The majority of shot putters use some type of wrist support on their throwing arm while competing in the shot put. This is done not only for injury prevention purposes, but also because the added support increases the snap of the wrist at release. The support acts as a compression sleeve on the wrist, allowing for a faster snap of the hand. All governing bodies currently allow athletes to use some form of wrist support while throwing the shot. However the support cannot only be worn on the wrist, and is not allowed to touch any part of the hand. There are 3 common forms of wrist support that athletes use.
Athletic Tape
Athletic Wrap
Commercial Wrist Support
There are pros and cons to the use of each. The purpose of this post is to do a brief review of each method.
Taping the wrist with athletic tape is the most common form of wrist support used by shot putters. Athletic tape provides solid support to the wrist, and is fairly easy and quick to apply. Athletes who are currently competing in a high school or college program can often access to athletic tape through the athletic trainer. If the athlete runs out of tape, or forgets to bring some of his own, it is often easy to find at a track meet. However, athletic tape is rather expensive to purchase. Whether the athlete realizes it or not, this expense gets passed on to him in the long run. Taping the wrist everyday in practice and every competition can end up using quite a bit of tape every season. Athletic tape also generally requires the use of pre-wrap to prevent unwanted hair removal and so the tape does not move around on the arm if sweat gets the adhesive wet. If the tape job is too tight or too loose, all the tape needs to be removed and redone, and once the tape is applied the athlete cannot take it off between throws as it would take too long to reapply new tape.
Some athletes use an athletic wrap to support the wrist. These are similar to an ace bandage. They are commonly used by boxers or MMA fighters to wrap the hands. These wraps contain no adhesive, so they can be put on and taken off, or readjusted relatively easily. Applying this type of wrap requires a little more practice to achieve solid support.
The third method of wrist support are commercially avialable wrist supports. I haven’t had much experience with this type of support in the past, but fellow Coach The Throws member Andy Washnik of TrackandFieldStuff.com, recently sent me a new support that he has recently added to his catalog to try out. I gave it to some of my shot putters to play around with for a couple of days and they really liked it. The support is a neoprene sleeve with velcro straps. It is easily applied in about 30 seconds as is seen in the video allowing for easy adjustment or removal between throws. The athletes that tried it said that it provided just as much support as athletic tape, but felt much more comfortable. Of course the downside to both the athletic wraps and the commercial wrist supports is that if the athlete forgets or loses it, they are going to have to resort to plan B at a competition. But since most shot putters are already familiar with using athletic tape, this does not pose too big of a problem.
Andy has created a special offer for our Coach The Throws community. By going to the site below you can purchase the Wrist Support shown above and get a discount off the purchase price and the shipping. Now to be completely transparent, CoachTheThrows.com is not affiliated with TrackandFieldStuff.com and receives no financial gain from any purchases made at the following link. Andy is dedicated to the track and field community and created the site as a favor to provide extra value to our readers.
Shot Put Wrist Support Methods
The majority of shot putters use some type of wrist support on their throwing arm while competing in the shot put. This is done not only for injury prevention purposes, but also because the added support increases the snap of the wrist at release. The support acts as a compression sleeve on the wrist, allowing for a faster snap of the hand. All governing bodies currently allow athletes to use some form of wrist support while throwing the shot. However the support cannot only be worn on the wrist, and is not allowed to touch any part of the hand. There are 3 common forms of wrist support that athletes use.
There are pros and cons to the use of each. The purpose of this post is to do a brief review of each method.
Taping the wrist with athletic tape is the most common form of wrist support used by shot putters. Athletic tape provides solid support to the wrist, and is fairly easy and quick to apply. Athletes who are currently competing in a high school or college program can often access to athletic tape through the athletic trainer. If the athlete runs out of tape, or forgets to bring some of his own, it is often easy to find at a track meet. However, athletic tape is rather expensive to purchase. Whether the athlete realizes it or not, this expense gets passed on to him in the long run. Taping the wrist everyday in practice and every competition can end up using quite a bit of tape every season. Athletic tape also generally requires the use of pre-wrap to prevent unwanted hair removal and so the tape does not move around on the arm if sweat gets the adhesive wet. If the tape job is too tight or too loose, all the tape needs to be removed and redone, and once the tape is applied the athlete cannot take it off between throws as it would take too long to reapply new tape.
Some athletes use an athletic wrap to support the wrist. These are similar to an ace bandage. They are commonly used by boxers or MMA fighters to wrap the hands. These wraps contain no adhesive, so they can be put on and taken off, or readjusted relatively easily. Applying this type of wrap requires a little more practice to achieve solid support.
The third method of wrist support are commercially avialable wrist supports. I haven’t had much
experience with this type of support in the past, but fellow Coach The Throws member Andy Washnik of TrackandFieldStuff.com, recently sent me a new support that he has recently added to his catalog to try out. I gave it to some of my shot putters to play around with for a couple of days and they really liked it. The support is a neoprene sleeve with velcro straps. It is easily applied in about 30 seconds as is seen in the video allowing for easy adjustment or removal between throws. The athletes that tried it said that it provided just as much support as athletic tape, but felt much more comfortable. Of course the downside to both the athletic wraps and the commercial wrist supports is that if the athlete forgets or loses it, they are going to have to resort to plan B at a competition. But since most shot putters are already familiar with using athletic tape, this does not pose too big of a problem.
Andy has created a special offer for our Coach The Throws community. By going to the site below you can purchase the Wrist Support shown above and get a discount off the purchase price and the shipping. Now to be completely transparent, CoachTheThrows.com is not affiliated with TrackandFieldStuff.com and receives no financial gain from any purchases made at the following link. Andy is dedicated to the track and field community and created the site as a favor to provide extra value to our readers.
Wrist Support Special Offer from trackandfieldstuff.com
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