- 15 Aug 08, 03:52 AM
Beijing
From the sidelines, it seems simple.
But for Kelly Sotherton, her weakness in the discipline could be what stands between her and a medal.
Poor throws in the event have already seen her miss out on heptathlon medals at the 2005 World Championships and 2006 Europeans and cost her the chance of gold or silver at the Worlds last year.
And while reigning Olympic champion Carolina Kluft might be absent, Sotherton simply has to throw big here in Beijing to get close to the personal bests of rivals Lyudmila Blonska, Tatyana Chernova and Hyleas Fountain.
Last year at the Worlds, she managed a paltry 31.9m, which put her 32nd in the discipline in a field not much bigger.
By comparison, Lilli Schwarzkopf threw 54.44m - and while Sotherton will never be able to match that (all heptathletes have stronger and weaker disciplines), she needs to get close to her 2005 best to feature on the podium.
Kluft for instance, who went on take gold in Osaka, threw it 47.98m.
Seeking answers, I sat down with four-time European javelin champion and twice Olympic silver medallist Steve Backley, who had some fascinating tips for Sotherton (throwing from around midday UK time on Sunday as the heptathlon nears its climax).
The training
"If I were Kelly, I'd be eating, sleeping, breathing javelin-throwing," says Backley.
"Her javelin has actually dropped back about 10m since she set her personal best in 2005. If I was her coach, I'd ask her to throw javelins four or five times a week.
"They don't have to be hard throws. It's a feel-based sport, so it's all about getting that feeling of what makes a good throw.
"Pro golfers hit thousands of balls a day to get that feeling. If Kelly's not doing the equivalent, I'd want to know why."
The technical issues
"Hold a bag of sugar at arm's length. Now imagine throwing that at 70mph, and you get a rough idea of the forces required to throw a javelin.
"You now have to throw this bag of sugar, at 70mph, at exactly the right angle. If you're even a fraction of a degree out, a javelin will stall or nose-dive.
"Put your hand out of the window next time you're going down the motorway and make a javelin shape with your arm pointing forward.
"If you change the pitch even a tiny bit, you'll feel how your arm is forced up or down. That gives you a sense of the aerodynamics of a javelin."
The run-up
"You've got 30m of runway and you have to accelerate through that, starting with a jog and building up until, in the last few strides, you're doing six or seven metres per second.
"That's quick. It's the equivalent of a normal guy off the street sprinting flat out."
The throwing position
"You're sideways on at this point, because you've withdrawn the javelin and put your left foot so far forward that you're almost in the splits position," explains Backley.
"Then you stop suddenly - meaning you've got about 10 times your bodyweight going through your left foot. Kelly weights 66kg, so that's 660kg going through her left foot.
"That's the equivalent of jumping off an eight-foot wall and landing on one leg.
"And if you mis-time that, you can imagine the force that would shoot up your spine. Your fillings would fall out.
"But if you time it right and kill the force efficiently, you don't waste any energy of the energy you've built up- and that's the feeling of a good throw."
The throw itself
"You're asking your body to turn into the equivalent of a bow.
"From the tip of your right hand, which is in contact with the javelin, to the tip of your right big toe, you become a giant spring mechanism to catapult the javelin into the air.
"You pull the javelin through for as long as possible - power is force over time - and release it at 30 metres a second at the critical angle of attack and angle of incidence.
"If you're two degrees out with the angle of incidence, that's massive. You're way off. That's the equivalent of a slice in golf."
The release
"On the perfect throw, you don't feel anything," says Backley. "You just nail it - there's no wasted energy.
"It's effortless. You're left stopped on a sixpence, at the end of the runway, and the javelin is on its way.
"You know how fast you've released it. You know your speed across the floor, and your balance, so you have an automatic equation in your head that says - that was good.
"The last check is to see how it's flying. Sometimes there'll be a tiny thing you won't be aware of, and the wind might magnify that, and it dumps out of the sky."
The rest of the competition
"Kelly gets three attempts in the heptathlon.
"You're trying to minimise error, but you can over-compensate. There's massive error, even with the very top elite throwers.
"She should be permanently self-assessing, visualising the feeling of what she's trying to achieve.
"It's a strange event, event for elite javelin throwers - it's a very hard thing to teach somebody.
"Even I wouldn't confess to understanding it fully. It's something you never master - but you can have a lot of success trying."
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Comments
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Its funny iused to be good at shot and hammer but could never throw the javelin.
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The sport headline stated that 'Britain's Kelly Sotherton slid down the heptathlon leaderboard after the second event, the high jump.'
The next sentence then says she dropped from 4th to 5th.
Hardly a massive slide is it?
Keep it in proportion !
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So no positives about her then?! Why lead this article with so much negativity? Don't know much about her but I'm assuming that she is good at other disciplines?
LOVE the way we big up our athletes!
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Good post - nice to hear Steve talking about the technicalities of the sport. I'm looking forward to driving down the motorway throwing javelins!
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"Put your hand out of the window next time you're going down the motorway and make a javelin shape with your arm pointing forward."
That sounds like a safe thing to do! Should we wield a javelin at other motorists as well? (no stealing my idea Clarkson :p)
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On the live coverage: "Sotherton took bronze at last year's World Championships but it could have been silver had she performed better in the javelin, which takes place on Sunday."
A three-day heptathlon???
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bloody hell, i'm 14 tomorrow and i've thrown just under 40m already...
But still, she's excellent in all other disciplines, and if she sorts this out, she's got a real chance of gold. (as long as she performs well in the others)
sort out the headlines as well, massive slide, down 1?!?!?!?!
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Another disappointment - she has to do better to offset the javelin - here we go again methinks - press built her up too much - the rest of the field is too strong
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She is the epitomy of wasting lottery money. Winning silver when she should be challenging for Gold, winning bronze when she should be winning silver, winning nothing she should have won bronze, all because of one event.
She has shown an incredible lack of improvement in javelin which can only be down to lack of dedication like Steve Backley stated in his quotes. Nobody is asking for a perfect javelin throw but all she has to do is a technically okay throw and she will be challenging for Gold because she is quite good in all other events.
She keeps promising improvement in her javelin but doesnt deliver.
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Stick the lottery money at some of the non athletic sports such as the underfunded judo etc and lets see if they improve
Kelly and others in the so called glamour events has had too much money thrown at her - give someone else a chance
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Just read that Backley said that she should be "eating javelins" I dont think thats going to help!
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Re 10: Yes, because the judo competitors really covered themselves in glory! I doubt that UK Sport will be increasing their funding...
Sotherton already set a PB in the hurdles. Why don't we wait until the end of the competition to judge her?
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I don't think ( although pls correct me and then I will despair ) the judo team get that much funding do they ?
We have to be realistic - our athletes all not just some have to be pros these days to compete - our cyclists surely prove that point?
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I believe funding for this and the last 2 olympiads is as below. Judo got about £7m this time. Athletics under pressure though to justify the amount they get.
Sport Sydney Olympiad* athens olympiad* beijing olympiad^
Archery n/a £800,000 £2,834,000
Athletics £10,600,000 £11,400,000 £26,513,000
Badminton n/a** n/a** £8,759,000
Basketball n/a n/a £3,694,000
Boxing n/a** n/a** £5,005,000
Canoeing £4,500,000 £4,700,000 £13,622,000
Cycling £5,400,000 £8,600,000 £22,151,000
Diving £900,000 £1,400,000 £5,873,000
Equestrian £3,000,000 £4,400,000 £11,727,000
Fencing n/a n/a £3,074,000
Gymnastics £5,900,000 £4,100,000 £9,036,000
Handball n/a n/a £2,986,000
Hockey n/a** n/a** £9,882,000
Judo £3,900,000 £4,100,000 £6,947,000
Modern Pentathlon £1,100,000 £2,000,000 £5,920,000
Rowing £9,600,000 £10,600,000 £26,042,000
Sailing £5,100,000 £7,600,000 £22,292,000
Shooting n/a £1,400,000 £5,056,000
Swimming £6,900,000 £6,400,000 £20,659,000
Synchronised Swimming n/a n/a £1,648,000
Table Tennis n/a** n/a** £2,533,000
Taekwondo £600,000 £600,000 £2,667,000
Triathlon £1,400,000 £2,600,000 £5,113,000
Volleyball n/a n/a £4,112,000
Water Polo n/a n/a £3,147,000
Weightlifting n/a £300,000 £1,686,000
Wrestling n/a n/a £2,125,000
Total £58,900,000 £70,000,000 £ 235,103,000
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£ = pounds
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Hey Brundle Fly - nor is sleeping with them!
I'm not sure Backley's really supporting Kelly here. This article is all about things that might kill her. Jumping off 8-foot walls and landing on one leg, jarring your spine hard enough to need the dentist, taking javelins to bed, trying to eat them, breathe them even!
I'm not sure the judges will let her throw a bag of sugar either...
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Wow - the increase in athletic funding is enormous and the forecast of medals really doesnt justify this
Why such a big increase if Lord Coe doesnt rate our chances of getting any medals in this discipline?? Or do certain individuals get more ?
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Actually sorry to go on but the sailing and rowing are getting similar amounts and they are getting results !!!
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The increases this time are a bit misleading as they include things not included for previous funding cycles. But relative amounts are certainly very interesting. Realise that there are lots of athletes to fund (and athletics brings the crowds in) but they'll need to hit targets at least in finalists to sustain interest. Lots of finals taking place without British interest and questions will be asked.
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Kelly has to realise that every minor gain made by setting pbs in other events is wiped out by her javelin, since it isn't average, it's poor. I hope she's done so much work on this because if she threw 40m and got close to her best in the other events, she'd be in with a chance of a strong medal. She'll never be able to use the javelin to gain places on other competitors, but if she can limit the damage it would be great. Sorry not to see Ennis there!!!
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Sadly it seems from Kelly's comments that lack of competition this year might be more significant than anything else. Interesting that she wasn't happy with her (PB) 200m time as she had been faster in practice.
Agree that she needs to focus on the javelin, but we shouldn't then be disappointed if she then fails to excel in her other 'weaker' events (shot, high jump)...
But she's a good example of why we shouldn't concentrate too much criticism on the individual. She's had a cr*p season with injury/illness - not her fault that she's one of the few with a medal chance.
Wider point is how many athletes are getting close to a medal and have potential to medal in the future. At this (very early) stage, I'm not seeing a massive improvement.
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Shooting n/a ?1,400,000 ?5,056,000
Shooting has never had 5m funding for the olympics, maybe the sport as a whole has (including the many non-olympic disciplines) but nowhere near that amount.
The cycling figues are interesting considering everyone seems to be lauding them as an example of how a little funding can go a long way, I dont call £22m a little.
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I'm afraid Kelly's performance in the javelin has to be down to coaching. She has had all manner of 'celebrity coaches' thrown at her over the past years and - as could easily have been predicted - they have not worked. She's finally working with a coach who, although not being a celebrity 'name' DOES know how to coach young women in this event - and they ARE different from the men.
I hope that she does throw well and I hope that the credit goes to the right people.
Why oh why has it taken this long to get her with someone who can help her?
She's been badly let down and I feel sorry for the kid...
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This topic of Kelly and the Javelin has been any many of our discussion in our training group, ok so we are long jumpers and hurdlers but we have all dabbled a bit with a javelin we all throw between 40 and 50m but the thing is we all throw like ferries on hot coals. We all concentrate so much on the technique that we forget there is some raw anger involved. Tomorrow if Kelly wants to get that gold she has to go out there and throw like her life depends on it and stop trying to make it look pretty. But she is still a class athlete no matter what happens.
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She will get a PB in the 800m, of that im sure. Its evident she has spent her time running, and she should come close to her long jump pb at least.
It will be interesting to see what she gets in the javellin, however 40m probably isnt out of the question, i wouldnt be surprised if she had done the above and forgotten to train as much for the shot - the reason for her poor distance.
However, i cannot see her winning even if she gets 3 pbs, Fountain should still beat her in two events - long jump and javellin. A silver is very possible though.
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The figures quoted for the sports funding are generally for the whole sport, not just that aimed at the elite squads. The majority of this goes to grass roots/school sport, supporting regional/county organizations and athlete development programmes, training coaches, etc.
Compared to the sums generated and expended by our 'national' sport of football, these would perhaps just support a small 1st/2nd division club.
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FixedGuru is quite right - but the numbers are useful for comparison purposes, and also interesting for those who don't think their sport gets anything.
We should also remember that this is public money, rather than private funding which is generally the case with football.
It remains the case that elite performance is the main yardstick for funding, even at grass roots level.
Other non-Olympic sports which have reasonable participation levels do get funding, but nothing like the amounts that some (failing) Olympic sports get.
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She is a good strong Isle of Wight girl, she is the best of British stock we have available, so lets get behind her and stop being so negative you can't be No 1 in every event and she in not to far off the points.
So come on Kelly go for GOLD .
Good luck from eveyone on the
Isle of Wight.
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Started watching Kelly last night and was dumbfounded to hear that both Blonska and Dobrynska from the Ukraine have returned after serving a two year ban for drugs offences. since then Dobrynska has produced PBs in two discipline, one of which was a world record throw in the javelin in a heptathlon. It strikes me that Britain, in their quest to be seen by the rest of the world as leading the fight against drug cheats, prevent our cheats from competing at the olympics whilst other countries do not have the same principles.
Kelly Sotherton will no doubt suffer as a result of the IOC allowing these people to compete and this serves to reinforce the arguement for a change in policy to prevent future occurrences. The IOC should be taking a lead here not just banging on about their constant vigil to weed out cheats. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of proven drugs cheats from all corners of the globe still being allowed to compete and it is totally unfair that the ones who want to be "clean" are the ones being handicapped
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WILL people stop avin a go at the judo players
trust me when I say these guys train every day from 9 till 2200 every day trust me ive been there and it plays havoc on your body.
being thrown nage komi over and over,
there training sched something like this
0830-0930 running (not being specific)
1000-1130 technique lots of throwing and groundwork
1400-1600 cardio or weights
1900-2200 randori (fighting)
this is punishing !
but you have do this dat in day out to reach the top
and oh yes compete most weekends
these guys train b.....y hard and they will be gutted trust me,
and up until a short time ago the funding was not great, and only now its getting better,
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MY SPELLING HAS ALOT TO BE DESIRED !
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Steve,
You make it sound very dangerous and almost impossible. I dunno if that's going to encourage her to be honest.
I really like Kelly Sotherton - she's such a loudmouth (in a good way). But her javelin really is p*ss-poor! I remember seeing Daley Thompson years ago practically jogging round the track in the 1500 in a T-shirt and waving at the crowd because he already knew he had an unassailable lead (poss Los Angeles '84 - I was 8!). However in another comp he knew he had to grit his teeth and give the best he'd ever given, despite the 1500 being his worst and least favourite event. He came third and took the gold - sorry, can't remember which sporting event his was. This for me epitomises what is great about the multi-eventers. Kelly NEEDS to have her best javelin throws ever to get a medal, not rely on her better events of the long jump and the 800. This was hyped as being her year in the absence of Kluft (which is a terrible shame) so she does need to prove herself and not blame her javelin AGAIN.
Go Kelly!
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Backers certainly knows his javelins and its a treat to hear such detailed stuff from an expert. I liked the way he used to be competitive to the point of near self destruction. Kelly, think 'javelin warrior' and at least give us a manic scream at the point of release.
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So the heptathlon is over and Kelly's had a bit of a result in the javelin - better than she's managed for a while - Well Done! And well done to Mike McNeil her coach in this discipline.
Kelly's seems to be a particularly difficult head to get 'into' and the largely undervalued skill of the coach in this area deserves praise.
None of the heptathletes throw terribly well from a technical standpoint - in fact they are almost all pretty awful. But...they all score well because they 'whack it' with some conviction. (thank you Mr Macey!)
When I see Kelly attack that spear with gusto in the years ahead I will marvel at the tortous journey she has been on these past few years and I will tip my hat to the insightful coaching that is behind it.
That is unless she thinks she knows it all now and can do it on her own...
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tortous should of course be TORTUOUS! Apologies...
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An excellent technical article from Steve Backley. Back in my more athletic days - some 15 years ago now - I used to occassionally watch Steve training at the Dartford track. What always surprised me was his speed - I was about 45 years old at the time and could do 200m in a little over 30 secs; OK, he was a lot younger, but that was about his warm up speed.
What always impressed me was the amount of analysis he did in his training - he would ask other athletes training at the same time how far he was off a straight line when he practised the throwing action, and things like that.
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