High Expectations

I arrived in Szombathley a few days ago and have spent the past few days training here. My expectations were high when I arrived and I received a bit of a letdown when I found out that I would not be able to witness the world-famous volume of training. While Americans are beginning fall training this month, the athletes here are in the last few weeks of their competitive season. Consequently, athletes are taking only 15-20 throws each day rather than the typical 35-40 throws. Weight lifting has also basically been removed from their training program.

But while I have missed some of what I was looking for, I still have learned a lot in the past few days. Pál Németh, the head coach here, has been able to clarify some of the technical points for me that Boldi and Nate mentioned in previous posts. For instance, the biggest problem with an over accentuated "head-back" release, as Nate mentioned, is too much weight being placed on the right foot. Although I did not have the advantage of Boldi as a translator, Pál was able to tell me that the bigger problem is that the back is overly arched. You must put your head back at the release, but you do not need to put the whole body back of the right side. He also told me that one should try to get higher and higher in each turn. Stay tuned in a few days when I will post a little about what their normal training routine consists of.

-Martin