 In this video, we are going to talk about 6981 by Mikolos Alekna, break down the six pillars and look at what makes him so badass. Let's check it out. What's up guys? It's Coach Johnson from Airtate Throws Nation. In today's video, we're going to go through Mikolos Alekna. We are looking at his 6981 at the Diamond League, the Stockhold Diamond League, big throw. This guy is just on fire. He's just been nonstop the whole year and we're going to take a look at his six pillars. So let's take a look. Pillar one, set up the chain reaction. Pillar two, set up maximum power. Pillar three, drop in, apply speed. Four is the axis transition. Five, lock down power. And six, hit that big finish, okay? So what are we going to do and how are we looking at that throw? Now, one of the things that make him so good, genetics, years ago we did an article called the five intangibles of throwing success and one of those was genetics. How are you? How tall are you? Bigger are you? How are you wired? And your dad is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, Olympic record holder. Number two in world history, you know, a multi-time world champion. So when your dad's throwing over 73 meters, you can bet you've learned some good insights. You've got the DNA and you've got the technical information coming to you. So from day one, you've got the deck stacked in your favor. So I'm not taking anything away from Elekna because you have to apply this. You have the genetics and you have the information. You have to put it all together. Clearly he's done that. But let's give credit where credit is due. This is some amazing genetically gifted people and that helps, of course. So you start throwing 69, 81 at 19 years of age, that is incredible. So you've got a lot of things going right. So technically and physically and lots of stuff. If you didn't know that about his father, you're not following throwing very well because his dad was an absolute legend. This guy is like building the legendary status. He comes to the U.S. He goes to University of California, Berkeley. So the coach there, Mo Sitara has done a phenomenal job over the last few years, just dominant throwing, bringing guys in, developing them up. I mean, across the board in all events. So kudos to him. He came over. He goes, but Elekna has this massive campaign, opens the year at 62 meters. Pretty respectable, 19. And early in the year, you had three big freshmen and all of a sudden, boom. He goes 66, 70 after that. Then he goes 64, 97. Then it's 66, 61. I mean, he just keeps going. Then it's 67, 68. You know, oh, he has a 64, 87, which is still damn near 65 meters. Then he goes 66, 15 at the NCAA's Claudio Romero from Virginia, right. Get some by two centimeters. So these guys, I mean, the future of the NCAA is exciting. But then this guy takes a little break, flies home, Lithuanian champion, 69 meters. Stockholm Diamond League, 69, 81. And then guy next day, flies back to Lithuania. I know it's not that far of a flight, but 67, 63, right. That's a lot of competition in just a few days. So just incredible. So that's me rambling. What do you guys think that makes him so good? What do you like? What do you see so far? Genetics are clearly on his side technique. I think he does a lot of really good things. You don't throw this far, this consistently, unless you're doing good stuff technically. I've always approached analysis as what makes them throw far, not let me see what I can do. They should do this. And blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. I've never approached that. I always like to see like, what makes this 69, 81? You know, what are the key things? And again, this is where our pillar system kind of comes in. And remember, we talk about our pillar system. We're never saying, oh, all these people, we're not saying that, we've never said that. What we're saying is, is that the mechanics of the throw, this is what the six-pillar system, our throwing chain reaction system shows you how you set up the throw and how you move through our absolute paramount. And this is, everybody can get plugged in and then their styles, right, are going to be different. And that's what our system also helps develop. It isn't a do everything the same way. It is understand how the mechanics work. And then when you do, you're able to develop your own style. So pillar one, we talk about multiple objectives. One of them is the radius and the orbit and separation and stretch reflex. And this guy does this phenomenally well, okay? So he's set, he's long, and then you're going to see him shift to two. Now when we go to pillar two, one of the things is we're always trying to get these hips over. We want to get this over. Now look at how far back the discus is. And one of the things we talk about, like the lower body's moving head, the upper body's staying back. And some people try to teach this advocate throwing the arm open. I've seen people do that successfully, but the best throwers in the world tend to move it on a long path and drag the upper body. They're not too many guys opening up. There are people who do, but they open the arm, not the upper body. He keeps the upper body dragged back. Again, one of the things we talk about is, you know, how do you think about it, right? If you're a coaching athlete, say, well, keep the upper body back. If you're a coaching other athlete, say, move the lower body ahead, make sure it's always that left side. We talk about this, the entry side, right? And that's one of the things that we teach inside our throwing chain reaction. So he keeps that upper body way back. What do you guys think? Again, throw that in the comments. Let me know what you see. I see that upper body just boom, it hangs back and he just has that discus in a stretch position. So by the time he comes around to deliver, that thing just whips, right? And that's the ultimate way to throw, creating that. And every athlete's going to be somewhat unique in their ability to feel and do that. And this guy clearly is very impressive and very gifted. So now watch as he drops into three, the lower body, right? Look at that angle. It's absolutely like fantastic. He is just boom. Upper body, chest, right? Is facing about nine, hips are moving into the throw. Now in this particular video, you can't see his left foot, but his left foot tends to be under-rotated. But he's super aggressive off of that left leg. So watch him as he drops. This was drop and go. That's your pillar four. That's create that transition. But going back, it's so quick and that's what he's drops in. He's just immediately sprinting. Look at that linear action. Upper body's back, lower body's starting to really crank ahead. And when that upper body's not rotating into the middle, that's one of the things that can allow that lower body to get ahead. Can everybody do this? No. Again, there's certain things stylistically that are probably really suited to him. And clearly they're working extremely well. And what's scary is this guy's only 19 years old. He's not even physically completely matured yet. He's going to get bigger and stronger. Not like you see with Che a few years ago, tall, awesome athlete, but he's just gotten more powerful. He's matured up. Right? He's a few years older. So when he burst on the scene a few years ago, 68 meters, he's almost two meters ahead. It's pretty crazy. Okay. So now watch Elekna. This is what I think is also really incredible. Look at the length. So one of the things we always talk about is as the hips are moving ahead, you see how his chest is still facing this way? Like his chest isn't even to six o'clock yet. It's slightly to the right of center. The left arm's a counterbalance. You see that? And that makes a huge difference. Right now, look at the stretch. He just, I mean, it's crazy. Look at how elongated the radius is. He's getting that discus up. So by the time that left foot touches, he's got that discus almost to the high point and he's got this great counterbalance. And you see where the discus is rising, right? It's coming up early. Sometimes throwers get that discus too late, right? And where you, it's kind of like the hammer orbit, wherever you kind of put that high point is going to be how you pull around. He's getting it so far back. You can see that a lot of guys get that high point up kind of in line with the sector line. Well, his is outside the sector line. So he's got that upper body just cranked. Now watch as he hits right here as, so there's like ground contact here, but there's not, he hasn't loaded yet. He's still in the process of loading. So watch, right now is where he loads. Look at the chest. Boom. Look at the lower body. Look at the right foot, right? You see that right foot. It's facing almost 11 o'clock. Upper body's back. I mean, dude, this guy's upper body is dragging behind him for days. That's impressive. I think that is definitely something you can pick up. So again, is that the way you see it? Let me know. Throw some comments in there. I think this is good stuff. So pillar five is where we talk about locking down power, right? Pillar four is that transition. We just showed you were creating all that torque. We're getting that lower body moving ahead, creating that tension. So by the time you get down on the discus, look at how high that discus is. Foot's down. Look at the discus is up. Shoulder back, lower body here. You know, you got Lithuania on the shirt facing this way. This guy just pulls on it for days, right? And then watch as he comes through. You're gonna see him right there. Bam. I mean, he just gets to that point so quickly and he just whips the crap out of it. And this is what I love. That's the mark of a really clean finish. Boom. He just hits it, comes around. All the momentum stops. That's physics. Transfer of momentum. You hit this side, stops. Everything transfers into the implement. The faster you move is what you transfer your speed to the implement that's transfer of momentum. That's what you're doing at the finish. And we did a post years ago on Peter Melchowski and Robert Harding commented on that post and he talked about the acceleration factor through the finish. That's key. And I can agree. This is what he does. Just smashes through it and that gets sets up that huge, huge throw. Okay, so, you know, I probably fanboyed enough on this. Remember, we talk about this. This guy's just exciting to watch. It's always exciting to watch talents like this that just are doing incredible things. 19, imagine where this guy's gonna be. He's probably hasn't fully, he's probably not as tall as he's gonna be. And he's definitely probably, he's not as physically strong. And, you know, developed as he's gonna be. But when you look at this guy, I mean, you can still see he's long, lean. He's just on another level and it's gonna be really exciting to see what the future is. I can only imagine how good the men's discus is gonna be come to Paris Olympics in a couple of years. It's gonna be really, really exciting. So, you know, we can't forget about all the other dudes in this field. You had Stahl, you had Matt Denny, you know, Sam Mattis is in there, Sam's been up there. But these guys, right, are up. This guy's just on another level. It's really exciting to watch. So, any rate, again, let me know what you guys think and remember, throw that in the comments. Support the channel if you like videos like this and some of the other stuff we do, how this helps us keep putting this stuff out is, you know, liking, subscribing, turn on your notifications, be sure to comment. And remember, if you'd like to learn more information about throwing, check out our Throwing Chain Reaction System again. We show you time and time again with the best throws in the world, how the six pillars apply. And again, style is gonna be different. This is why we talk about this we got upcoming things on drills and progressions and all that good stuff's coming towards you. But again, this guy is on fire. So, hope you guys enjoyed the video. Like I said, comment below. Do all the good fun YouTube stuff for us. And we'll see you guys on the next video. Take care.