Justin Rodhe has perfected and is now selling his shot put glove, designed to protect the thrower’s hand when throwing overweight shot puts. Here is a breif description and some pictures from his site:
Shot Put Glove:
Designed to prevent and rehabilitate hand injuries related to throwing shot puts. Creates support from finger tips to wrist, decreasing risk of finger rolls, splits and bruising of the palm.Uses:Throwing with injured hand
Prevention of injury to weak hand
Now that all of the major meets are done for the season, it is time for recovery and reflection of the season. As I continue to reflect on what went well this season and what needs to be tweaked or adjusted for next year, I’ve also had some time to do a lot of updates and changes behind the scenes at CoachTheThrows. You’ll notice a new look and a new logo to continue to build the CoachTheThrows brand.
After a year of actively running the site now, we’ve built a nice following of coaches and athletes, and I’ve recieved some great feedback about the site and the information that I post. The new theme and some of the other updates that have been recently completed will build the capability of the site even further, and I look forward to continuing to add to the site and allowing others to post useful content and add additional comments to posted material.
The Passing of a Legend
1956 Olympic Gold Medalist - Hal Connolly
Hal Connolly spent most of his life dedicated to the hammer throw. For most, being an Olympic Champion, and breaking the world record 6 times would be enough of a legacy to leave behind, but not for Hal. He has continued to build the event from the grass roots, successfully getting the youth hammer throw added to all USATF events, and mentoring the nearly all of the current generation of emerging hammer throwers in one form or another. Hal was a true champion, who will be remembered for his contributions as an athlete, but even more so as a coach and advocate for youth athletics and the hammer throw.
Unfortunately, Hal died suddenly last week, however his goal lives on, of having an American hammer thrower on the podium once again at the Olympic Games in 2012. Based on the recent success of the next generation of US hammer throwers that will be in their prime for the 2012 Games, that goal looks like it is very possible. Here is a quote from Walter Henning’s blog citing the success of Hal’s work:
“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.”
Below you can see Hal’s passion for teaching others about the event started many years ago. This is just one of many training sessions he has spent working with hammer throwers of all ages, abilities, and nationalities.
The full obituary article from the New York Times can be found here.
Martin Bingisser has set up an opportunity on Hal’s website hammerthrow.org to share stories of how Hal Connolly has touched your life.