 Hey everybody it's Eric Johnson from Airtate Throws Nation and in today's video we are going to break down the six pillars of the discus using Federick Dakers 7078 as the technical model and what's really cool about today is that Federick himself is going to add some comments from an interview we just conducted. He also has a masterclass coming up and details for that are at the end of this video so check it out. Alright everybody who's watching thanks so much for tuning in to this interview with Federick Dakers and now you do say Dakers right or is it Dockers yeah okay it's Dakers. Federick Dakers he is a three-time world finalist, world silver medalist in 2019, 2016 Olympian, an incredible resume let's see Commonwealth record, Jamaican national record. We've had 64 competitions over 65 meters, 19 performances at 65 meters, 15 performances at 66 meters, 10 performances at 67 meters, 16 performances at 68 meters. I think I have three at 69 and of course your PR 7078 so one over 70 or a big member of the 70 meter club which is pretty impressive and you've done all that essentially in the last four years that's really impressive. So with that being said when did you start throwing and how did you get into throwing? I started throwing at 16, 17 I think technically about 10 years ago I started throwing I got into it because I had a brother he was a bit delinquent because he was missing training and all that and my coach said okay cool he needs to speak to my brother so that's when he realized that oh wow his brother has a brother which was me he said okay cool I'm trying to follow the track and field team I'm very well known in school I'm in Jamaica Calabar High okay so yeah I went to Calabar High and it was a very good sport in school so I said okay cool never made any sense not do anything so you know just come throw. You once commented that your coach is a perfectionist right and that's Coach Robinson and Coach Robinson's the coach at Calabar right? Yeah of course yeah. So tell me a little about that how that began and how it's evolved because he took you from the beginning to a world medalist and multi-time world finalist? So when I started I was the skinniest guy like I was technically the skinniest guy but what I was was deceptive and strong so my coach said okay cool he never knew where to put me so I said okay you know what I'm trying to discuss just try to throw the discuss I said okay cool I threw the discuss when you reach a certain point I will start to show you like give you attention until then you will continue to throw behind my back basically that was the whole thing so I had to earn his you know attention right so okay cool let me show you some attention let's see you let's see what you can and that's when the hard part is that that's when I started to you know have to catch the technique you know the movement is not just stand throws anymore I have to go in so like like half turns 180s South Africa and all that and you know I had to get it but the things that I was very quick on like I was very quick so I had no problem to get get on getting the movements yeah it sounds very in line with how we approach the throw you right with our system it's all about the why right it's never fixed the position it's we talk about how do you you have to learn how to create a position right that's kind of my so how you know how did COVID affect you I know you started out the year I mean really awesome I think you what your second or third meet in it was 69 you know 69 meters again obviously you didn't get a chance to get over to Europe with COVID hitting you know I was disappointed because I felt like this year I was in really good shape because the reason why I was thrown up last year because I did a surgery in 2018 so it went into me you know trying to get back in 2019 to get back my feeling get back everything so the entire 2019 season I was very comfortable right and I was a knee surgeon so that's the knee surgery I did so to actually feel comfortable again I never felt comfortable through the year but in the starting of 2020 that's when I was actually okay my body felt good and everything I was even surprised at the 69 years early up I don't know I think there I don't know why but yeah I know I feel well there but um 69 was not in my I knew I knew what I was doing in training but yeah um it was you know somewhat surprising but not surprising if you understand here's the thing speaking about weight training for throwers they all want to know how strong you are so what you know uh what uh what's your what are your what are your numbers in the gym your clean your snatch your bench your squad all right so my best clean was about 385 and that was a catch or a pull my best snatch is not catch catch okay okay oh with the pull um just pull only like all right the pull only is about about four seven five so pretty pretty four seven five but just to pull um with the catch it's three seven five so 100 pounds uh my best snatch is actually 308 pounds I think 140 kilo we do um variations squats so like we have um quarter squats we have parallel squats I think a parallel squat um my best squat is about 565 my best one is I think 525 oh wow that's a good front squat like 525 pounds yeah okay well that says a lot yeah oh sorry oh yeah my bench press which I am yeah we didn't say I'm a bit proud of but yeah my bench press which I'm a bit proud of but then I realized that you know you have guys who are like moderating my max um is actually 475 oh wow you got long frigging arms so that's a long way to push that thing yeah you know how many throws do you take in a regular practice how many days a week do you throw and how many days a week are you in the weight room we're in the weight room basically um four days a week um we throw five days a week and how many how many throws do you normally do in a session no just one one third session a day so um yeah we get so about you know 60 throws each day so yeah 60 and do you vary it is it all two k's or do you like mix up your weights and stuff like that yeah we mix it up based on the based on where the season is yeah okay I've seen some videos of you in the weight room it doesn't look like the fanciest weight room no right and very basic but yeah but that was and I thought that was great because you're an Olympian you're a multi-time world finalist you're a world medalist you know you've thrown 70 meters and you basically just have you got weights and a basic setup and that's basically what you need that's what I try to tell people they don't have to get super fancy you gotta just gotta be able to yeah you know you have a 475 bench how important do you think strength is to throwing far at a certain point strength means nothing it's so fast you can move the implement right yeah so you can be as strong as a host if you can move fast yeah you're talking about moving fast you know one of the things we focus on are we teach our athletes and we have our system we teach them that if you spend too much time on strength you get really strong but you can be slow so you have to spend time on explosively and moving the bar fast and strength right so we put basically the three training speeds into the weight room do you do something similar or yeah yeah yeah and I genuinely want to get into that but I leave that for the masterclass because I have a few things to say I want that okay yeah very cool how does it feel to throw 70 meters I was not surprised yeah I genuinely knew I had more because I was doing like for my warm-ups I was warming up like easy 70 but the thing is that I have a problem with saving that wasn't that's my biggest issue my thing is that once I can save my throws I can get very big throws okay but it's all about saving them guys set it up so this is how we look at we look at the the wind up obviously we want to shift right get around the axis attack the sprint phase you're we're rewrapped locking down the power and then deliver it so those are our six pillars right how we kind of help to teach people to throw I know you'll probably cover this stuff in the masterclass but I really love how you you set up you really create great separation stretch reflex at the start that's basically the key to the chain reaction does this do us justice to your throw did we did we break it down simply it does solid rhythm solid rhythm everything is right like technically like you know solid solid great great all right but they are so like you're you're breaking those you know a solid break I'm glad we are we are fed rick approved that's good if you look at this throw I fell back in the ring because I was trying to hold back oh at the finish or in the yeah at the end at the end at the end of the finish at the throw yeah I fell back in the throw I don't like if I get a good throw I'm going to try I'm going to probably follow I'm not going to recover right all right recover the throw that easy as in the masterclass and there's actually a story it's actually a story to that through our story to that meat actually so um I'm going to get into that in the masterclass it was a good day for me so to get this this was actually very good and that's what I wanted to go harder because I realized I got this through over 70s oh wow and I have more so that I was going to push hard but then the whole situation happened and you know it kind of threw me off and all of that I get into feeling like feeling in class also you know it looks like to me like you really work on taking the path from here to here that's all that's a week we kind of teach is once you're done with the wine you got to take it long we preach you got to be long right and you look really long like I use you as an example and I say people think this guy is like six seven six eight and he's like six three six four and I said that's because he throws so long this long pattern is when I'm reading yeah I will try to keep it long my my throw here or my throw generally my type of throwing or my way how to throw is a measure of a lot of I think three throws okay that was one of my questions yeah but um that's that's what I'm going to you know cover in the master classes oh god that was the biggest to me that looks a little Robert Harding-ish right there what's your nutritional yeah I don't store fat so um I burn fat really easily so um I have to be eating somewhat unhealthy to maintain my weight or to get my weight up after the eating junk food we're testing the big being big like and I realized that while I was very strong I was extremely slow yeah as explosive as I'd normally without thinking I would do things no I have to be you know like my mind is saying go the body saying and that it was never my style of moving or throwing or general leaping yeah so that's a thing that's a that's really a thing for me so I'm not the best person to speak on you know but I do think um that is really good because like when you feel good when you eat good you feel good yeah like you said find your range and ultimately eating finding that right balance right and then what advice would you give to young throwers starting out I'd probably tell them that's it's good to learn the technique and understand the technique you know it should be it's going to be rough but it's going to be better be sure to you know check out erotate throwz nation throw and chain reaction yeah of course of course of course and then what advice would you give to uh to coaches don't just be set on doing things your way as a young thrower um I realized that certain people so far a certain way others you know separately um so always be open to learn always go to you know listen to your athletes and all that yeah so really and truly um throwing is dynamic so there's not one set way to get the role tell us again about the master class you're conducting next week it sounds really awesome really comprehensive going in depth on your technique so the master class is really and truly to actually get people to start thinking how to analyze your own technique um how to really get the best out of your body like in terms of technique wise um what you need to do to actually get to a point where you are okay with the technique where you can say okay well I'm okay with this the reason why my distance is flying like that is because I did this wrong this wrong or it might be that I did this wrong or that wrong it's going to be very interactive because you're going to be obviously it's going to be a lot of Q and A um we're going to break down a lot techniques we're going to look at um you know a few of the best shows in the world um we can try to break down their technique you're going to try to break down my technique it's going to be a general learning like learning how to be better basically like everything I've been through um I'm trying to get others to actually you know understand why I do certain things a certain way how you can get to a certain point and always be always building to learn always be willing to expand your knowledge so for people that are interested they can just DM you on uh instagram you'll give them the registration details a bunch of the proceeds will go to uh charities in jamaica yeah a few charities in jamaica yeah okay favorite favorite fast food favorite movie fan healthy favorite musician Michael Bolton nice what do you like better chicken wings or tacos chicken wings okay your favorite discus thrower from 2000 to now I like Robert Hardy I think um Hadadi is a really close like Hadadi is like really up there as well so it's really hard for me to actually choose one that's the thing I used to actually be my technique I'm like yeah I'm right there no that's not that's not the thing you want to yeah those are those are like yeah all right hey man well thanks so much really appreciate you taking the time wish you have fast recovery meeting you and I look forward to meeting you in person man see him bro see him