice on a crappy circle since SEC's and NCAA's are here.) So, with that said there is NO SUCH THING AS AN EXCUSE. The positive that came out of the meet is that I competed some what decently. I was leading the event with a throw of 21.13m until the fifth round when Jason Lewis, the reigning NCAA indoor champion, got off a better throw of 21.41m. The next throw I responded with a 22.25m throw to take the lead back. I don't know if I would personally commend myself on competing well in that situation. Neither Jason nor I had a good meet and we were not throwing at our bests. We both were having fouls around 73-74 feet but just couldn't keep them in. I was sector fouling them and he was foot fouling them. Since we were having those it was just who got luckier and kept one legal. I have a lot of work to do before the championship meets and will definitely need to come back in better form if I want to be national champion. Shot put today at 3pm CT.

GEAUX TIGERS!

Fayetteville

2010-02-11T22:23:00.002-06:00

This week we are in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which is turning into our home away from home as my girlfriend unaffectionately calls it. We will be here for our next travel trips including this one. This week we are competing in the Tyson Invitational where a number of the other top teams in the country also are competing. The ranked teams include: No. 2 Florida State, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 LSU, No. 6 Nebraska, No. 7 Arizona State, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 11 Stanford, No. 13 Indiana, No. 14 Baylor, No. 15 Penn State, No. 18 Auburn, No. 19 South Carolina, No. 21 Kentucky, No. 22 Georgia and No. 23 Oklahoma State.In the weight throw there will be a fair amount of talent including the reigning NCAA indoor champion Jason Lewis of Arizona State University. This week was hard on me because I have been ill since we got back to Baton Rouge from the New York trip. I did all my workouts this week which probably did not help but the days until nationals are counting down and I need the work. Despite being ill my workouts still went well. Each throw and lift felt like I was mustering my strength but got through them with quality technical work. I actually had a shot put workout for the first time in almost 5 months which also went fairly well around 16m. The shot put is being contested on saturday at 3pm CT which I probably will get my butt handed to me. There are a few throwers ranked in the top 20 in the nation as well as other throwers who have personal bests further than mine. Despite this I am looking forward to seeing where I am currently in the shot. We are only throwing it because the SEC is weak right now and we feel that I could place and score a few points to help our team at conference. We arrived in Fayetteville around 230pm after taking a private jet up here from Baton Rouge. Fayetteville is such a pain to get to so we usually take a charter jet here instead of driving to New Orleans, flying to Houston, having a 4 hour layover and then flying to Fayetteville. We went over to the track and had to wait out Arkansas football practice and then did a shakeout. We were actually making fun of the football team because they were only snatching 185lbs, haha. We then stopped at the grocery store to get some snacks and sandwich ingredients. After returning and taking a very very cold ice bath we are ready to get some good sleep before tomorrows competition. We don't compete until 730pm so it will be a little different than normal. We will be able to sleep in and eat a late breakfast, go do our pre-meet lift and eat lunch before we head to the track around 5pm. This is our final step in the regular season before the championship season starts and we are looking for people to step up and hit qualifying marks against really strong competition.

GEAUX TIGERS!

New York City

2010-02-07T12:42:00.006-06:00

One great thing about the New York trip every year is that I get to see my family and they get to watch me compete. What has been disappointing is that I didn't set a personal record there since I was in high school. This weekend I was finally able to change that. This year I had a pretty big crowd come watch me compete. My mom, sister, two aunts, one uncle, and family friends all came to support me. I had a good series but I need to work on getting over 23m in the preliminary rounds. My series was: Sector Foul, 22.40m, 22.81m, 23.23m, 23.33m, Sector Foul. This week was a rest week in our cycle so I was pretty fresh for the meet but I still felt tired physically. This resulted in a few technical things that I still need to work on. The ball is still getting ahead of me on the third and fourth turn and my right leg is floating through single support. I believe that I can throw 24m if I can get my right side more active in the next month. Also, like any thrower, I am happy with my performance but not satisfied. I always want more and I am hoping to put that into reality in the next few meets. NCAA Indoor this year is at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. My next three meets, including NCAA's, are at Fayetteville. We travel to Tyson next weekend followed by an LSU home meet which I will not compete, SEC Championships in Fayetteville, another LSU home meet which I will also not compete and then back to Fayetteville for the NCAA Championships. I am excited that the NCAA's are there this year because I really like throwing there. They have a great circle to throw in and I always do well at their indoor meets. In New York the mens team had a great meet placing second to Texas A&M who swept the mens and womens titles. I think we have a great opportunity to do something great this season with the guys that are really stepping up right now. Sophomore Barrett Nugent set another PR in the 60m hurdles of 7.71 seconds. What is great about Barrett is that all of his races this season have been under 7.8 seconds and he did not break 7.9 seconds last year. We also had two of our 800m guys provisionally qualify for NCAAs. Richard Jones ran 1:48.88 seconds and Jamaal James ran 1:50.10. Jamaal and Richard also helped our 4x4 relay to provisionally qualify at 3:10.24 with the help of freshman Caleb Williams and senior Armanti Hayes. Caleb also PRed in the 400m at 47.77 seconds. Zedric Thomas also tied his PR in the Long Jump at 8.00m which is the NCAA lead. Redshirt sophomore Marcus McGehee also provisionally qualified in the pole vault clearing 17' for the first time in his career. He should also jump higher in the coming weeks. We have a few guys who are injured right now and will help us with provisional times and hopefully automatic times in the sprinting events. Right now our team is dominated by the field events and when the sprinters get into form in the latter portion of the season I honestly believe that we can compete with A&M, Oregon and the like for an NCAA Team Championship! Next week we are at Fayetteville for the Tyson Invitational. So far the LSU Men's team has two automatic qualifiers and ten provisional qualifiers.

GEAUX TIGERS!

New Mexico Video

2010-02-01T21:30:00.004-06:00

There are things I like and things I do not like about the throw. The thing that I am most happy about is how I am working my knees together and how much separation I am getting. What I do not like it my radius being short on the fourth turn and obviously my foot work is not great because I was slipping a lot. But overall, I am very happy with the throw and am excited about good things to come.

GEAUX TIGERS!

New Mexico Invitational

2010-01-30T23:29:00.002-06:00

This was my series: sector foul, 19.31m, sector foul, 22.36m, 23.06m, 23.03m. I had my personal best throw as well as my second best throw of all time yet I am not satisfied. One good thing about having your performance evaluated by an infinite amount of numbers is that there is this deep urge to never be satisfied and the burn to want more. This was one of those circumstances…sort of. My first three throws were with the 38lb weight and my final three was with the 35lb weight. The sector fouls were about 71-72 feet but none the less were sector fouls. The University of New Mexico track facility is known to be very fast and that is not limited to the mondo track surface. The ring is also very very fast but not in the type that throwers are looking for. I felt like I was back in New York throwing outdoors at 6:30 in the morning on black ice in the parking lot. It was very hard to get comfortable in the ring and I was very cautious in my throw. We also threw at 9AM which is very early compared to the majority of meets that we will compete in this season. In Albuquerque there were no restaurants open to eat breakfast before we lifted in our pre-meet workout. We had to rush around this morning and are very excited about the possibility of throwing farther in the next few meets. I will post video in the next few days and you can see how tentative the throw was and how much I missed the throw. My teammates, Max Lauro and Ross Roubion, as well as the other throwers felt the same way about the ring. Max and I both threw personal bests but are very confident that we will again see personal bests next week in the Armory. Max is currently ranked #5 in the NCAA and is a provisional qualifier. In other Tiger and Lady Tiger news, the Lady Tiger weight throwers of Samia Stokes, Brieanna Kennedy and Kim Williams swept the event where Brieanna threw a new personal best of 57’11”. Rachel Laurent also set a new personal best and improved her own school record to 14’3.25” in the pole vault which is an automatic qualifier. Rachel is currently ranked number 2 in the NCAA. Britney Carter jumped a personal best of 6’0.75” in the high jump and is ranked number 3 in the NCAA. That is also an NCAA automatic qualifier. Zed Thomas, who auto qualified in the long jump last week, provisionally qualified in the triple jump with a near personal best of 15.92m. Latavia Thomas also provisionally qualified in the womens 400m with a time of 54.xx seconds. Overall it was a great meet for the Tigers and Lady Tigers who now have four automatic qualifiers and ten provisional qualifiers. We are hoping to get even more next week when we travel to New York City to compete at the Armory in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational.
GEAUX TIGERS!

I've been awake since 2:30AM...

2010-01-29T16:14:00.003-06:00

Staring out the window of my seventeenth floor hotel room I being thinking about how happy I am that I don't live in the desert, haha. Even though it is actually quite beautiful to see the "mountains", which are actually more like bumps, I don't think I would enjoy my day to day life. I already miss the humidity of Baton Rouge and the colors. Looking out my window I see shades of brown and yea...Oh there is a red building. The flora isn't even very pretty to look at mainly because they don't have leaves this time of the year which adds to the insane amount of dull colors protruding from the even duller sand. Anyway, I don't want to rip on Albuquerque, New Mexico, that hard. I'm sure people here are very proud to live here and more power to them. Well, my week went well this year. We are back in the weight room a little heavier now that I have automatically qualified but are still spending substantial time in the ring and media room trying to improve technique. This was sort of our first real week of school and I could tell it took a toll on a lot of the athletes. I personally did kind of get thrown around by the weight in the latter turns because I was not active on them. The entry, turn one and two felt great and I think I should have another good meet. Well, I guess I can go into more detail now that people have halfway figured out that I am throwing a heavy weight. Since there is no world championships outdoor we, my coach and I, are focusing on the weight more than we normally would. We are not worried about throwing far but we are instead worried about throwing one-quarter inch further than my competition. Like I have said in the past, we have a very good track and field team at LSU and we want to win a team championship. So, with that said. We are training with a 38lb weight, a 35lb weight and a 30lb weight. We tried to throw a 25lb but it was just silly. I was throwing like 105 feet on my practice throws and could not feel the weight because it was too light. And yes, IN COMPETITION I THREW A 38LB WEIGHT! And I will throw it again tomorrow. What will be different from last week is that if I throw 22m with the 38lb then I will switch to the 35lb weight. I did take my last throw of the Purple Tiger Meet with the 35lb but it was a sector foul and I do not know how far it was.
Anyway, for this meet I saw our chiropractor on tuesday, went in the ice tub thursday and will take another one tonight at the hotel. I woke up this morning at 2:30am(CT) to eat and get ready to pick up Rachel to get on the bus to the airport. We left the track at 4am(CT) and arrived in New Orleans around 5:30am(CT). We checked all our luggage and boarded a 7am(CT) flight to Dallas, had a two hour layover, took a two hour flight to Albuquerque. When we got to the hotel the male throwers went out in search of food and found a pretty good pizza place. It is called JC's New York Pizza. Lets just say that I was skeptical. It wasn't half bad, but it was most likely the amount of meat on the pizza that took my attention away from the poorly baked crust. I am very excited to get real pizza next week in New York. After we ate we proceeded to the indoor track for our pre-meet practice. The circle is very, very, very fast here and I don't know how well it is going to work out. We brought a damp towel with us and that seemed to help a lot. Around 7(MT) or 8(MT), I will get in the ice tub at the hotel and watch some TV before going to bed. I will then wake up around 5am(MT) to premeet at 6am(MT). We will then find some food for breakfast and then go drop some nasty bombs over Albuquerque at 9am(MT). GEAUX TIGERS!

CollegeHammer.com Q & A

2010-01-26T14:57:00.003-06:00

Collegehammer.com posted a question and answer interview with me about my last meet and my goals for the year. Collegehammer.com is the go-to site for everything involving NCAA hammer and weight throw statistics and news. You can view the article by clicking here

First Meet

2010-01-24T15:54:00.004-06:00

The Tigers and Lady Tigers got off to a great start in 2010 at the Purple Tiger Invitational at home on January 22nd. We had two automatic qualifiers and a many provisional qualifiers. I hit the auto standard on my first throw at 71'4" and followed that with 71'0" and a 69'11" before fouling all three throws in the finals. I am very happy with how I threw and can't wait to throw again on saturday in New Mexico. The Tigers had another auto qualifier in the long jump when Zed Thomas jumped 26'3" in his second best event. I can't wait to see what he does in the triple jump when he opens up. Zed tore his left meniscus in New York last season and had surgery before coming back to the track during the outdoor season. This should be a great year for him. Also, sophomore Barrett Nugent set a personal best of 7.74 seconds in the 60m hurdles which is only .04 away from the automatic standard. He and Zed are currently national leaders while I am second behind Steffan Nerdal of Memphis. We also had two freshman qualify provisionally for the NCAA meet. Rynell Parsons ran 6.69 in the 60m while Damar Forbes jumped 24'11.75". Redshirt sophomore Max Lauro also provisionally qualified in the weight throw at 19.95m. He fouled four of his throws and threw that on his very last throw. Max showed a lot of poise to get that last throw out there and should have a very very good year and surprise a lot of people. The Lady Tigers also had three people provisionally qualify for the NCAA Meet. Freshman Takeia Pinckney ran 7.40 in the 60m while two pole vaulters jumped over the provisional standard. The womens pole vault is exceptionally good this year as nine girls have already automatically qualified for the NCAA meet. Most of these girls have had more than one meet while our girls have only jumped once. Senior Katelyn Rodrigue jumped 4.00m and Rachel Laurent jumped 4.10m. They should both be able to progress to auto qualify or come very close to auto qualifying at the next meet. Also,Redshirt sophomore Samia Stokes threw over 60' in the weight for an eight foot PR and should throw further as the season progresses. It is a great year to be a Tiger! Time for football!

GEAUX TIGERS AND GEAUX SAINTS!

2010 Indoor Season..FINALLY.

2010-01-21T11:13:00.010-06:00

The start of the 2010 competition season is finally here. Both the Lady Tigers and Tigers have had very successful fall training and are eager to start competing. Every year in the fall we have our 'intrasquad meet' and this year showed a dramatic improvement from the meet leading into the 2009 season. The Pentathlon, as we call it, is a test of explosive and strength events that are calculated to project your ability to perform as a national championships caliber athlete. In our weight room we have the results posted next to the results from our 2004 NCAA Mens and Women Team champion squads. The marks are very similiar if not exceed the totals of the squad from that season. We are very excited about the potential of this team for this upcoming season. Sheldon Mickles from the Advocate, a local Baton Rouge paper, covers the LSU mens and women track and field teams every year. Today he released an article about our upcoming meet tomorrow and previewed the teams. The article can be found here . Well, as I promised I will take you through a pre-meet and meet day set-up and define why each thing I do is essential, in my mind, for my success.I will use this fridays competition as my reference. On meet weeks I will go in the ice/ hot tub almost every day after practice. I usually go cold to hot back to cold for about 7minutes/5 minutes/7 minutes. Icy to dull the pain and hot to relax it away. The cold is what takes the lactic acid out of your muscles. On tuesday night I see our chiropractor/massage therapist to adjust my shoulders, back and work on my quad. I strain my left quad about three times a year on average and this helps me remove the scar tissue so it will one day, fingers crossed, stop bugging me. A meet to me really is a three day event. What you do two days before the meet will affect you more than what you do the day before. Last night (wednesday) is my sleep night. I try to get about 10 hours of sleep, which is heaven to a college athlete because I usually get about 6-7 hours a night. Thursday is complete rest outside of a short warm-up that consists of jogging, dynamic stretching and static stretching. Afterwards I will get in the super cold tub( which really sucks) for about 10 minutes. The night before the meet I will take my girlfriend out to dinner. Oh, by the way, I have a girlfriend. Her name is Rachel Laurent and she is our school record holder, all-american, sec champion pole-vaulter. We met on team USA when we competed at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland in 2008. We were the only two LSU associated athletes there so naturally we hung out and got to know each other and I fell head over heels for her and have been dating ever since (one and a half years on the 28th). Anyway, tonight we are going to Gino's, which is an italian restaurant in Baton Rouge. I usually get some sort of pasta with sausage or chicken so I can get a little protein. It is good for an athlete to 'carb load' the night before the meet because it stores a lot of energy in your body to keep you from getting fatigued during the meet. Typically this is a distance runner thing to do but I still think it is a good idea for any athlete because of the long hours spent at the meet and even throwing six throws can be exhausting. I also like to get the protein in because well, I'm a thrower and protein is our best friend. Again I will try to get a good night sleep but that doesn't usually work out because of pre-game jitters and excitement for the next days festivities. Tomorrow is a little unique because I throw at noon. I will get up and eat a small hot breakfast probably oatmeal, not grits even though grits is delicious, I'm still a yankee. After breakfast I will go to the weight room for my pre-meet workout. This is probably the most important part of the day for me because it wakes your muscles up and gets me really psyched up to compete. Even though I don't talk to my father anymore one thing he said will always stick with me. He told a magazine or newspaper or something when I was being interviewed that I have this switch that gets turned on for meet day and this incredible competitor comes out. I like to think that I am a competitor and most times will throw substantially further in a meet than I will in practice. After the pre-meet workout, which consists of jogging, active stretching and cluster sets in the weight room, is when I personally feel that switch come on. It feels like getting really nervous but being a calm nervousness. I get this sensation that something is trying to claw out of my body and just explode. When I get back to my apartment I will sit in front of my computer and watch youtube videos of other hammer throwers and myself. I watch the ten-minute video that Rachel made for me to commemorate my world championship and listen to country music to keep myself in a controlled nervousness. I lay out my uniform over my chair in military fashion (last thing your going to put on on the bottom and first thing on the top). While doing this I will have a smaller snack such as an apple and nutri-grain bars or something like that. This is also the time where I read my notebook. My coach gives me ten numbers that correlate to page numbers and those are the only pages I read. The pages consist of pictures, quotes, and irish prayers. About an hour before I have to report to the bus I will get in the shower and spend about 20 minutes putting a mental picture together of what I will do when I get in the ring. I am a firm believer in mental preparation. I then shave, fix my hair(if i feel like it) and get dressed. I then put my iPod on and it doesn't come off until I go into the competition area. The last thing I do before competition is put my jersey on. Then its geaux time. During the competition I try to stay in my own element and try to visualize what I am going to do. Once I get in the ring I take a big breath and let the hard work that I did all year take over. After the meet there isn't much to do. The only thing I do after the meet is let it go. Good or bad, I can't change what happened. There is no time for celebration because tomorrow is the first day to prepare for the next meet.

GEAUX TIGERS

Motivation

2010-01-16T14:05:00.008-06:00

With the beginning of the indoor season just around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to talk about motivation for athletes. Let me put a disclaimer on this... this is in the point of view of a male collegiate thrower. I'm sure different things could motivate women throwers as well as other athletes. Track and field is different with motivation than other sports are. First, being an individualistic sport it is hard to use team as a motivation unless it is preached to you that the team is the most important part AND THAT IT WORKS. If it does not work, how can someone believe in it? And if you don't believe that come down to Baton Rouge and take a look around our track office and you will see pictures of our Olympians, NCAA championship TEAMS and more NCAA TEAM trophies than we really know what to do with. Luckily, I have had the opportunity to be on a very successful track and field team in high school and college which has taught me team work as well as being part of the athletic fraternity that is the St. Anthony's High School Friarland. A lot of people do not believe me when I say this but if I place second again at NCAA's and my team wins the team title, I will be a hundred times happier and more proud than if I won an individual title and the team lost. Being part of a team that did that would be the highlight of my career (Yes, even more than being world champion). On the next page, you have to get your work done because there is no one there to help you. In football, the quarterback could have a bad throw but the receiver could make a great catch to help him. In baseball, the pitcher could give up a hit but there are still seven guys behind him to help make an out. In track and field, if you mess up there is no one to save you. It is just you and the implement, the track or whatever. If you false start or foul a throw or jump... your the one whose at fault. Also, the restrictions and rules put on track and field athletes is different from other sports. Baseball has walk out songs, football has 100,000 people in their stadium, etc. Track has the athletes themselves, coaches, parents and a few interested spectators. Apart from that, there is no music during competition, no people screaming for three-hours straight, only you and your competitors looking to better each other. Since there is such a greater amount of time put into preparation than actual competition it is essential that the athlete mentally prepare as well as physically prepare. I use a few different visual and audio techniques that help me "get in the zone" as my mama likes to say. My mama says... my mama says that selfishness is the devil. The majority of things that I use to motivate myself I see daily. I have a wall in my apartment (pictured above) that has a whole bunch of LSU stuff from current and former jerseys, to my world junior gold medal. The shelve has various awards: two SEC golds, 2008 NCAA indoor bronze, 2009 NCAA outdoor silver, a broken LSU weight lifting strap, penn relays watch, five high school national championship rings, a picture of the LSU track team from 2009 and my world junior gold in the middle. That wall represents my success' and I am very proud to display them. However, the thing that motivates me the most is my 2009 NCAA indoor fourth-place trophy. No loss ever hurt more than that day. I had big expectations and did not perform well with four fouls and a best throw of 73' something (22.36m). I have the plaque on my night stand and I put my cell phone/alarm clock on the plaque every night when I go to bed so the first thing I do when I wipe the eye crust out is see that trophy. It is the single most motivating thing I have in my life. Every time I see that trophy my heart starts to beat faster, I get an adrenaline rush and just want to work my arse off to be the best I can be so I will never ever ever feel like I did that night in College Station, TX, again. Other things that I use for motivation is a goal sheet. If you do not have your goals written down I suggest you stop reading right now and make one. It is very hard to have goals if they are not written down for reinforcement. My goal sheet is folded in my wallet and the first page in my practice binder. It is also on the back of my bedroom door next to a picture of Marcel Lomnicky (2009 NCAA Outdoor Champ) and a sign that says "You worked that hard for second?!" (in purple and gold of course :) )
surrounded by my best throw of that meet frame-by-frame. Also, in my practice binder I have written "2010 NC" on the top of every page so I have a daily reminder after throwing before the weight room when I don't feel like lifting at all. On meet day, I have my routine just like every one but I will talk about that in the next post before the meet next week. For meet motivation I have a playlist and a notebook. That is it. The notebook is only opened on meet day when my coach gives me ten numbers that correlate to page numbers. I will not let anyone look inside the book but it has pictures, quotes, irish prayers...etc. My playlist for this year starts with country/ songs about LSU/Louisiana and turns into rock and roll and then ends with the type of music that you would never let your Mother listen to(System, Disturbed, God Forbid, As I Lay Dying). Well that is all I got for motivation for myself. If any of yall got any other things that you use for motivation, post a comment! Well, since I have just returned from eating all-you-can-eat pancakes after my post-workout shake(which is probably 4000 calories in itself) I need to go and take care of business before the Saints destroy the Cardinals (Im slowly turning into a Saints fan). So with that said..

GEAUX TIGERS and SAINTS!!!

Competition Gear

2010-01-14T14:53:00.005-06:00

Today we got our competition gear for the 2010 season. When I transferred my freshman year I competed for LSU at the 2008 USATF Junior National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, and we wore all purple that year. Last year we wore a white top and purple bottoms for our regular season uniform. This year we got all purple again which I am really excited about. Last year we had the white/purple, black/gold and a spandex gold/purple top for NCAA's. So the throwers didn't really have the opportunity to wear purple (we can't fit into speedsuits, haha). I am excited that we can wear all purple this year and show our Tiger Pride. Rumor has it that we will have all four uniforms this year (black, gold, purple, white) for NCAA's. Also a little food for thought, in the chinese culture they designate an animal to each calendar year. This year is the year of the Metal Tiger. So with that in mind... Ladies and Gentlemen, raise your glasses and scream GEAUX TIGERS, heres to a great year and many many medals.

GEAUX TIGERS

Lets get started

2010-01-12T17:30:00.010-06:00

Well, I don't know exactly what possessed me to start a blog but I thought it would be a cool thing to do (and I'm sure my mama would like to see what her son is doing 1500 miles away). If you want to know about me, you can look at the 'about me' section on the right side of the page. Basically, my name is Walter Henning and I am a junior hammer thrower at Louisiana State University. I am hoping this blog will show others what it is like to be a track and field athlete at one of the most decorated athletic universities in the United States. LSU track and field has thirty-one NCAA Team championships to its credit between the two programs as well as three NCAA Championships for Football and six for Baseball. But if you all do not mind, I would like to stick to track and field. LSU track and field is ranked number nine in the pre-season rankings by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association behind #1 ranked Florida State, #2 Florida, #3 Oregon(the defending Indoor Champions), #4 Nebraska, #5 Arkansas, #6 Oklahoma, #7 Arizona State and #8 Texas A&M(the defending Outdoor Champions). We are hoping to improve that ranking in the next 58 days when we travel to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to compete for the NCAA Division 1 Championship. Our first meet is on January 22, 2010, at home in the Carl Maddox Field House starting at 12:30 CT with the men's weight throw. I know that everyone has that itch to compete and we all are ready for another great year of track and field and competition. Practice for me personally has been great as of late. We threw the weight yesterday and hit the weight room hard which resulted in my muscles being tired today. I was able to gain enough energy for a two hour practice so I'm happy with how it went. The 16lb hammer went around 67-68m which is about average for me so I have nothing to complain about. We will wrap this week with some plyos, hammer drills, two more throwing sessions and two more weight room sessions before the first week of "the season" begins.
Geaux Tigers.