 Track meets are coming up. How are we gonna prepare? We're gonna talk about six things to help you hit big bombs in the track meet. So let's check it out. Everybody, it's Eric Johnson from Airtate Throws Nation. In today's video, we are talking about six simple things you can do to improve and be prepared for big meet throws. Now, this is the thing that we've all been training for. It's been the off season. And as the season comes around, so if you're watching this video and it's indoor season or you're watching this and we're opening for outdoor season, we're gonna talk about six tips to help you have better meet competition and be prepared. So number one, what is the first thing that we're going to do is be prepared. That means get your bag ready. What are the things we want? We want shoes, ideally two pairs, slow pair and a fast pair. You've got different ring conditions. You've got elements, right? Rain and different things like that. So if it's a fast ring and it's rainy, that means it's gonna be slick. You're gonna want those slow shoes. If you're going somewhere and it's a dry, slow ring and you have fast shoes, great time to put those fast shoes on. Or if you have great conditions, you can choose which one you want. And sometimes you're wearing a slow shoe on the left and a fast shoe on the right. A lot of throwers do that. It's something I used to do. Now, we talk about shoes in our different throwing shoes videos. So check that out if you haven't. So definitely that gets us to remember to bring socks. Some of the parts of the country, Pacific Northwest, Northeast, Midwest in different regions of South, you get a lot of rain out here in the Arizona and Southern California, kind of the South West. You don't see a ton of rain, but it's good to be able to be prepared for that. You never know what's gonna happen and there will be those occasional rain days. So prepare and have an extra pair of socks. If you have a rain delay and your feet got all wet and then you're standing around for an hour in wet socks, you have a fresh pair of socks that you can change into super, super easy, simple tip. That said too, bring a towel. It's always good to just be able to wipe your implements down. And if it does get wet, you've got a towel where you can dry off your implements, really important. Make sure that you have chalk. Throwing chalk's great. You wanna make sure that you have it for the shot or the disc. So whether it's hot and humid and your hand's getting kind of sticky or kind of wet from just the humidity or it's hot and dry and you're gonna be warming up and you get sweaty, you want that chalk on the hand. And if it gets rainy, chalk again. It's, in all situations, it's gonna help improve that grip. Now, what else goes in your bag? Make sure you got your uniform. Make sure you got extra shorts. Make sure you've got everything you need. If you're in a sunny environment, long sleeve shirts, sun hats, sunscreen, always make sure you have your water bottle prepared, all that kind of stuff, be prepared. If you're in those cold environments, you know, sweatshirt, wind gear, all that extra stuff that you need, pack the bag. That's number one. So you are prepared. And even as I just talked on our Thrower X podcast, we talked with two really highly successful international coaches and they said the same thing. And one even said, yes, bring extra shoelaces. I was like, yeah, that's a great tip. So I'm passing that along to you and you'll see that interview. So be sure to check out our Thrower X interviews. Okay, so item number two is meat preparation. We wanna basically be prepared for meats, right? So that means execute meat settings and meat situations in practice, start your practices, that multiple practice out. I usually like at least a week before the first meat, all the practices to go through the meat situation. We go through, if we're in the discus, we're gonna warm up and we're gonna go a stand throw, a half turn and then we're gonna get right to fulls. And so we're gonna practice being ready in four throws. If we can get an extra throw when you feel it's needed, you can take that extra throw. But oftentimes in meats, you get cut off. And especially if you're in an Invitational, you're typically going to have fewer warmups. But if this way you're always at least prepared by the fourth throw or four, two times in the ring with two implements and that way you're ready to go. Remember if you're at an Invitational and a dual try invite, right? There's a dual or tri-meat warmup, an Invitational warmup. Invitational, there could be five or six flights and you need to pay attention to what flight you're in and pay attention to the competition so you can time when you're gonna get your warmup and things like that started. And remember for the dual and the tri-meat warmups, you're going to pay attention to when, there's typically one or maybe two flights in a dual meat so you don't have that since you're just gonna get in and warmup. Now that said warmup, part of warming up is what I just mentioned. You have to pay attention in Invitational to what flight you're in and in duals and tri's. Like I said, you might have one flight or you might have two, but you still pay attention. If there's one flight, you're just gonna warmup. Now warmup, what should it include? Get your jogs in, but you wanna be doing A steps, B steps, skips, hops, karaoke, footwork, movement, all that sort of stuff to get your hips going. I like to see, we use our TCR drill bands. We love to see athletes doing face pulls and hamstring pull-throughs and doing different things like that to get warmed up. So time your warmup so you're physically warmed up and then it's gonna be time to throw. So what we practice and we've talked about about pre-meats and getting going through that scenario of warming up, now it's meat time. You gotta do exactly what you've practiced multiple times, so you do what you've done several times the previous week or all throughout the season and it's get in the ring, you hit your first two throws, it's a stand and a half turn and then two pulls. That's what I would suggest for the discus. The discus takes a little longer, you have the cage, the implements go further and so the warmup time, you're not gonna get as many rounds in. In the shot, we usually recommend a couple of stands, maybe a half turn and then get to your full throws. What are your specific warmup things that you like but get to your full throws as soon as you can, get in that groove so that you're setting up those good technical patterns that are gonna help you throw further. Now remember, if you're somebody out there and you're not doing full throws, you should be, be sure to check out our throwing chain reaction system. We'll show you how to get to a full throw in a matter of a couple of practices. So always work on your drills. Again, with the throwing chain reaction we have 60 plus drills for basically each event but that doesn't mean you go through 60 drills. It means through that we have a certain formula. Every athlete has a basically prescription of what pillar drills they need to work on and when we get to meet, we're focusing on usually some walkthroughs that we're moving through the throw to work our different positions and we're keying in on a couple of those key patterns that the athletes need to use. So if you don't know what that is, be sure to check the link. We have information on the throwing chain reaction and we have some quick class courses and different products that you guys wanna check out. Now last thing, if you've done those top five things it's go time. Now you get into the meet, you're gonna know what to set up, you're gonna be consistent and you're gonna hit those big throws and that's the key. Look at the preparation. We're prepared across the board. That's how you're gonna be able to have better performance. Otherwise it's kind of a roll of the dice. If you warm up late, you forget something. You get all these things that potentially mess you up but if you do the things that we're suggesting in this video, you will be ready to go confident and that's when the big throws happen. Confidence is king. Okay guys, so hopefully you liked today's video. If you have anything, any comments, any questions be sure to throw that down below. Be sure to like, subscribe, turn on those notifications and if you'd like more information about how to improve your technique and find your individual formula and unlock your potential, check out the link below in the description for the throwing chain reaction system. Thanks so much guys and we will see you on the next video.