So far this season I have taken a different approach than what I am used to for the first couple weeks of practice. In the past, I've been very hands-on with the incoming freshmen, while basically letting the upperclassmen do their own thing. I would introduce the major concepts to the freshmen to bring them up to speed, and then organize all of the athletes into groups that had a specific plan for each week. This year I've started with the system right away, emphasizing the basic drills and technical points for all athletes.

The first week, all athletes completed drills pertaining to all three events (shot, disc, hammer) each day. There was a station representing each implement, in which the athletes completed a series of drills emphasizing a good power position. No full throws were taken this week. We focused heavily on the power position and power throw for each event, dramatically increasing the volume of repetitions we've done in the past at this point in time. (We consider double support phase the power position of the hammer, so athletes focused on completing multiple turns.) I am experimenting with setting up more self-evaluatory methods this season, by implementing a large volume of simplified drills to allow the athlete to develop a better sense of body position and how that position relates to the full throw. Athletes are taking throws and completing drills in rapid sequence of at least 5 repetitions. I believe this allows them to kinesthetically feel out the movement and ingrain it into muscle memory without over-thinking or taking a whole practice in order to complete sufficient volume to ingrain the proper feelings.

I was really impressed by the interaction between athletes. We had three groups of 5-6 athletes in each group, with ability levels and genders intermixed in each group. The upperclassmen offered simple cues to the incoming freshmen relating to the points of emphasis we discussed at the beginning of the week, taking pride in seeing the development of new skills by the newcomers. This also brought the group together as a cohesive unit much faster than we've been able to do in the past.

So far, I along with the athletes feel the experiment has been a success. The athletes are more focused on each repetition they take instead of simply taking a single throw and then socializing while they wait in line for another attempt, and there has been a lot of good positive interaction between athletes throughout each practice session.