Throwing

I am 5 foot, sub-100lb distance runner who prides herself in recently being able to bench press the men’s' bar in cross fit, so clearly I am no expert on the ins and out of the throwing world, but I am still going to share a few of my thought with you today. Though I have only ever been involved with the "track" aspect, sometimes I feel like a majority of people at track meets forget about the "and field" part of the sport. Jumpers are often sprinters, so they are still very much interconnected with the rest of the team, but throwers are often times overlooked. Throwers are just as important to the overall team as the runners are, and throwing opens up a lot of opportunities to score points if your team has successful individuals. Throwing can make or break a team competing at the top levels where things are often tight, so then why do many, including myself, seem to forget about the throwers on the team at meets?

I do have a theory on this topic, and that theory revolves around the fact that throwers and runners are often separated during practice at most schools. This means that while the runners get to see each other every day, even the sprinters and distance athletes get to warm up and stretch together usually, the throwers are not a part of this social time. So everyone on the team is together at practices except for the throwers. This unfortunately creates and atmosphere in which the runners and the throwers aren't usually very supportive of each other. Each group may respect and enjoy the company of the other, but at the same time in feels like the two groups are almost separate teams, rather than one united front.

The result of this separation is that many runners do not go to support the throwers, and many throwers leave at the beginning of the meet after they throw if they are able to. Though it is hard to support throwers if you have a race that is occurring at the same times as the throwers are competing, it is important that we should all make more of an effort to go and support the throwers, and for the throwers to support the runners more than the average team does. Throwers and runners are all in it together, so they should be more involved with each other than they are now, because who doesn't want a few extra people cheering them on at meets or saying hi to each other in the hall way? Who knows, it may even result in increased success for both parties involved!