Ty Sevin<br>Zelesny Technique<br>Thu Aug 9
14:46:18 2001<br><br><br>After reading some old post by
Jeff I came upon the article last week or so on the
soft step and wanted to add my two cents. I had a
similar conversation with Zelesny for about 2 hours last
summer in Finland. This is basically how he explained
his technique to me. <br><br>1-He sets up his throw
by slightly wrapping so that he is able to run
completely sideways with his feet @ 90 degrees to the
landing area. This also keeps the right hip "back" facing
the rear of the runway. The importance of this will
follow. When turning during the throw the javelin is
lined up bach in a straight line.<br><br>2- The action
down the runway with the legs is mostly a driving with
the left side of the body. A pushing motion not a
pulling motion. When you watch him in training this
becomes very obvious.<br><br>3- The impulse step is
preformed with the same action as the crossover steps
driving the left hip in the direction of the throw. The
foot lands @ 90 degrees. This creates a stretch reflex
action which will pull the left leg through for a quick
and strong block.<br><br>4- When the penultimate step
is preformed he is driving the right inner thigh and
HEEL forward(this ensures keeping the hip back) to the
point where he took the impulse step and "blocks it".
This means he doesn't reach with it, but puts it in a
position to be active. Focus at this point is moving
forward and keeping the right hip back. Zelesny feels
that if he leads the penultimate with the foot facing
forward it opens the hips which will make staying closed
with the upper body more difficult. He also makes a
strong move with the left arm across and a rotation of
the left shoulder over near his chin. Hard for me to
explain but easy to show in person.<br><br>5- When
momentum brings his right foot down he is actively turning
forward and down with the right knee until the left foot
touches down. The right foot is completly rotated over
and forward before the left touches the ground. All
momentum is thus transferred to the left side. The block
is not created with only the left leg, but with the
entire left side. It is not so much about how hard the
block is, although his is the best, but about the angle
which is created with the left leg. This optimises lift
and transfer of energy. It is very hard to turn the
right side as actively as he does and not open the left
side, so much time is focused on learning this
skill.<br><br>6- The remaining action of the throw is all about
alignment and tranfering momentum through the throw. He
talked about working on keeping his head up and not
pulling it down. When training you can see him focusing
and keeping his head up.<br><br>Hope this sheds some
light on what the best is trying to do.<br><br>CJW
SPORTS<br><br>Ty