 Hi, I'm Eric Johnson and welcome to the Thrower X podcast. Today's guest is an absolute superstar pound for pound. Likely the greatest shot putter existing on the planet today. He is a super cool young dude and I really love this interview. This next clip we will talk a little bit and so be sure to check it out. I want to say a huge congratulations. What's amazing is that it was fifth at the greatest shot put Olympics ever. The fact is you PR in the qualifying, you PR in the final. So you throw 21-41 in the final. That throw would have won like all kinds of Olympic game. Congratulations on fifth place at the greatest Olympic shot put final in history. You kind of covered some of the training, but generally, you know, what's the, you guys obviously do you attribute the success towards the end of the season? Was it, you know, part of my job as a coach is always and I've had a lot of good luck with that. You know, you set a plan. This is when you're trying to throw far. I kind of do block periods, you know, where it's like I'm trying to hit multiple peaks. It's not just the old school linear thing. So how does your year look? And then, of course, you peaked at the games, you know? And again, I want to say you were fifth in qualifying and fifth in the final. So, you know, you brought it. You had, I think like, you know, it's a pressure environment. You open up with a 2084. The second round you hit the, you know, your PR at the time is 2011. So how is that? You know, when you go in knowing, well, my PR is only 2011. The auto queue is 20, 21-21 and you go 21-25. You're like, sweet, I'm in. And I'm going to come back the next day. How was, you know, how did that feel like you came in when you hit the 2084? You're like, yeah, I feel good today. Was that like? When I hit 2084, I kind of went like, wow, that was easy. And so then I was like, this could be fun. And I knew after I thought to myself, I actually don't know the statistics. But I was like, 2084 is not enough. And I always say to myself, I don't actually, necessarily, I'm not too concerned about how I do in the Olympics from a position perspective. I just kind of want to PR. And so, you know, when I hit 21-25, I was so happy. I don't, I didn't even process it. That was automatic qualification. I completely forgot the numbers of, I was super happy. And I remember asking the South African guy, what's the, what is, because I saw it hit the white line, didn't know if it was 21-30. And I, you know, so much of that qualification is a blow. And so I just remember feeling super happy and just feeling like, wow. You know, that was kind of, I don't want to lie to you, but the emotion around that, the 21-25 in the qualification was coming fifth overall was almost more emotive than coming fifth overall. The coming fifth overall in the final was fantastic. You know, PRE and throwing 21-41 was amazing. But the emotion and the sort of, I was even, I was surprised from, you know, doing that, but also not surprised. It's difficult to explain, but it was just the emotion from going from sort of not expecting too much to them being there going, wow, you know, I just came fifth in the qualification. That's, that's huge. Yeah, it's massive. And then to do it, you know, in the final as well, it was, of course, the cherry on top. But just, I remember coming back to my phone and just seeing my parents that they were having a sort of a meeting with my other family members and their pictures of them on the group crying. And I think that was just for me, just huge. Yeah, that's awesome, man. Now, you obviously that said, now, what are you thinking when you come back the next day in the final, you know, and you, you, you open up again with 2085 on the final and had it. And then, you know, it wasn't until the final, obviously, like the final, you know, three throws that you go 21-40 and 21-41, you know, you had two 21-40s, which was better than Romani. He, he hit a 21-88 on that first throw and, you know, that, that held him for fourth. But I mean, at this point, you're going toe to toe with darling Romani. I mean, darling Romani is like a beast, right? Like, I mean, that guy is huge, right? Like you've competed against him. The guy is just traps chest. I mean, he is just giant. Like a fool. Yeah. So what's it like, like, like, what goes through your head at this point when you're there and it's like you're punching it out with Romani? I mean, in all these guys, it's just like, and, you know, at this point, too, you're, you know, Walsh opened up at 21-09, right? And then, of course, he, he, he hit some better throws. But he's even to put in perspective, like his 22-47 was the Olympic record before 2016, right? I mean, it's like this, this was just like incredible competition. So I'm, I'm, I'm going on and on, but no, I enjoy it. I enjoy it. So, so how do you, you know, you, you, you hit the 2085. Do you feel like, do you feel any pressure at that point? Do you feel like that's going to hold up to get you into the top eight so you can get three more? Or, you know, yeah, at that point, at that point, I definitely didn't think it was going to be enough to get me into in top eight. So I was kind of still, still chasing it. But in the same, but you know, realizing it's probably not going to be enough. I still have to be very active in, in, in trying, but also being relaxed enough so you don't mess up the timing and the throw. So I was a bit, I was a bit disappointed. I was a bit worried. And obviously after my third throw and it wasn't, you know, I thought all 2085 because I don't know if that would have qualified for the final 2085, I don't know what, you know, from what I, what I see from looking at the results, I think that, that did put you in eighth. Right. Okay. So I think, oh, sorry, you know, exactly. So I was, I think I was probably, I was the last to qualify into that final. I remember. And then the South African Kyle Blichman threw 21 and his third throw. And that was when I was like, this can't happen. You know, that, that fired me up. And I remember, I remember saying to him, because I'm not a big coffee drinker. And obviously the Italians don't like that about me. But I now got into the habit of having like a triple espresso before the, before I throw it kind of, it, it works really well because I'm not like used to the caffeine and whatnot. And so anyway, so I've been doing that. And then of course, the morning of the Olympic final was the only time ever in a competition where there has not been coffee that we're running late. And I remember thinking to myself, I remember thinking, that's good. You know, of course, it will happen today. I thought, like, you know, you're going to do it without it. And I remember thinking that and going in and I thought, I'm not going to let this affect me. And anyway, and then I remember off that third throw when Carl threw 21, he said to me, he's like, do you want a red ball? So I was like, no, do you have a coffee? And he's like, I do have a coffee. So he pulled out this coffee and, you know, we share that in between the next three throws. And that was kind of, you know, I don't know if I can attribute it solely to the coffee, but it definitely put me in a good focus spot and it took off from there. And I think that's one of the things that I also love the most about that Olympic finals, to do it with Kyle, not Danny South African, but you know, this young, really good thrower. But like, you know, we were two, I remember I trained with him for two months when I was in Jobe with the other coach. He trains with my previous coach for these two guys that everyone, you know, no one spoke about us leading into the games. And, you know, here we are on the Olympic final, definitely top eight, you know, sharing a coffee before the final three throws and just thinking like we just two guys out here having fun. And I think that for me was such a beautiful moment of the competition and it helped keep me calm because I felt like, you know, we had another training session and have fun with it. And that really that helped me a lot. That's awesome. But sorry, so I don't know. I've got to answer your question. I also get a bit sidetracked. No, no, no, that's great. It's love. I love it. It's cool. It's cool insights, for sure. But yeah, you know, so when you go in, you hit the PRs. And I mean, you're just thinking, OK, you made it in eighth. And now you're thinking, all right, what do you was? Where's your mindset? You just and what is coach Paula? What is he saying to you? So I remember specifically, he said it to me after the twenty eighty six in the qualifications and also the twenty eighty and also going into the fourth round. What I do when I come out the back of the circle and the arm, I don't keep the arm sort of level. And so when I dip at the hip, the arm goes up. So he said to me, he said, keep your arm level coming out the back. And so that is the only thing I was thinking in that fourth round. When I went 20 or 40, I thought, that felt good. And then again, then going off to it again, I focused on the same thing and hit the twenty one forty one. And then in the sixth throw, I remember thinking it's all or nothing. And I pushed super hard, but I messed up the timing. And I think if I if I kept the timing with the speed that I came out of the back of the circle with, it could have been something could have been something special. Now, that's awesome. But it was it was perfect. You know, I couldn't be upset. I couldn't be upset. No, that's that's amazing. Again, you just kind of kept the peak going after that, right? You were just on a real hot streak. And I think you won the Italian Club championship and finished with another PR like you had two more big PRs, a twenty one sixty three and then a twenty one sixty six. You're like, you know, a consistent 70 foot guy at this point. That is a long ways from just a few years ago where you're barely thrown, you throw 19 meters one time. So so this being said, you know, the American I think partly why I think America is so good in the shot is because these guys are just freaks. They're they're all Peyton Otterdahl, he's a monster. The guy's strong as can be. Crousers, a big fast, really strong guy like he's incredible. Joe, did you see Joe Kovacs with last year they made it on he had like an eight seventy one for four. I mean, it's like he's literally got to be one of the strongest dudes on the planet. Like, I mean, he's he's he's incredible. So that being said, what are your strength levels? Everybody wants to know this stuff. Everybody wants to know what are you a bench? What are you a squad? Like where where are you? Yes, I can't enjoy showing these numbers because it's I think it speaks to the beauty of technique. Prior to the Olympic Games, my PR was 150 kgs for two in the bench press. Wow. But now so now I've gone up to 160 kgs for two and I have done in the squat. I haven't gone over 200 for two and we only kind of do quarter squats as well. So I haven't gone over 200. OK. And then snatch. I've only gone up to 90 kgs for three. A 93 low snatch for three. And you can throw 70 feet in the shot. This is unbelievable, man. I'm just trying to think those are kind of the big mark because we don't deadlift. OK. Clean squat. Do you do jerks? We do a behind the neck jerk, but it's kind of. It's not it's not a jerk. You don't we don't use our legs. It's more just we stand on our toes just to get that rhythm. And I've gone up to 100 100 kgs on that. And then they're so jerk. Yeah. But those are kind of the only ones that I can think that are of any interest, especially for the big, the big sort of three. So so what now you I heard you earlier say you throw one day. It sounds like you lift one day and you do a circuit. So that was that was specifically during COVID because obviously we had no like access to physiotherapists and whatnot. Got you. Got you. And in that period, I think the heaviest I went on the bench was 115, which is just crazy. Yes. But at that time, I hadn't had really consistent weight training. So it was like for me was still a bit of a hassle. OK. But anyway, but that was that was then. And but now so it depends on what part of the season we remember. We kind of do like a when we're on a training camp, we'll do two, one, two. Two, one, two, one, one, two, one, two, one, one. What is that? So so we'll do throws weightlifting on a Monday. Throws throws on a Tuesday and throws and weight. If we'll do fieldwork and weightlifting on a Wednesday. OK, so what's fieldwork? Fieldwork, so we'll go down to like obviously a stadium. We'll do some 60 meter like rhythmic runs. We'll do some hurdle work overhead throws, front throws jumps into the sandpit. So it's kind of like it's an active recovery because my coaches like to put three throwing days together and especially because especially, you know, it's on a training camp. It's quite intense, you know, we've just finished one now and it's you kind of walk out and you think flip. Well, that's been like that's been a month and I don't know where it's gone. It's it's it's crazy. You know, a nap between the sessions, you wake up, you eat you and you're on to the next one, you know, and then you have supper, you go back home, you sleep and you do it again the next day. So it's really busy. So that's kind of so that's your Wednesday is fieldwork, weightlifting the afternoon and a Thursday is just weight just a throws in the morning. OK. Friday is throwing the morning weightlifting afternoon and in Saturday is weightlifting. So that's kind of how it's set up for for our training camps. And that is similar to last year, but a little bit different. There was a few tweaks. I can't remember, I was looking at the programs, but it's it's kind of that's the principle that my coach. And then how much rest do you do after a training camp? Is it like a download week? Do you completely leave everything off? Is it everything lighter? Like how's that look? So we'll do a three a three week like I've just described to you now. And then our fourth week of that training camp will be just throws Monday, throws Tuesday, fieldwork on a Wednesday. So hopefully you enjoyed today's excerpt from our interview. Please stay tuned. We will be showing the complete interview in the coming weeks. Awesome guy. Lots of great discussion coming. So be sure to check it out. See you then, everybody. Thanks for attending or watching our Thrower X podcast brought to you by Airtay Throws Nation. If you are a thrower coach looking to improve your throws, looking how to understand the speed and the technical complexity. Check out our six pillar training system throwing chain reaction. Link is in the description. We'll see you on the next cast.