University of Georgia Athletics
Some Dogs Battling Winter Weight
January 21, 2016 | Track & Field
Jan. 21, 2016
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
The hammer throw is a powerful yet rhythmic, often graceful, outdoor track and field event. The thrower spins several times to build momentum and then releases the hammer at just the right time for just the right combination of power, arc and direction.
The men's hammer weighs 16 pounds and from end to end measures 3 feet, 11 3/4 inches long. The women's hammer weighs 8.82 pounds and is 3 feet, 11 inches in length. The length of the implement and the modest weight at the end, combined with the thrower's very technical spins in the circle, make for an often mesmerizing mix. And throws of more than 200 feet.
Now meet the hammer's indoor cousin, the weight throw, which Georgia's throwers will be performing for the first time this indoor season at the McCray Memorial in Lexington, Ky., this weekend.
"Hammer is, I would say, a little bit more graceful, but weight is not. [Hammer is] very rhythmic. It's longer, it's prettier -- the weight is just not a pretty event. At least I don't think so," said Georgia senior thrower Shelby Ashe.
Just because it's not pretty doesn't mean Ashe doesn't like it (eventually) or isn't good at it. In high school at St. Pius X in Atlanta, she was a two-time indoor national champion in the weight throw. As a junior she set the national record and later bested that as a senior.
"I spend a large part of the fall in training not liking [throwing the weight], because it takes a long time to get used to it," she said. "Once I get used to it again, I like it and I enjoy it."
The technique for throwing the weight is roughly the same as the hammer, but the implements are dramatically different. While the hammer is long and relatively light, the men's weight is a beefy 35 pounds and the women's is 20 -- both well over double the heft of the hammer -- and from end to end they're only about 18 inches.
The differences in weight and length -- a heavier implement is used indoors so it won't go as far, given the limited space inside -- often force throwers to change both their number of spins leading up to throws and how they use their arms to generate momentum during the spins.
"If you throw a weight with the same orbit as you do in hammer, it will throw you, every single time," Ashe said, "and you'll get something hurt -- like, it won't be pretty."
Alex Poursanidis was an accomplished thrower before arriving in the United States for college, setting national records in Cyprus. Poursanidis, from a small European country in a part of the world that pays far more attention to track and field that most Americans do, had never even heard of the weight throw before getting to Georgia in 2014.
"Had no idea what it was," said the junior, already a two-time SEC champion and two-time All-American in the hammer.
While the hammer throw is big event in Europe and beyond, the weight throw is mostly an American thing. The weight throw is not part of the World Indoor Championships or any other major competitions outside of the U.S.
For collegiate athletes in the U.S., the weight throw is one of numerous differences between the indoor and outdoor seasons. Indoor tracks are 200 meters versus 400 for outdoors, the shot put uses the same weight shot but it's made of a different material and some events like, understandably, the javelin throw, aren't held indoors.
"Indoor is a different animal," Georgia track and field coach Petros Kyprianou said. "Weight throw and hammer are just two different things."
Kyprianou said a basic comparison is that "whatever you throw in feet in the weight throw, it should translate, if you're a good thrower, into [the same number of] meters outdoors."
Poursanidis has a personal best hammer throw of 229 feet, 11 inches and a personal best weight throw of 68 feet, 6 inches.
"The first couple of years I was just trying to figure it out and learn how to get better," Poursanidis said. "It takes a while to master an event you just learned. I'm excited about it and I feel more prepared for this season."
Ashe and Poursanidis said the weight throw was more of a brute strength event, in which technique takes more of a backseat to muscle and size than in the hammer.
"With the weight, it's so heavy and so short, you can't do anything with it," Poursanidis said. "You've got to be a freak of nature, like a bear, to throw it far, I guess."
They also said one upshot of doing the weight in the winter is that it provides one heck of a core workout, which will be beneficial come the outdoor season.
"In terms of strength, it makes you actually stronger," Poursanidis said. "You don't feel the hammer as much [after throwing the weight] and it feels lighter. ... It's so heavy that you have to counter [the weight] so much that it's actually working your whole body."
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.