Women strive for perfect throw

Javelin athletes give insight to unique sport

By DANIEL MILLER, Sports Writer

Published: May 14, 2008

There are four of them. They throw rocks and footballs. They run sprints with the track team twice a week. They bike in the offseason to stay in shape. But they specialize in throwing sticks.

To be exact, they specialize in throwing 145-inch, 600-kilogram sticks that resemble spears used in the Roman and Greek empires during warfare.

Though their use of the javelin is far from its former function as a spear in combat, the four female throwers on SPU's track team battle daily to acquire equal measures of strength and finesse for their event.

SPU's javelin throwers, freshman Brittany Aanstad and juniors Jeeni Schantin, Lauren VerMulm, and Brittany Bekins, took four of the top five places at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships May 2-3 in Ellensburg. Of the Falcon track team's 158 points in that meet, 27 were earned by the javelin throwers, a contribution which bested the team totals of two competing squads.

Throwing the javelin requires a distinct sort of training to develop the technical abilities unique to the event. All throwers can be effective even with differing runs to set up the throw, rhythms, and releases, but there's a certain amount of semblance required, VerMulm and Schantin said after their practice Monday.

"You can be doing a lot of stuff right, but if you're doing one thing wrong, it messes the whole throw up," Schantin said.

"And you can be doing a lot of things wrong but still be doing well," VerMulm added.

Perplexing?

Javelin is an event where the slightest technicalities and body contortions mean the difference between finishing first or last in a given meet, Schantin said. A thrower can lean too far forward or miss a step in her rhythm, but, as Schantin said, "If you get the 'touch' behind it straight through the point, it can still be a good throw."

"It's like throwing a model airplane without wings," third-year javelin coach Duncan Atwood said.

Humans want to throw things in an arc, he said, but the javelin goes farthest when thrown flatly.

Atwood is very good at recognizing the mechanics of a good javelin throw, VerMulm said, and he finds metaphors and analogies to explain technique to his four proteges. As a two-time gold medalist javelin thrower in the Pan-American Games and former Olympic athlete, Atwood fights the urge to say too much to his athletes.

"It's killing me not to overcoach them," he said Monday after dispensing a piece of advice to Schantin. "I probably do as it is, but there are some things they just have to figure out for themselves."

Despite trying to hold back, Atwood excitedly shows verbal support with each throw. Whatever he says, he punctuates with exclamation and a quick explanation.

"Ho, Hoa! That was a typical throw for you, Jeeni," he told Schantin at one point during practice. "But on the good end."

Atwood also pointed out correct hip placement, how to get the power of the javelin throw into the flight line (and not below it), and proper shoulder thrust. He cooed approvingly when Schantin and VerMulm threw well.

"I've heard lots of coaches say it's one of the hardest events to learn and teach," VerMulm said of the mechanically-driven sport.

The technical focus is what originally drew Schantin into throwing because she wanted a break from running for the track team. Aanstad and VerMulm got into the sport through encouragement from friends and coaches who had seen them throw in softball and volleyball.

Aanstad, Schantin, VerMulm, and Bekins train together most afternoons, but each day offers a different emphasis. Two days a week are devoted to throwing the javelin itself. One or two days, the throwers run short and long sprints. With the remaining days, the throwers practice their technique by tossing rocks into the canal or footballs back and forth. Using a bucket of landscaping rocks provided by Atwood, the throwers simulate their javelin tossing motion and practice the rotation of their body.

Though Atwood doesn't like it much for training, he said throwing a football gives a greater sense of the power needed to throw the javelin effectively.

On Monday, Schantin and VerMulm took turns throwing the team's collection of 12 javelins, each fitting about 30 throws into the 90-minute training. Bekins took the afternoon off, and Aanstad rested her arm but worked on the run up to throwing the javelin.

For Aanstad, this run starts with a couple steps of sprinting and then transforms into a gallop resembling a tiptoeing karaoke leg crossover. Since she has one of the fastest run-ups in the country, Aanstad earned the nickname "Choochoo," said Atwood.

Near the end of the practice, VerMulm hurled what Atwood called the "throw of the year." Atwood then imitated a karaoke-style run-up in approaching VerMulm for a high five.

"I felt it," Vermulm said after the throw, beaming with the pride of one brief, shining moment. These moments of success are fleeting. So fleeting, in fact, that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) allows throws to stand for up to two seasons in determining qualifications for the national championships, Schantin said. She is waiting to see if her career-best throw of 164 feet, 10 inches from last year qualifies her for the Olympic Trials June 27 in Eugene, Ore.

The track and field team leaves for the NCAA Championships in Walnut, Calif., on Tuesday. Schantin, VerMulm, and Aanstad have all qualified and are hoping to once again anchor the team as stick-throwing extraordinaires.

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