 Hey everybody what's going on it's Eric Johnson from Airtay Throws Nation and in today's video we are going to do some breakdown of the Olympic men's shot put what an amazing competition. Same top three finishers in Tokyo as you had in Rio and of course kind of the same thing. Olympic record again by Ryan Krauser what was more impressive is that every throw we had was over his previous Olympic record. Joe Kovacs again amazing competition and Tom Walsh saved his best competition. Obviously all these men threw basically a meter further than they did in Rio and that is pretty amazing it tells you how much the level of the men's shot has just exploded globally over the last few years. So what we're going to do is kind of take a look look at their kind of techniques what's similar what's different and what makes Ryan Krauser just so incredible as now the world record holder seven centimeters off of his own world record at the Olympic games and we're just going to take a peek at everything so here we go. So let's look at Krauser you know one of the things we talk about obviously the goal with a lot of what we do is that you know the throwing chain reaction system is a way to take something that happens super fast Ryan Krauser all these Olympians you know your pros are your perfect example they're the fastest and they are the best and everything that you're looking at happens super quick and so one of the things that you're doing is we want to be able to create technical consistency and I think that's what's so impressive especially about Ryan Krauser now if you look at Tom Walsh and Joe Kovacs and Darlin Romani they too are you know they're the some of the greatest throwers of all time and they're super consistent but Ryan's consistency has been just up on another notch. So again the one thing we talk about is how do you look at something that happens so quickly and here you know the thing that we look at at Ryan Krauser this is what I refer to as the holy grail of throw that movement around the axis so what what you know when you're kind of looking out there you've got to see we always kind of try to teach there's kind of these points right and this line is essentially going to move slightly you see that and now you're going to see see how that line's there so it starts back here and this is in our system we call you know pillar one is the wind up this is pillar two and so you have to be able to move the body now we talk about there's a there's an optimal position in the upper body there's an optimal position in the lower body how the sweep leg action right is going to work look at you know Ryan's hips look at the shoulders and look at the balance arm right now this is key right look at the knees sometimes people push this knee too far this way and that's not in our opinion how it works what it has to do is be able to get around now the knees going to push into the direction of the throw so so some people you know over the years and again the the the insights and stuff that I like to provide in these videos are just you know my own experience as a thrower and my experiences as a coach and what would work and whatnot so so here's what we call is our pillar two and then again pillar three so he's going to push and that's where we call to drop in right we're not dropping down and some people would argue that crowds are you know drops and this is where they change this rule now here's my thing I'm going to jump around it says that's kind of how I do things but this is I heard we posted up some things everybody's all foul foul they changed the rule one two I always thought it was a stupid rule because nobody's sitting down and throwing you know 22 plus meters nobody sits and then goes that's contrary to how the mechanics and the physics of the sport with an athlete's always moving in so when we look at Joe Kovacs you'll see he's gonna they're all all these guys are pushing off of that sprint leg into them into the middle and you know so I would have everybody who's talking about it that isn't a foul and the reason they deemed it not a foul is because the athlete would be going over well if you're moving into the direction of throw and you're not going to throw 23 meters going backwards and then going forward so that's my argument on it I think there's a down motion where the foot comes but the motion is still always moving forward and that's why I'm glad that the rule was changed and you know and I'm sure if they hadn't changed the rule Ryan would have been able to adjust and he'd probably be thrown just as far that's my opinion him and his dad obviously they've got this dialed they they're they're incredible and he's the greatest ever and so what can what else can you say so here's the key thing that we talk about though again this is kind of where we're dropping in we call this dropping in blind speed pillar three and I think this is what's really interesting some people will say Ryan comes down you know I've had the opportunity to ask Ryan he tries to get this sweep leg out as far as possible and you know this is the other key thing we talk about this this is a counterbalance right so he's got everything moving into the throw look at that direction he is sprinting the shot looks like it's back what's he's doing is getting that lower body ahead so there's a certain window we talk about windows at each pillar right because if we hold this arm back too far you're going to start to mess with that optimal counterbalance so any rate I think here's a perfect example when Ryan hits you know as he sprints and that sweep leg is going to start really whipping ahead look at the upper bodies kind of slow down right this left arms here is one of the things we teach we teach how we're going to create we call it the rewrap we want to keep that arm from continuing to open a lot of times what a lot of throwers do and you're not going to see it at this level they're going to open that left arm and that left arm kind of either wraps late or sometimes you see them pulling back and in my opinion I'd love to ask Ryan Krauser what what he's thinking and if he's willing to share that but some throwers actually do this and I see that with beginning throws I don't see these guys doing that what I see is that arm holding there and then as the right comes in it gives this kind of appearance that the arms pulling back so that's something think about if you're if you're looking at again these are opinions there's my opinion this is what I think I see but these are the things we've taught a lot of our younger throwers and with a lot of success but these things take years I mean look at look at Ryan's progress over the last five years right he came in exploded won the Olympics he's just been getting so consistent at 22 meters then that started being 2250 plus now he's had you know his last what uh four competitions what trials Olympics and then pre-fontein so he's had his last three and I can't remember we have to meet between two sun and trials but he threw 23 meters there so he's had four out of at least his four five meets where he's over 23 meters pretty amazing obviously so here's where we talk about that's that pillar for this kind of acceleration right you're going to notice this is common this is what all these guys are doing they're all doing in our opinion essentially the same thing they have their nuances in their individual aspects Ryan's the tallest of all these guys and so right here you see him how he gets into that power position so he stays wrapped once that left comes down that the the left arm goes out long you have to take a long path some people are teaching to be very active with this arm and again I agree with that but there are nuances on how this arm has to open but notice it's opening out nice and long Ryan pulls around and he really squares up that left foot the block leg you're going to notice is really getting down there look at the look at the elevation and the pushing of the knee right the elevation of the heel and the knee and I think it's really more focused as the knee turns and watches hip drive through and that's what allows them to get that nice extension over the board so this is his 23 30 and you can see really clean throw big big big throw okay so let's take a peek at let's just play it in slow mo so here we go as we come around boom look at that just I love the punch like if you're a shot put enthusiast you know this is just never gets old it's just it's amazing right you can just definitely kind of lose you can watch and trust me I've already watched this video a gazillion times I think this is what's so awesome about Ryan look at how this is the key the left side pulls and you see how it's turned the lower body is turning and creating that torque right and this is what you want to learn as a discus thrower or you know rotational shot putter you got to create that tension that tension comes up creates that extra stretch reflex and you're going to be able to smash the throw so obviously nobody has really done it better I love how as he gets to this point of throw both feet essentially you know on the ground some people advocate jumping I think that's a mistake there's definitely a lift but you're going to notice here I think this is the key look at Ryan there's not a lot of up right there is some up right he comes down and then he's going to lift and when we teach that we always talk about like there's some exaggerated kind of mental processes but what you're doing physically doesn't match and you learn how to bring those two things together so we teach that there's an elevation but you because you're moving the amount of time up and down is very short but if you're vertically if you if you I think if you're really trying to vertically jump that's a big mistake and I think you can see that here Ryan does not jump right he is working the crap out of the ground and lifting and getting that hip ahead and that gives him that long strike and here's the thing Ryan has probably the shortest left arm so the argument would say is this the best way so I've had throwers that have thrown far with the straight left which you're going to see in Walsh and Kovacs and I've had throwers that you know are throwing 60 plus feet with the big ball at like NAIA level and they will have one in particular so I think it's going to be somewhat of a of a personal preference on what's going to work there clearly I had an opportunity to meet Ryan and his dad his dad's obviously for people may not know Mitch Krauser is a guy who's his coached Ryan right and he works with his dad and I had asked him I said do you guys purposely try to pull that arm in and it said it's really something that's kind of left over from him and his glide years now clearly he has an amazing finish and you know so you you have to look at this is what works best for Ryan Krauser clearly very clearly okay so let's take a look so again that's kind of a quick breakdown on here now let's look at Joe now Joe again here's the here's what's interesting right Joe is 511 Joe is actually I think 510 and three quarters Joe is an absolute monster in the weight room if you've seen some of his stuff he put up a video I think he did like 840 for four reps in the squat like the guy I've seen what he do he posted a video where he did like 705 or for 10 Joe is just an absolute friggin monster maybe one of the strongest if not the strongest athletes in anything so here's where you know you notice Joe again real similarly look at that look at that angle we talked about with Ryan you look at where that knee starts to push ahead that knee can't push ahead until we call it into pillar three he gets active with the left arm he doesn't um open the chest right that's that's the key thing you're going to notice none of these guys are really doing that but they're more active the shot sits on top of you there's some major differences between rotational shot put in discus and so you're going to notice the same thing right we saw this we saw the left arm and the sweep leg with Ryan and now look at it's it's very much the same thing big wide sweep that's going to come around watch Joe get that arm and watch that arm kind of hold the position so he gets that big wrap and then you're going to see him come down again long always got to go out long got to get that down Joe is always more up on the toe but Joe smashes the crap out of this and this is uh 2265 massive throw this would have won every Olympics in history this would have been an Olympic record in every other Olympics so it really just kind of puts into perspective how amazing Joe is and how you know how incredible what what we're seeing and what Ryan crowds June so let's let's play that we'll play Joe here kind of slow mo watch again the same thing boom we'll look at a couple other things as we break down Joe and slow mo again look at I love the the action again watch that aggressive sweep you see that and you see that sweep that lower body really cranking ahead just like you saw with Crouser again it's hard to really express right that these guys are like these performances are amazing so um watch as uh I really love how Joe look at Joe's right leg is ridiculous right like look at that thing just smashing into the throw I mean the lower body just never there's never any delay right watch that right like wham I mean and Joe has the same thing you think you're going to see with all these guys that block arm stops that block arms never back I see a lot of people get taught how to pull how to come up and come down this is not the action on a rotational throw it's out and it stops right boom it's gonna hit and watch I think this is what's what's so impressive again Joe really punches ahead he's got this amazing strike crushes the shot look at that block arm you have to feel that push right you feel this you can't feel this I see a lot of people out there teaching um really active left side which I don't necessarily disagree but I think there's a window and if you get out of that window that's something we talk about in the throwing chain reaction you're out of position you're you're not going to make it so they come around boom it's just like a hard crush that block arm wham and you feel that right and we always equate it to a knockout punch like MMA or boxers basically when they hit right the boxers aren't throwing punches like this they're throwing punches like that and this is the same principles you got to block that block side and deliver bam you want to deliver that big punch so again Joe does that Joe's always so impressive again what do you have five five throws or four throws over 22 meters at the Olympic trials he did the same thing here mass you know ton of throws what I think it was four or five over 22 two over 22 he went 2260 2265 I mean this just just incredible okay so let's take a look at Walsh now Walsh is clearly the one everybody looks at now Walsh these guys are trying to in our opinion it looks like right he's trying to get super he gets more active again this is again what we talk about and we teach these elements we've had had one of my athletes this past year we had more of an offset kind of modeling Walsh and it's it's a definitely a tricky technique but this is what you're looking at again here's that commonality long balance arm big sweep leg this is the this is a system right the knee is really pushing in Walsh has the offset so let's do this I'll play him I'll play Walsh in full speed Walsh is very quick and again Walsh what was it 22 47 and big day I mean you know he was only what seven centimeters off the previous Olympic record so great performance for him um in a in a very good series so but look at this watch now Walsh really cranks it and Walsh gets the orbit a little different so you're going to notice that Walsh again you're going to see where where Ryan and I think Ryan and Joe actually have much more similar technique I think Walsh and Romani they have more attributes that I think they're a little bit more similar they're going to drop their left arm a lot more Ryan and Joe have their arm up and we'll look at a comparison of all four of them in a second but look at Tom he really comes down again you're going to see the same thing he really he gets this big wide knee position here and it really he I think I love the way his left arm comes out you see that that big long position here he's going to come down look at that foot come down whereas you see Joe was a little higher so it always makes me think you know I think when Joe's 2290 that foot was a little lower and 2291 and then uh like 2265 and 70 I think that that foot looks a little higher that that's what it looks like to me again it's always easy for everybody to be armchair quarterback right you can sit here and say all this but this is the Olympic games the stress levels everything it's like it's all the marbles so until you've been in that and I've never been in that situation which is what of course everybody dreams about but what we want to do is you know understand that there's going to be those little nuances and those are little details so I don't know does that add another 30 centimeters to his throat could be maybe that's 2295 right 23 so but look at looking at Walsh again he gets the orbit he gets here again there's that block arm again right we see how it stops now he's got the long arm Joe had the a little bit of a bend but long and here's Walsh again look at the extension see how these guys just really get out over the board okay so let's take a peek at all four of them so what we have are we have Joe and Ryan this is obviously your gold and silver um go team USA and you you're gonna notice that what we did is we we have these guys synced at release right and same thing here we have Tom and darling Romani we have them synced up at release so here here we go watch you know Romani look at how he really gets ahead now Romani apparently um had some injuries and again you didn't hear about that he came out he couldn't throw for an extended period of time the lockdown in Brazil was quite extensive at a certain point um and so he had a hard time and so it was pretty awesome that he came out and had a big performance at the Olympics now again notice what I talked about with these these guys um we'll look at we'll look at the same thing they're all here's darlin you know he Romani has this he opens more and the sweep leg turns over the majority of throwers in my opinion could not get away with that this guy's a massive dude uh I think I heard Crouser say that this guy's about 360 pounds 370 pounds um Joe's you know 330 Ryan's like 320 and Tom I think is like right around 300 pounds himself now I think he's at least 285-290 if he's not three so here's the thing notice these two kind of with their more active left side and notice Joe and Ryan right and you're going to notice this is where Joe really speeds up and that's how a guy who's 511 is able to throw distances that are you know within a foot and a half of a guy who's six seven at this you know level um so but you'll notice here again as they start to wrap and accelerate here these guys wrap lower right watch darlin's arm is high and then it comes down and look at Walsh's arm come down these guys both come down this is where I said these guys are more similar and you're going to notice here you're going to see Joe and Ryan right very much similar with the same arm position higher up so what happens is these guys come here but they all finish long and darlin looks like he's pulling off like you know if you looked at darlin's 2261 I think this PR again he had that squared up a little bit more right and that's the difference between you know 2180 and you know 2260 is he was more squared up and punching it a little bit more like what you would see Joe do it I think this is what you saw more of Romani when he hit his PR but again you know look at the differences again here's the similar they're all moving the lower body watch right here we'll focus on Tom and darlin look at the look at the arm position look at the delivery leg they both get the the block foot down they're squaring up look at the look at the left arm he gets a little bit of a bend pulls the head a little bit Tom stays on it stays really nice block really pulling you see Tom really getting around the axis right let me switch that tool okay so you really see Tom like right this kind of thing but look at how they're all extended now let's go and look at Joe and Ryan you see this look at how like again longer arm slight little bend more of a bend but you see how it stops we always say it stops at the body line and then that's how the guys are able to hit that punch like I was explaining earlier so again you know just a little breakdown this is just kind of you know these are the things we see now again we look at things like you said it's that pillar one what are you doing in the start these are the things that make a huge difference each of these guys in a perfect example right a lot of similarities lots of individual aspects that's one of the big things that we teach in our system we want to teach you how to see the throw understand the throw that's what the six pillars of our throwing chain reaction system do we're trying to make sure that you are learning the throw and you find works best for you right like this this is slightly different but watch when they get to this position right well these guys now start to look really similar and then once they all come through right they're all basically getting into that very similar power position and so let's look at Krauser and Kovacs right you see them again really squaring up and punching and all these guys create that great extension so I'm jumping around a little bit but the point is again you have to understand what works for you individually right that's the key now they're all in our argument is always that these guys hit the same six pillars but they have their individual nuances that optimize what they're going to do at each position for them joes five eleven darlin romani is like six two i think six maybe six three ish tom walsh is right around i think six two and ryan six seven so we got different heights but mechanically um what's going to enable them to work fast what enables tom was always the the lightest of of the four he was like in terms of body weight now i think he still has some big bench all these guys are like you know big time benches ryan his height is probably making up for the fact because he's probably not as strong as some of these guys but he's incredibly strong so strength is a factor all these guys have amazing strength levels but the key is you have to understand what's going to work what are those details that work best for you and that i think is one of the best things you can take away from looking at the olympics looking at how good these guys are um their performances are amazing it was just always fun to watch i think the olympics we're going to be covering some of the other events as well i'll do some of these hopefully you guys like this so i'm going to stop talking because i've talked forever and i could talk forever about this stuff i'm such a fan i have such an appreciation for what these athletes do and what their coaches do you know uh mitch krauser with his dad ashley kovacs for joe um i don't know who darlin's coach is and i know i think it's dale stevenson for tom but you remember the key thing is that all these guys have um coaches that have gotten them there that's a really key thing that's a big thing again part of our big focus at at ferritae throw's nation with our throwing chain reaction is that we're trying to help more coaches we've seen that just remember you don't get there on your own you got to have uh you know your partner your coach is going to be your your right hand and you none of these guys be there without that i think they'd be the first to tell you that so congratulations to all these throwers and their coaches the olympics was just fantastic to watch it's going to be really exciting you guys again we're going to put this video out there's going to be a handful of diamond league meets left krauser just came off a pre-fontein and through another 23 plus meter throw um so just incredible to watch but congratulations to everybody hopefully you guys liked what we covered in today's video a little bit long but um i can talk about this forever and hopefully you guys enjoyed watching if you have anything you'd like to see or anything specific maybe i'd like you'd like to have broken down or specific parts of the throw be sure to throw that in the comments be sure to check the links to check out our throwing chain reaction system if you're looking for how to understand the why and how to see and coach and uh figure out specifically the individual need for each athlete you coach or if you're coaching yourself that's all there so we thank you and we will see you on the next video take care hopefully you guys enjoyed today's video as you can see there's a lot that goes into what we do with the throwing chain reaction system if you would like to learn more about how to structure your practices and find the things that help unlock your potential click the link below and we will see you on the next video